During the Q&A at my Wellington seminar on July 16, Chan asked:

Do we need to offer induction training for SharePoint, much like we used to do for email and Office?

Yes, I absolutely believe that organizations need to do this. While people join organizations today with a base level of knowledge, experience and expertise in tools like email and Microsoft Office, many have not been exposed to SharePoint before. Thus they don’t have a history of usage to draw on, and so if we merely put SharePoint in front of them, they aren’t going to know what to do with it. So … my answer to Chan … and he had some good points that he raised after asking the question too (as a SharePoint MVP, all power to him) is that it is essential.

I would go so far as saying that even if someone joins the organization with previous SharePoint experience, they should still have to go through the SharePoint induction process where they are taught “how we do SharePoint“. As I argue in the white paper, the power of SharePoint is in common usage approaches, not a diversity of conflicting approach within a team or organization.

And … actually … later on during Q&A, Jonathan (from Microsoft NZ) suggested that there should be ongoing refresher training on “how we use SharePoint” every year … so that people keep on being reminded about “our” approach, “our” style, “our” method of securing value from the tool.

Do you offer induction training to new hires on SharePoint? Why or why not? How’s it going?