Your Chief Virtual Learning Architect

Learning to Performance

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Custom Design & Delivery

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Predictive Evaluation

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Enterprise Learning Strategy

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Dave Basarab Consulting has elevated the training experience, offering an end-to-end comprehensive approach that includes training strategy, instructional design, development, delivery , post program training transfer, and evaluation (via the unique Predictive Evaluation methodology). Virtual Chief Architect Dave Basarab has combined all of these individual training elements with his user-friendly, comprehensive Learning to Performance approach, which significantly increases companies' training ROI.

Why we are different

Innovation: Our primary focus is creating learning programs using a Learning to Performance approach.
Expertise: Dave offers the depth and breadth of his experience, including working internally at prestigious companies (Motorola, Ingersoll Rand and Pitney Bowes) as well as his knowledge and expertise as a highly-respected, sought-after consultant.
Partnership: Basarab collaborates with companies, serving as their own Chief Learning Officer whenever they need to plan, strategize, or implement training initiatives.

Training Services

Enterprise Learning Strategy

Enterprise Learning Strategy

At Dave Basarab Consulting, we're experts in creating Enterprise Learning Plans. We work with you to develop your company's learning strategy and direction.

Custom Design, Development, & Delivery

Custom Design, Development, & Delivery

Custom training is an effective way of developing the capability required to execute your strategy. We are a custom design house that creates programs specific to your business.

Learning Burst Development

Learning Burst Development

We can create and deliver your courses via our unique Learning Burst Method - keeping your employees at their jobs while receiving world-class training.

Predictive Evaluation

Predictive Evaluation

We predict the ROI for your courses and establish success gates. We then evaluate the course against the success gates to show value realized and continually improve results.

Leadership Development

Leadership Development

Turn-key virtual custom leadership development program that combines world-class leadership speakers/educators with post-event personalized coaching to provide you with a cadre of highly skilled leaders.

Predictive Evaluation

Redesigning Onboarding to Accelerate New Hire Competence

Effective onboarding should do more than introduce policies, systems, and organizational culture. It should help new employees become capable contributors quickly, with a clear understanding of what good performance looks like and how their work supports business priorities.

Many onboarding programs are built around information delivery rather than workplace application. New hires attend presentations, complete compliance modules, and receive scattered resources, yet still struggle to make decisions independently. A redesigned approach treats onboarding as a performance journey that develops knowledge, confidence, relationships, and job-specific capability.

The strongest programs connect learning objectives to measurable outcomes from the start. They use structured practice, manager involvement, targeted learning bursts, and evidence of competence to shorten the time between a new hire’s first day and reliable performance.

Diagnose The Current Employee Journey

Redesign begins with a realistic view of the existing onboarding experience. Map what new employees encounter before their first day, during orientation, throughout role training, and across the first 90 days. Look for duplicated content, long gaps between learning events, unclear ownership, and points where employees must guess what to do next.

Interviews with recent hires, managers, subject matter experts, and support teams can reveal barriers that completion reports miss. A new employee may finish every assigned course yet lack access to essential systems, feedback on early work, or a clear escalation path. These operational obstacles should be addressed alongside instructional improvements.

Define Competence In Observable Terms

“Ready to perform” needs a more precise definition than course completion. Break the role into critical tasks, decisions, behaviors, and standards. Then identify what a new hire must know, demonstrate, and produce at key points in the ramp-up period.

A competence profile might include handling a customer interaction, entering an accurate transaction, using a safety procedure, or explaining a product recommendation. Each outcome should have an assessment method, such as a demonstration, role-play, work sample, manager observation, or quality review. This creates a direct line between onboarding activities and job performance.

Clear outcomes also support better evaluation. Organizations that connect learning measures with operational indicators can make stronger investment decisions, as shown in this discussion of business outcome metrics.

Replace Information Overload With Progressive Learning

New hires retain more when content arrives at the moment it becomes useful. Instead of compressing every policy, system walkthrough, and cultural message into the first week, organize learning into progressive stages. Early content should establish context and immediate safety or compliance requirements. Later experiences can build role mastery through practice and feedback.

Learning bursts are especially useful between formal sessions. A short scenario, checklist, video demonstration, or knowledge check can reinforce one behavior without interrupting workflow. Spaced learning also gives employees time to apply concepts, encounter real situations, and return with focused questions.

Onboarding Element	Traditional Approach	Performance-Focused Approach
Content delivery	Large blocks during orientation	Short, sequenced learning bursts
Role preparation	Information about the job	Practice with realistic job tasks
Assessment	Attendance and quizzes	Demonstrations, work samples, and observation
Manager involvement	Occasional check-ins	Scheduled coaching and feedback
Success measure	Course completion	Time to competence and work quality
Support	Static resource library	Guided tools embedded in workflow

Build Practice Into The First 90 Days

Competence develops through repeated application, not exposure alone. Design onboarding around realistic cases, simulations, shadowing, supervised assignments, and graduated responsibility. Early practice can be low-risk, while later tasks should resemble the complexity and pace of the actual role.

Managers need a practical coaching framework to make this work. Weekly conversations can review what the employee attempted, what went well, where errors occurred, and what support is needed next. A simple progression from demonstration to guided practice to independent performance makes expectations visible to both the employee and the manager.

Subject matter experts can strengthen these experiences when their knowledge is converted into usable examples and decision guidance. Perspectives such as SME learning inspiration can help instructional designers capture expertise without turning onboarding into a collection of lectures.

Equip Managers And Peers For Reinforcement

The manager is often the most influential part of the onboarding system. Provide managers with a first-week checklist, coaching prompts, milestone expectations, and examples of acceptable performance. These tools reduce variation between teams and help managers focus on capability rather than simply asking whether training was completed.

Peer support adds practical context that formal instruction may lack. A trained buddy can explain team norms, model common workflows, and help a new hire navigate informal processes. The relationship should have defined responsibilities and a limited timeframe so that support remains consistent rather than depending on personal availability.

Measure Adoption, Impact, And Speed

A useful onboarding scorecard combines learning, behavior, and business measures. Early indicators may include practice completion, assessment results, manager observations, and confidence ratings. Later indicators can include productivity, quality, customer outcomes, retention, safety performance, and time to independent contribution.

Predictive Evaluation can help organizations forecast whether a program is likely to be adopted and produce meaningful results before relying on lagging data alone. Evaluation should begin during design, with baseline measures and clear comparison points. This allows learning teams to identify weak transfer, refine support, and communicate value in business terms.

Actions That Move Redesign Forward

Map the first 90 days around critical job tasks rather than a calendar of courses.
Define observable competence standards for every major responsibility.
Replace long information sessions with sequenced practice and learning bursts.
Give managers structured coaching tools and milestone-based check-ins.
Track time to competence, quality, adoption, and business performance together.

A high-performing onboarding experience is a coordinated system, not a single orientation event. Review your current journey, select one priority role, and redesign its learning path around measurable workplace performance. With the right evidence and support, new hires can contribute sooner while the organization gains a clearer view of how learning improves results.

Learning to Performance

Learning to Performance, a complete training approach, gives companies world-class training to drive significant return. This approach includes upfront work (Impact Mapping, design), training (for staff and company executives), and post-training efforts to ensure training transfer. This unique recipe - the key for successful training and adoption - is changing the way companies implement training. This methodology could work with any content for organizations in any industry.