December 12, 2025
One of the biggest challenges I see in growing companies is this: “We’re hiring fast, but we’re not onboarding consistently.”
What that usually means is that new employees are being trained by whoever happens to be available… or worse, they’re figuring it out on their own. There’s no sequence, no agreed upon best method, and definitely no strategy for scaling. Since you probably already know that I love to get your companies, franchises, and even board of directors processes documented, I’d like to show you an advanced move. Once you have all of your foundational work done – that’s defining your company roles, responsibilities, and SOPs, it’s then time to take things to the next level.
One of the best things 2025 brought to the world of documentation in addition to AI, was a major advancement in how everyone should be deploying their training. And if you haven't guessed yet, it’s not in a random fashion. Consistency is the key! This isn’t just another product update, it’s a step toward solving a very real operational pain point: how to get new hires up to speed using a repeatable, automated process.
Training Paths were developed by the top documentation software companies such as Trainual and Whale to make onboarding even easier. In the simplest terms, they are guided sequences of content built around a specific role or onboarding flow. Instead of assigning individual pieces of content manually for every new hire, you pre-build a workflow path that’s: Structured, Repeatable, and Easy to assign.
These paths act like a curriculum that is dosed out in a specific manner, giving your new hire the exact order and pace you want them to follow, whether they’re joining your sales team, operations, HR, or support. No more overwhelm or confusion. Just what they need, when they need it.
Recently the Trainual team provided a demo explaining their version of a cleaner, more efficient way to build and launch onboarding flows. Repeatable sequences are the next level of development once you have built a solid foundation of documented processes.
IN the video linked below, Natalie Goulian, Product Manager at Trainual, explained that Training Paths are made up of steps. Each step contains either a subject (your written training content) or a topic (a specific lesson within that subject). These steps are arranged in the order you want your new employee to learn them and you can name each step for extra clarity.
For example, a typical onboarding path might look like this:
- Welcome & Company Overview
- Our Mission, Vision, and Core Values
- HR Policies and Procedures
- Department Tools and Systems
- Job-Specific Responsibilities
- Success Metrics and Expectations
Each of those steps can contain one or more subjects, so you're not re-creating content, you’re sequencing it. And if you’ve already written great documentation (or you're working with someone like me to build it), you can plug it right into a structured experience that actually makes sense for a new hire.
One of the strongest benefits here is automation without losing the human touch. Once you’ve built your training path template, you simply assigning it to a new hire in a one-click process which means: No more:
- Manually selecting dozens of training items
- Forgetting key policies or systems to include
- Sending the wrong version of something
Instead, you launch the path, and the system delivers the right information in the right order, every time. And when changes are needed? You can duplicate, edit, or update the template. That’s especially useful when you're onboarding people across multiple locations, departments, or job levels.
But what I really appreciate is that while the system automates the delivery, you still retain full control over what’s taught and how it’s presented. That balance of structure and flexibility is what good training systems need. From my perspective, this feature is not just a smarter way to make things more efficient, its also about preserving institutional knowledge.
When you rely on in-person onboarding or verbal explanations, knowledge becomes tribal. It lives in someone’s head. And if that person is out sick, quits, or forgets something? That knowledge is gone or delivered inconsistently.
By putting your training into a documented, templated path, you’re building a living knowledge system. One that doesn't depend on individual trainers, can be updated centrally as things change, and keeps your core knowledge intact as you grow. This is exactly what I coach clients to do, take what you know, organize it logically, and build systems to deliver it efficiently.
Here are just a few practical examples of where this new feature solves real-world problems:
- Hiring 5+ people in the same role? Create a single path and reuse it.
- Onboarding employees at different locations? Use paths to ensure consistency.
- Promoting from within? Create a growth-focused training path that bridges the skill gap.
- Launching a new department? Build a fresh path from your foundational content and layer in department-specific material.
And if your company already has a “new hire checklist” in a spreadsheet or Word doc, this is how you digitize it, make it interactive, and actually track progress. What Trainual and Whale have done here is give businesses the tools to think systematically about onboarding.
You're not just assigning information, you're building a knowledge transfer experience. One that’s repeatable, scalable, and easy to maintain. For companies that are growing, shifting roles, or just trying to reduce the chaos of onboarding, this is a practical and forward-thinking solution.
If you’ve already got your policies, procedures, and best practices documented, this is your next step. And if you haven’t written those things down yet? That’s where my process documentation consulting work comes in. But either way, my message is clear: Don’t just train people, guide them with structure and consistency.
Ready to watch the video? Here is a QUICK LINK
