How Onboarding a New Employee is Similar to Training a Horse  

• By: Nancy Germond
• May 26, 2026

With new horses, whether experienced or never ridden, we build a relationship with foundation work. This is basic work – haltering, leading and later lunging the horse. This groundwork builds trust and creates foundational knowledge.  

Foundational Work with New Employees 

New employees have the same needs. They need time to settle in, become familiar with their surroundings (Hey, where’s the coffee room again?) and begin to get to know their coworkers. Few people take a new horse and immediately jump on unless they are young and not afraid of tumbling. Instead, they let the horse relax a bit and familiarize itself with its surroundings. Not just that, the horse needs to understand a bit about herd hierarchy lest that testy horse leading the herd become overbearing and offers a swift kick.  

“We don’t have any herd dynamics here; we’re a family,” you may think. However, your new employee needs to know whom to approach if they need assistance, and whom to avoid because they are simply not very approachable.  

With new employees, ensure they meet other employees, even if much of your team is virtual. It helps to have an outline your employees can use as a guide with pictures, email addresses, job title and areas of expertise.  

One of my agent friends was in a recent agency merger. A big strength of that merger, the acquiring agents told them, were the “towers of expertise” that would now be available to them post-merger. Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell them who was in those towers, or how to access them, leaving many of those employees uniformed and disillusioned.  

You want to create an environment where your employee feels safe to ask questions, seek help and make friends in the workplace. A Gallup article describes the importance of having work friends. We may avoid interacting with new employees until we observe them for a while. And according to Gallup, since the pandemic with remote work, these work friends have become increasingly important.  

The same can be true of horses. My horse has a bestie where he’s boarded, while the other mares barely tolerate him. According to Gallup, having best friends at work is critical for employee engagement and retention.  

Many workplaces develop specific areas where employees from different departments can hang out. A ping pong table, a sofa area with side tables, anything companies can do to promote cross-pollination of knowledge and friendship is a win.  

Most importantly, new employees require onboarding to introduce them to your company’s value, culture and mission. Onboarding should ensure employees have the tools and resources they need and well understood communication expectations.  

Acclimating Your New Hire to Your Agency’s Environment & Challenges 

Once your new employee starts to settle in, you can help them acclimate to new computer systems, procedures and routines. If you complete this acclimation stage correctly, you skillfully bring along your employee, and you can observe the employee’s reactions and potential resistances.  

Even when you hire an experienced employee, you only know what is on their resume and what they explained about their interview process background. They may not have worked in an agency with standardized procedures, or even a sophisticated agency management system. So, watch for signs of confusion and resistance.  

Here are a few key skills to build in the first few weeks. 

• Assure them there are no stupid questions, only potential problems when the employee should have asked before proceeding. I once miscoded a payment that cost us hours to figure out when we moved to a new risk management system. My boss turned to me once we figured out the problem and asked, “Why didn’t you just walk down the hall and ask?” I had no answer because she was supportive and approachable.  

• Working with a calm approach helps employees consider things more clearly. If your new hire is a bit overwhelmed and what I would term “reactive” (just as are some horses), try to encourage them to relax and to not become overwhelmed. Assure them that any change is difficult, but your role is to help them succeed.  

• Do not force too much on them in one day. Rather than dragging or spurring a horse up to an object that scares them, we allow them time to view it from different angles, approach it slowly, and above all, understand the object they fear is not so scary after all. The person I bought my horse from assured me that he was cow savvy since I often ride on ranches where a bull may occur right over that next hill. However, that fake cow head used to practice roping in a nearby area sent my horse into a complete tizzy. It took me about 15 minutes to get him close enough to sniff it to realize it was just a big piece of plastic masquerading as a cow.  

• Provide your employee with coping strategies. When either you or the learner’s frustrations arise, take a break. Both of you will usually return with a new attitude.  

• Remind employees that those who succeed are not perfect; they simply will not give up. Persistence is a virtue most can learn. 

One frequent problem in onboarding is letting go too quickly. It is imperative that you continue to be present, offering guidance, redirection and soliciting input on their questions and challenges. The same is true for horses. Letting that horse sit for too long without your presence is a recipe for a horse that’s behavior can be unpredictable.  

Saddle Up! It is Time They Ride (Hopefully Not Off into the Sunset) 

If you have completed your onboarding well, you should have built the foundation for a stable, high-performing, long-term employee. But you are not through yet. Continue the momentum to provide ongoing oversight to ensure the employee performs correctly and most importantly, according to your agency’s standards. If you do not have an employee procedures manual, consider using this sample to develop one. This agency template agency procedures manual is available free to all Big “I” members. 

As humans, we often tend to take things personally. I once heard a dog trainer say, when describing a personal protection dog he was selling, “This dog won’t take an unfair correction.” Now, I don’t know if taking something personally is inherent in dogs, but it certainly is in humans. However, sometimes you must correct and redirect an employee. This is part of a strong mentorship.  

Make sure your employees understand from the start that they are accountable for their work product, as well as how they treat your customers. Encourage them to see corrections as guidance, not punishment. Urge them not to take things like corrections personally. According to Mary LaPorte, insurance expert witness and one of our Ask an Experts, “Progress always begins where your comfort zone ends.” 

“No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you’re still way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying.” 

Every meeting, whether in person or online, should build their confidence, focusing on what they are doing right. The “sandwich method” of correction still works today. Sandwich redirections work like this 

1. “You are doing great! Look at all you have accomplished since you’ve been here in just three months.” 
2. “Your documentation often leaves out vital details. For example, this note was timely, but you only said you talked to ‘the insured.’ Whom specifically did you speak with? That is an important detail that you should include in all your file notes. It can be a lifesaver if we ever have a coverage dispute.” 
3. “We will meet again next week, but in the meantime, we are glad you’re learning and riding high. Let us know if we can do anything to make your job easier and help you perform to your highest abilities.”  

This sandwich or, as we called it before we became quite politically correct, the “kiss ‘em, kick ‘em, kiss ‘em” approach, softens criticism and should leave the employee feeling positive, not demoralized.  

Don’t forget to point out things your employee has done particularly well. When a horse walks past a deer leaping out in front of it without spooking, a long pat on the should and a “Good boy!” goes a long way toward building a relationship with your horse. The same goes with your employee, without the pat, of course.  

Skill Mastery & Specialization 

As insurance becomes increasingly complex, specialization can keep an employee focused on their future career path. As more agencies merge and employees seek new opportunities for remote work and higher pay, you will struggle to retain your newer employees without showing them a clear career path.  

This is where mastery and specialization can help. First, encourage your employees to take continuing education, and not simply education that meets their continuing education requirements. Ask them what they enjoy working on, whether in commercial or personal lines. They may even have a financial bent and can transition more easily into a management position.  

Which producers do they support well, and which producers do they struggle with? Rather than think, “I’d better change their assignments,” they may benefit from a communications skills course where they can better set expectations and boundaries with their producers.  

They may be interested in one line of coverage, such as general liability or public entity work. If so, is it time for them to seek a mentor in that area? Some employees need help finding a mentor, and that is part of your role as their manager. Or they may excel in technology and automatically master your agency management system. They may want to mentor newer employees or those struggling with technology.  

Do you have a project pending in your office where they can learn and grow? Consider assigning them to a project team. However, remember that teamwork requires time commitments, so bear in mind that they may need something taken off their plate while they work on that team.  

Conclusion 

Whether training a horse or onboarding a new employee, the journey is about building trust, fostering growth and setting the stage for your employees’ long-term success. A successful employee only improves your corporate culture. It costs a bundle to replace any employee. You must calculate the cost of their base salary, their benefits, recruitment costs and the hidden operational costs to rehire when you lose a valued employee.  

When I asked a few of my horsey colleagues to comment on this article, I think this quote provided by Scott Margraves, an expert witness and founder of Gulf Coast Risk Management in Houston, Texas, summarizes this article.  

“Ray Hunt, one of the most respected horsemen of the twentieth century, had a saying that every manager should tape to their monitor,” Margraves wrote. “’You are not working on the horse; you are working on yourself.’ While Hunt meant it for the round pen, it applies just as well on day one of the new hire’s first week. The question was never whether they could do the job. The question is whether you have built something clear enough to give them a fair chance to show you.” 

By following the steps outlined above, you can create a solid foundation, nurture your employees’ confidence and guide your employees toward excellence. 

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