How to Enhance Your Onboarding Process
Onboarding is more than paperwork and office tours, it’s a process to fully integrate new hires, providing necessary knowledge, tools, and support. It includes pre-boarding, orientation, job-specific training, and ongoing mentorship that fosters employee engagement, retention, and success. When executed well, onboarding sets a positive tone for the employee experience and facilitates a smooth transition, enabling new members to hit the ground running.
The stages of onboarding
Pre-onboarding:
Pre-boarding is more than just a welcome email, it is the beginning of a professional relationship. Continuing communication with the new hire after the offer letter is signed is essential to fostering that relationship. For new hires with a start date a few weeks after the initial offer, continue to reach out with updates to keep the new hire engaged and excited to join your company. Is there a company party or event coming up? Invite the new hire so they can get a sense of the company culture and meet their new co-workers prior to their first day.
Below are a few things to consider during the pre-onboarding process:
First impressions are crucial. Typos or misinformation in an email, offer letter, or paperwork might turn off your new hire. Ensure the details are accurate and utilize tools like Grammarly, spell check, or AI to ensure your email is coherent and error-free.
Use this opportunity to communicate or reiterate the mission, vision, and values of your company so the new hire has a clear understanding of how the company’s values are expressed and their impact on daily culture, strategy, and leadership.
Develop a straightforward and organized onboarding schedule. Determine which team members should be involved and ensure they are ready to meet with the new hire. Arrange meetings with the relevant stakeholders to prevent the new hire from having to figure things out alone.
Information Technology (IT) is an essential component of the onboarding process for new hires. It's important to ensure that all the necessary access rights, user logins, and required equipment are thoroughly prepared and set up in advance. Providing the right IT setup not only facilitates a smooth onboarding process but also empowers new employees to become productive and efficient from day one.
Orientation
Onboarding is a crucial process, and orientation is a great way to kickstart the new hire’s tenure with the company. A thoughtful orientation meeting can set the tone for the first few days as the new hire gets acclimated so take your time and personalize the information, when appropriate. Rushing through orientation does not benefit the company or the new hire. Unfortunately, only 12% of US employees believe their employer has a great onboarding process according to a Gallup survey. Successful onboarding experiences lead to better outcomes. During your orientation, you may want to consider reviewing the following:
Review the org chart to familiarize the new hire with the supervisor, team, and relevant stakeholders. A cheat sheet is an awesome and concise way to communicate necessary information.
Discuss company norms and culture. This is an excellent opportunity to review the company's mission, vision, and values.
Introduce required software and how to access processes and procedures. Documents should be organized and easily accessible to avoid confusion.
Job-specific training
Job-specific training aims to provide new hires with the knowledge, skills, and tools they need to perform their roles effectively. The primary goal of job-specific training is to ensure that the new hire is well-prepared and confident in their ability to carry out their duties. Over 50% of US employees have reported that they were undertrained which led to their desire to quit. Thorough training only improves overall job performance and also enhances employee satisfaction and retention. Below are a few examples of what that may look like:
Assign a new hire buddy or peer mentor! This person will be available to answer questions, provide training and/or shadowing opportunities and ensure that the new hire stays connected.
Schedule necessary compliance and job-specific training within the first week. These training sessions are crucial for providing the new hire with relevant information and maintaining their engagement as they adjust to their role.
Define and demonstrate what success looks like in the new role with ongoing coaching and feedback. Share their job description and define the role expectations.
Ongoing support
Again, onboarding is a process and ongoing support is exactly that, ongoing. The first few weeks in a new position requires time to adjust. There is typically information overload and there are some tasks, procedures, or policies that will inevitably need to be revisited. Ongoing support demonstrates a commitment to the new hire and their success with the company. Here are a few ways your company can provide support to new hires:
Schedule consistent manager check-ins. A regular review of roles, responsibilities, expectations, and feedback will provide the stability and the structure needed for the new hire to move forward with confidence. The check-ins should have agendas that are accessible by both parties.
In addition to your manager check-ins, goal setting for the first 90 days can really help the new hire recognize their contributions and achieve attainable goals.
Define key performance indicators (KPIs) and schedule a 90-day performance review. In conjunction with goal-setting, a 90-day review allows the new hire and manager to discuss strengths and areas for improvement, based on previously discussed KPIs.
Provide learning and development resources. This will assist the new hire in gaining a deeper understanding of their role, and also allow them to explore new areas of potential growth and development within the company.
In Conclusion
Effective onboarding involves more than just administrative tasks. It's about building relationships, aligning new hires with the company's culture and values, and offering continuous support through mentorship, learning opportunities, and open communication. The onboarding process is not one size fits all. Get feedback from your employees and make adjustments where appropriate to fit the needs of your changing company.
HENSLEE would like to thank our community for your continued support. If you or your organization need assistance with your onboarding process, reach out to HENSLEE here, and remember to Keep it Wavy.
