Onboarding
Onboarding a new team member is an exciting experience. You’ve found the perfect match for a position and you're ready to get moving! Though it can be tempting to drop your new employee right in the mix, a thorough and thoughtful onboarding procedure is crucial to avoid any oversight or complications and it’s a great way to set your new hire up for success from the start.
The best way to ensure a smooth onboarding process is to create a repeatable and customizable onboarding checklist. This list can be used internally to prepare each department for the new addition, and shared with the new employee so they know what to expect over the first few days, weeks and months.
In this blog, we will provide examples, templates, plus tips and considerations for customizing your onboarding checklist to be the most efficient tool for your team.
Setting Your Team Up For Success
When introducing a new teammate to the workforce, there are a lot of factors to address and boxes to check off. You want to prepare each responsible party with the processes and resources that they will need to set your new employee up properly. If your organization does not have a department dedicated to each task, you should consider assigning a responsible party to each task on the checklist and include them in all communication about the new hire so they are prepared to do their part. While each organization is unique, here are a few responsible parties and roles that will likely need to be involved:
Talent: Talent can help in your new hire’s transition from candidate to employee. This individual or team will be crucial in handing off the responsibilities to the next DRI in the onboarding process.
HR: Your HR/People Ops rep will be likely be heavily involved in the onboarding process. They will help facilitate the compliance checklist (see below) to ensure your new employee has all of their paperwork in order, as well as providing the necessary information that they will need to feel comfortable and prepared to start their first day. Providing access to policies, benefit information and the employee handbook will all fall in the HR/People Ops role.
Managers: Your new employee’s manager should be prepared to pave a smooth entry for their new team member. Managers will likely be working directly with their new hire during the onboarding process, so having a set schedule is key. When you new hire know where they need to be and what they need to be doing during the onboarding phase, you not only provide clarity, you can also help relieve the tension of the unknown that many new hires feel on their first few days. Having regular check ins during these first few weeks and months is also ideal for alignment and understanding on both sides.
We have more manager resources below!
Buddies: Many organizations utilize a buddy system for new hires. This may be a manager, or a peer with experience in the position. Buddies should have a full understanding of the responsibilities that they will be conveying to the new hire, and embody a welcoming reflection of your organizations mission, vision and values.
IT: Technical glitches on a first day can be a huge frustration. Your IT team is crucial to ensuring your new employee’s experience is headache free. Whether they are working remotely or in-office, IT should have your new employee set up with their computer or laptop, access to company tools and systems with clear instructions for creating and saving passwords, and a clear understanding of what to do when something goes wrong in the tech area.
Employee Experience: The employee experience team should be ready for action while welcoming your new employee. Clear communication to this team will ensure your newbie is set up with any welcome material, company swag and thoughtful care that will make them feel as though they belong.
Compliance
Basic compliance steps will be required every time you onboard a new employee. You will want to ensure that the necessary documents are in order, such as:
W-2
W-4s
I-9s
Non-disclosure agreements
Industry-specific forms
If you are hiring across the US or globally, you will also want to ensure that your organization is registered and able to hire in a specific state or country before you begin the process.
This list is not comprehensive, so be sure to check with your HR/People Ops team and payroll provider to ensure you are checking all of those compliance boxes.
Work Setup
Whether your new employee will be working in-office, remote, or hybrid, you will need to set them up with the tools required to get started. The responsible party for these tasks should ensure that your new employee is set up with:
A computer
All applicable systems including login information for each
Company resources like handbooks and process docs
Any introductory or welcome materials
Desk, chair and other office setup equipment
Managers
Your managers will likely be the point of contact for most/all questions from your new employee. You will want to prepare them with all of the resources and direction that they will need to set themselves and your new employee up for success. This will be a great opportunity to set up a 30/60/90 checklist so your manager and employee know what to expect.
30/60/90 checklists break down a timeline for your new employee so they know exactly what they will be focusing on in the immediate future. This typically includes a week by week checklist for the first month and sets expectations for the first, second and third months.
HENSLEE HR has created a templated 30/60/90 checklist for reference or use here. Feel free to copy this checklist and customize it to fit the needs of your organization.
Company Values
Part of welcoming a new employee is exemplifying and speaking to your company mission, vision and values. Whether it is included in your welcoming material or elsewhere on the onboarding checklist, be sure to offer your new employees the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the internal resources and behaviors of your organization. This will include things like:
Listing your mission, vision and values
Setting expectations for team participation and collaboration
Setting expectations for employee conduct
Providing internal language guides
Providing access to team-wide social networks
Your new employee was hopefully chosen with your overall mission, vision and values in mind. Alignment on these values can have a huge impact on the employee experience, as well as participation and retention. According to a study by Qualtrics, employees who say their company’s mission, vision and values align with their own are far more likely to recommend their employer as a great place to work (70% vs. 25%) and to say their work gives them a feeling of personal accomplishment (72% vs. 29%). They’re also less likely to say they are thinking about leaving their current employer (33% vs. 44%). When your organization operates by and embodies your mission, vision and values, your employees will find it easier to do the same.
Conclusion
We hope that you’ve found value in this exploration and breakdown of the onboarding process. This can be a complicated process, but with structure and organization, there’s no reason why the onboarding process shouldn’t run smoothly!
If your organization could use help in setting structure around your onboarding process, reach out to HENSLEE! Setting your new employee up for success is such a rewarding process and we can’t get enough of it! Thank you for your continued support of HENSLEE, we so appreciate it!
So long for now and don’t forget to lead with heart! 💓
Resources
Employees who feel aligned with company values are more likely to stay Qualtrics
