Employee onboarding is one of the most crucial steps in the hiring process. The critical onboarding process ensures new hires have the information, abilities, and attitude necessary to fit in with the company. Onboarding best practices entail giving a new hire the resources and knowledge to contribute effectively to the team and introducing them to the company and its culture.
According to the statistics on customer service onboarding, companies with thebest onboarding process experienced a 60% increase in revenue from the previous year. Onboarding is also the first brand impression an employee gets; if it’s bad, employees won’t stay long.
It is estimated that 17% of employees quit between the first and third months of a new job if they don’t experience a good onboarding process.
Thus, it is crucial forHR professionals to create an effective onboarding process for the company’s growth. We have compiled a new employee onboarding guide to help you understand the best onboarding practices.
What Is the Onboarding Process?
A new hire should pay close attention to onboarding since it is their first experience getting to know the organizational values and their team members. Employee onboarding is meant to familiarize them with all the required tools, bring them up to speed on important initiatives, and prepare them for success in their new position.
The best method to welcome and keep new staff is to have a solid onboarding procedure.
As per a survey, 33% of employees leave their jobs within the first 90 days, which raises the cost of recruiting and hiring.
With onboarding best practices, they are more likely to feel engaged with the organization, enhancing performance and motivating workers to stay with the firm longer.
Onboarding Best Practices Guide – Easy-to-Follow Steps
The onboarding process is one of the most important aspects of ensuring newly hired personnel will be successful, satisfied workers. One study found that 51% of workers would go “above and beyond” at work if they had a positive onboarding experience. So, here is the onboarding process checklist for making your new hires’ onboarding process smoother:
Optimize the hiring process
To remain competitive in a difficult, candidate-driven job market, it is essential to identify ineffective and outdated processes. You don’t want to make a poor first impression on new joiners.
According to Forbes, 88% of the workforce think they don’t receive a quality onboarding program.
Many HR professionals make the common mistake of not contacting the employee after sending them the offer letter. As a result, it gives the candidate the impression that the management is not interested in taking the hiring process forward. Thus, ensure staying in touch with candidates before, during, and after onboarding to alleviate their fears regarding the job.
Additionally, you should begin onboarding when your employee receives their offer letter. Giving new employees access to the necessary resources for performance, such as laptops, internet connection, and more, can help you create a positive impression on candidates, so ensure everything is set up in advance. For example:
Keep the employee’s workstation ready.
Get all the paperwork done before joining.
Set up their work email and login credentials.
Ask them for all the necessary information you require, such as their address, phone number, emergency contact information, etc.
Expressing special gratitude to employees for joining your company would be excellent. Making new hires feel at home and comfortable in their new surroundings is your responsibility and the finest practice for your onboarding.
Your new hires will undoubtedly undergo numerous paperwork on their first day, so be patient and don’t rush anything. Moreover, ensure that new hires thoroughly understand the company’s processes. Whatever you do, let your welcome offerings showcase the company’s cultural identity.
Set up an orientation program
Employee orientation is essential to ensure the new worker aligns with the company’s objectives. Accurate and thorough employee orientation is essential to giving employees the direction they need to approach their new work. Thus, create a written document or visual presentation that prospective employees can read to inform them about the company’s history and culture.
The new hire will likely lose interest if they are unprepared or confused about their task. To make employees confident and engaged, welcome and answer their questions and concerns.
Establish a thorough onboarding schedule
New employees will quickly lose motivation if they have no task to complete in the first few days. Therefore, it’s smart to plan and follow a predetermined timetable for each hire the first week before settling them into their regular tasks.
A detailed schedule aids in making new employees feel comfortable on their first day of work. Your onboarding calendar should include various activities to let new hires meet their coworkers and learn more about their team members and dynamics.
Assign a buddy mentor
Giving your new team member a buddy gives them a safe space to learn about your company’s procedures, work environment, and their day-to-day job. By designating a “buddy mentor,” you demonstrate to the employee that you are prepared to help them adapt to their new position and duties.
Newcomers must feel comfortable asking questions about the culture and team to their buddy mentor. Thus, it would be ideal if the mentor were a colleague rather than a direct manager or supervisor. Additionally, ensure the person you choose for this position has a helping attitude.
Organizational training is essential because it enables new hires to become familiar with their surroundings, coworkers, and assigned tasks. Employees must have the resources to keep learning to advance their careers and provide fruitful outcomes for your company.
Employees can regularly attend frequent skills evaluations, structured training videos, certification programs, and lunch-and-learn seminars.
Schedule regular check-ins
A fantastic technique to make sure the onboarding procedure goes successfully is to schedule check-ins with the manager and the new employee in one-on-ones. HR personnel must be the new employee’s point of contact to whom they can ask difficult questions they might feel uncomfortable asking the management.
During the check-in, don’t forget to thank the employee for their contributions and ask if they require extra training or assistance regarding work. Regular check-ins can make a difference between an employee who stays on board for a long time and one who leaves early.
While new employees might not frequently engage with senior leaders, they must understand who they work for. Try to include senior team members as much as possible in the onboarding procedure.
The directors or senior managers might offer employees a tour of the office, take them out to lunch, provide a quick summary of the company’s history, or even lead a compulsory training session. Such quality time helps break down hierarchy barriers and increases openness and comfort in the workplace.
Get the new employee’s opinion
Your new employee would usually be equipped with new perspectives and recent experiences from other businesses. Thus, asking them for input on your operations, procedures, and improvement areas might enhance your company’s onboarding. Additionally, with seamless feedback software, you may create surveys, allowing new hires to share their honest opinions anonymously.
Use technology to combat challenges
Employee connection and communication may suffer when working remotely. Thus, the role of HR in the onboarding process is crucial. Work efficiency and accountability are a couple of prevalent difficulties with remote workers.
It is crucial to give your remote workers the tools they need to succeed during the virtual onboarding process. With the help of remote work collaboration, the following easy recommendations might help employers recruit remote workers:
Invite the employee to a virtual welcoming meeting to introduce themselves to the team.
Arrange a 2-week on-site orientation for the new remote worker if it is possible for them to arrive at the workplace. As a result, they will interact with everyone in person and get to know the company’s employees better.
Ensure your new employee has received and can set up any required equipment.
Consider recording training sessions so the new hire can review them later.
A successful onboarding process is essential for new employees. Smooth onboarding requires time, effort, and cross-departmental cooperation to make the new hire comfortable in your organization. Onboarding must be flexible to adapt to organizational changes. With onboarding best practices, you will prepare new employees for success, benefiting the business and the team.
Engagedly helps align and motivate employees to level up your workforce with ease. Among the best features of Engagedly are goal-setting, manager feedback, peer recognition, idea generation, knowledge sharing/e-learning, rewards, objectives alignment (OKR), and social performance. Our platform is the best-automated tool for promoting employee engagement effectively. Contact a consultation today!
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What is an onboarding checklist?
Ans. A way for hiring managers to organize the duties needed to support new hires during their first few weeks and months at a company is known as an onboarding checklist.
Q2. What makes onboarding crucial?
Ans. An onboarding program is crucial for getting new employees started in their careers with your company. It helps the company complete all employee-related formalities and formally introduce employees to the business.
Q3. What is a good onboarding procedure?
Ans. A good onboarding procedure involves the following:
Srikant Chellappa is the Co-Founder and CEO at Engagedly and is a passionate entrepreneur and people leader. He is an author, producer/director of 6 feature films, a music album with his band Manchester Underground, and is the host of The People Strategy Leaders Podcast. He is currently working on his next book, Ikigai at the Workplace, which is slated for release in the fall of 2024.