A successful onboarding process needs planned action and steps to ease the new hire into your company culture. Merge it with intermediate steps keeping in mind your company’s branding and culture to assist new hires in getting acclimatized to the new working environment. An effective onboarding program will help jumpstart new hire performance by equipping them with all the needed tools and skills. We share a few steps below which you can replicate to build a purposeful onboarding program.
Recruitment
Set your recruitment standards by clear communication of company culture and branding and letting potential applicants know what skillsets you require in a job. Also share your company’s vision, mission, and values.
Best Practices:
- Check your website content, job descriptions, interview question and-all other new hire interaction you have put in place to ensure they reflect your values, expectations, standards, clarity, and accuracy.
- Provide your new hires needed tests to check if they are a proper fit for the job.
- Be clear about company policies that concern the employees including benefits, ethics, working hours, reporting, and holidays.
- Evaluate your hiring processes, methods, and policies with your internal human resources team.
Offer
Organizations often spend a lot of time and effort in finding the right candidate. However, what companies do from then on, is sometimes a sketchy picture. While the new hire is rather excited to join the organization, companies often don’t show the same excitement they did while making the offer. Research by Harvard Business Review says that nearly a quarter of new hires are already scanning new opportunities less than half a year into the organization. And if your company has more millennials in it, that number is going to much more.
Best practices:
- Send your new hire a personalized email to let them know how thrilled you are that they accepted your offer.
- Clearly outline the position for which the new hire is hired, job responsibilities, requirements, and expectations.
- Share the company’s policies, norms procedures, and handbook.
- Briefly explain the benefits package for which the employee will be eligible (e.g. medical insurance, bonuses, vacation, paid leave, sick leave, holidays).
Pre-boarding
Preboard starts and is completed before an employee’s first day. The time between offer acceptance and joining date provides a window of opportunity to pre-board new hires.
Best practices:
- Request your new hire to complete new hire forms.
- Send a personalized introductory email to the new hire. Also, include a welcome video message from the CEO or hiring manager.
- Describe job-related information, including tools and skill sets the new hire might need to be aware of before they officially start.
- Introduce new hires to your company and culture.
- Share the itinerary for the first week.
- Setup their company email address and phone number, along with credentials for your business’s networking tools.
New Hire’s First Day
An effective onboarding process prepares the new hire for the first day. The organization needs to seize the initiative by setting out processes that will make this transition smooth for the new hire like sending an introductory mail as well as setting up his workspace with all the needed tools and equipment. Time early with a buddy or mentor can also be very effective.
On the new hire’s first day, the HR department/technical team involved in their interview process should be there to welcome him/her. This will help to ease the nerves. It’s also important to introduce new hires to colleagues, management, and team members. Also, a critical part of the onboarding process is making the new hire aware of the organization’s culture and values.
Best practices:
- Provide a guided tour of the office space.
- Inform them about the office dress code, parking instructions and, other unofficial norms at works.
- Introduce the new hire to colleagues, management, and team members.
- Set up the new hire’s workspace with all the needed tools and equipment.
- Schedule time early with a buddy or mentor.
- Give them a personalized gift to make them feel welcome.
- Provide details including the “when, where and how” of reporting to work. This could include even the office dress code, parking instructions, other unofficial norms at works.
- Describe the first day/ week itinerary. Briefly mention the duties and responsibilities of the new job along with the expectations and key performance indicators.
Schedule Onboarding Program
Give employees a glimpse of what lies ahead for them and help them to picture themselves in their new role. Prepare them for the challenges that lie ahead. Customize a new hire onboarding program that offers information in small doses. Prevent information overload on day one, spread out the onboarding programs, avoid fitting in too many sessions on a single day. Don’t let the initial few days be stressful and burdensome. Start the onboarding process on a relaxed note and ease the new hire into the system. Before implementing specific training programs, take heed to check whether they are ready for it.
Best practices:
- Provide employees with a welcome kit.
- Describe the onboarding program, providing a written timeline and schedule of goals, training, support and responsibilities for the new employee.
- Introductions and connections – Keep the introductions personal and customized as much as possible.
- Schedule meetings for conversations with skip-level managers and CXO level executives, where ever necessary.
- Set work expectations, KPA’s, and KRS’s. Communicate new hire’s career growth plan and the company’s vision for the employee.
- Reiterate benefits, bonuses, variables, and package criteria.
