- Provision employees before they arrive.
- Get paperwork out of the way.
- Get the team involved (and aware)
- Share important first week information.
- Assign a buddy.
- Live and breathe your employer brand.
- Create an epic welcome.
- Get immersed in the culture.
According to the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 5. 8 million hires in July 2020. But there were also 5. In the same time frame, there were 0 million separations (quits, layoffs, and discharges). Although this pattern suggests that the labor market is enduring the effects of COVID-19, the rate of turnover is still concerning. This is due to the fact that replacing an employee could cost up to $6,110 on average!
10 Best Practices to Improve Employee Onboarding
Benefits of a good onboarding process
An employee’s first impression of a new workplace can determine how they feel about the organization as a whole. By preparing employees for success from the start of their training, an engaging and exciting onboarding process can enhance job performance over time. As a result, these workers experience greater job satisfaction, which raises employee retention over time.
When a business makes the effort to design an engaging onboarding process, new hires are incentivized to interact with their surroundings right away, sparking interest in their position. An enthusiastic employee is more likely to promote the business they work for, enhancing the company’s reputation as a great place to work through word-of-mouth marketing.
Onboarding best practices
Here are some best practices to assist you in providing your new hires with everything they need to succeed in your business.
Start before the first day
Utilize the time between an employee’s initial offer and the start of their first day by thinking about it. Pre-boarding is another name for this process, which is frequently used by hiring managers to welcome new hires, provide them with paperwork, or even have them complete personality tests.
Fill the first day with activities
Since a new employee’s first day of work is probably one of their most memorable experiences with your company, it’s beneficial to fill it with interesting activities. Have a plan for the first day of your new employees, preferably one that allows them to start learning right away. To keep people interested throughout the day, try to use a variety of learning styles and deliver information in small, manageable doses.
Address essentials first
Make sure your new hires are familiar with the fundamentals of their workplace before you start the job-specific training. How to contact coworkers during the workday, where to find the restrooms, cafeteria, or coffee machine, or how to get from their desk back to the building’s front door are all examples of useful information.
Make them feel welcome
Having a designated welcome group can be beneficial if your company regularly onboards new hires. People who have committed to being available as resources for new hires in a training or social capacity make up this onboarding team. Giving new hires access to an experienced employee network can encourage them to learn more about the business and participate in its culture.
When new hires arrive, try to have a member of your onboarding team greet them at the door. Think about providing your staff’s workspace with necessities like pens and notepads. Flowers, balloons, or coffee mugs are examples of small gifts that can help employees feel at home in their new workplace.
Have fun with the process
Be creative about how you deliver training information. Consider making your onboarding process a celebration, or incorporate scavenger hunts and trivia contests into your core lessons. Consider setting a challenge for new hires to complete in teams, then awarding prizes at the conclusion. When learning is enjoyable, information is frequently retained more effectively.
Give adequate time
An employee typically feels more prepared when it comes time to perform their role independently the more time they have to learn it. Spread out the process over several days to give your new hires enough time to absorb the information and ask questions without feeling rushed. Different employees may learn at different speeds, so be patient.
Keep a planned schedule
A schedule should be established for your new hires during the onboarding process. This could take the form of team lunches, shadowing opportunities, scheduled meetings, or training sessions to get to know important coworkers. A balanced schedule can provide new hires with a sense of direction and purpose while giving them opportunities to put their newly acquired skills to use under various levels of supervision.
Involve senior leaders
Knowing who their senior leaders are can often be beneficial for new employees. When given the chance to interact with people outside of their immediate circle of contacts, employees can better understand how their role fits within the company. Try to arrange one-on-one meetings so that new hires can ask senior management questions about their professional paths, prior experience, and goals for the work they are doing during the onboarding process, if at all possible.
Set clear expectations
Create an onboarding strategy and make sure to keep your new hires informed of it at all times. Make sure your new hires understand what you expect of them at every opportunity. If these expectations are made clear to your trainees early on and frequently, they will be more motivated to complete each new learning objective.
Assign responsibility
In circumstances where there are tangible results, new employees will probably learn more quickly. In many businesses, new hires are given projects to complete on their very first day of employment. Employees are given a sense of accountability as well as a specific opportunity to put their newly acquired knowledge into practice.
Have accessible resources
A new employee is more likely to succeed with a variety of resources for reference, from training manuals and phone directories to codes of conduct and cafeteria menus. Ensure that once the onboarding process is complete, your new hires have access to all the information they are learning and are aware of where to find it again.
Introduce company culture
The onboarding process is frequently a good opportunity to introduce your new hires to your workplace culture. Talk to them about the values your company holds. Think about how those principles influence everyone’s behavior in the workplace, from office interactions to personal lives. You might ask your new hires to describe how they perceive those values being reflected in either their current environment or in themselves.
Socialize new employees
Try to meet as many people as you can to introduce your new hires to. Your employees will feel more at home at work as they interact with more people. Anyone can serve as a resource, so introduce your staff to people who aren’t in their immediate area. These interactions, whether they involve other teams or departments, can help new employees better understand how various components of the company interact to form a cohesive organization. Organizing team lunches, outings, or happy hours can help new hires feel welcomed.
Gather feedback
Give your brand-new hires a chance to comment on the onboarding procedure. As they progress through their training, they may share what is and is not working well for them as well as constructive criticism. Consider asking your staff for additional feedback as they go through the onboarding process because this insight is valuable and may even change over time. This gives an employee enough time to adjust to their duties to determine whether the training they received was beneficial.
Open the process to other employees
Consider offering review courses to existing employees. A lot of information may be provided during onboarding, some of which may even change over time. As information changes, giving both new and seasoned employees the chance to brush up on their knowledge on a regular basis can improve job performance.
FAQ
What are the 4 phases of onboarding?
- Stage 1: Pre-onboarding. …
- Stage 2: Initial onboarding (new hire orientation) …
- Stage 3: Team-focused orientation and training. …
- Stage 4: Growth, mentoring, and initial performance.
What are the 5 C’s of onboarding?
- Compliance. Compliance is the baseline understanding of your organization’s. …
- Clarification. Focus on clarifying the new associate’s role and performance.
- Culture. As soon as they start working for your company, new hires are exposed to its culture.
- Connection. …
- Check Back.
What are the three 3 phases of employee onboarding?
When human resources teams use the term “onboarding,” they essentially mean everything that takes place after a new hire signs an offer letter to help them begin in their role. Administration, orientation, and enablement are the three overlapping phases that typically encompass all those various activities.
What makes a good onboarding system?
A successful onboarding program will probably include orientation, job-specific training, introductions, culture acclimation, and follow-ups, depending on the size and needs of your company. And it all begins the moment a new hire agrees to the position.
