Onboarding is the process of integrating a new employee into an organization. The goal of onboarding is to get the new employee up to speed as quickly as possible and ensure they are productive and contributing team members. Several best practices can help make the onboarding process more successful. Read on to learn more.
What Is the Employee Onboarding Process?
Employee onboarding is a process by which new employees are familiar with the company’s policies, societal role, and culture. They also need to learn how to interact freely among coworkers while establishing social relationships at work, which happens during an employee’s first day.
Onboarding Process ensures that the new employee knows exactly what their duties will be and how they are expected to act. This includes giving them all necessary paperwork for labor law compliance, teaching skills like communication style or attitude towards work in general (and not just tasks), and providing information about benefits available at this company, including insurance coverage.
The faster employees are empowered to do their jobs, the more valuable they will become.
Onboarding Process is not just the responsibility of HR. It also falls on managers to familiarize new employees with their role in the company, performance expectations, and the culture team they join.
The Employee Onboarding Process starts right after the offer letter is sent to a prospective employee. This includes instructions about how their new company expects them to interact with others, what kind of benefits they will have access to, and any other information that may help integrate them into work successfully as soon as possible.
Benefits of Onboarding Process
Benefits of Onboarding for Organizations
- Organizations that invest in onboarding programs are more likely to retain highly qualified talent.
- Employees who are included in the company and given clear objectives will perform better.
- When employees start feeling good about their company, it’s easier to have a positive impression of that business.
- The company won’t experience a high turnover rate, thus decreasing economic investments.
Benefits of Onboarding for Employees
- New employees are quickly comfortable and feel part of the company culture.
- The company’s employees are better informed about their tasks and functions within the organization.
- When a company has ambitious goals, employees driven to accomplish them will have greater motivation.
- The more satisfied and engaged your employees, the less likely they are to leave for another job.
Duration of Employee Onboarding
Informally, as soon as they accept the offer letter – or even before. It would be best if you invited new hires to join internal platforms. These employees can get a head start on reading through everything important and learn about company news and find their place at work by getting involved in social events like clubs where people come together over shared interests, helping them integrate better into teams.
Though it varies from organization to organization, the amount of time spent on the various facets of onboarding can be broken down into these four phases:
- One day to one week: The first step is ensuring that the employee understands their role and how it applies in a work environment. This can be done through an orientation session or by having them fill out some paperwork with information about themselves. Hence, you know what skill set your new hire will bring before starting on specific tasks for this position.
- One week to three months: Introduce the employee, their role in an organizational hierarchy, and how they’re expected to work with other employees. Focus on getting them oriented and learning about any culture shocks that might be present before rolling out new policies or procedures.
- Three months to six months: This is a crucial time for managers to see how their employees are doing and ensure they have what it takes to do the job. Managers should also take feedback from this stage because even if an employee seems happy with their work situation now, some issues could arise in six months.
- Six months to a year: The employee is expected to have mastered their role, the market they work in, and assimilated into the company culture. The time frame for this stage could be anywhere from 6 – 12 months, depending on how quickly someone can learn new things or become acclimated to your organization’s way of doing things.
The Employee Onboarding Process: 4 Key Steps
Before the New Employee’s Start Date (Pre-Onboarding)
The new hire is expected to go through a prep process before starting their first day on the job. This could include signing legal documents, payroll paperwork, and other company-specific information needed for any workplace environment.
The new hire is starting their first day of work, and you are there to answer any questions they might have. Stay in touch with your latest team member by answering as many pre-hire queries before the startup begins. This will make them feel supported from the beginning when things don’t go quite right or according to plan.
Before their start date, the new employee must know:
- Who are their bosses and co-workers
- Where they will perform their duties
- The responsibilities of the job
- The means of work
- The habits of the company and the company culture
Plan Out Onboarding Activities
New employees want to feel welcome, so you must make them feel comfortable from day one. A good idea for new hires would be having an ice breaker activity or lunch with other team members to introduce themselves and get acquainted more easily.
Help New Employees Feel Acquainted
On the very first day of work, new hires must receive a warm welcome. Make an effort to show your employees around and introduce them to coworkers in their department or division if there’s a buddy system. Then this makes for great connections between team members working on different parts within each business unit.
Check-in on New Team Members
The Onboarding Process is not over after the first week! It takes time for newly hired employees to feel 100% comfortable and confident. Be sure you check up on them from time to time so that they know how much support there truly is, even if everything has gone smoothly thus far.
Hosting team building events such as happy hours help newer hires bond with peers faster while also providing opportunities within social gatherings where personal connections might be made outside the regular business.
Best Practices for Employee Onboarding Process
To ensure that your employees stay engaged with the company, it is important for them to feel like they’re making a difference. You can control how their experience in this new role shapes up by ensuring opportunities are available and giving clear directions on what needs doing each day or week, so no one gets lost along the way.
The Onboarding Process for new employees has changed drastically. In the past, automation and upskilling were rare aspects of this trend. Still, even smaller companies will be compelled to pay attention to how they can retain their team members long-term by providing a great experience during the initial hire that won’t make them want to leave after just one day on the job.
Make sure the job description is correct
The breakdown of tasks in a job often reveals something completely different from what was expected. In the survey, more than 25% shared that they were not given enough information about their new position before accepting it, and 40 percent said precisely what you would expect them to.
To avoid this problem, you need a transparent recruitment process and interview. Make sure your job descriptions are what candidates want to hear rather than simply stating the requirements of each position. That may be enough for some people who aren’t looking forward to working there to become interested once they’re hired.
Automate and personalize the Onboarding Process
The new Employee Onboarding Process should be quick and efficient, with all the necessary paperwork flowing into their system automatically. With technology changing how we work these days, it is important to have an automated workflow that will streamline your business operations while ensuring every document gets completed correctly by following best practices for data inputting to avoid any future problems.
With software that comes with built-in reminders, you can avoid the hassle of keeping track of your to-dos and focus on what’s important.
Automating Employee Onboarding Process can save you hours of administrative work during employees’ first week. Not only would this enable new team members to hit the ground running right away, but it would also provide them with a sense of belonging and an opportunity to learn more about their company.
Action an onboarding schedule
Effective onboarding starts with a template. Create one for new hires customized to their needs, and ensure they know what’s expected of them from day one.
Discuss everything that’s necessary and skip what is not
This is a crucial question to ask yourself when designing your onboarding program. You need to know what the employee’s options are so you can pick and choose which tasks will be covered for them to understand their responsibilities and feel like part of an organization with its own set goals in mind.
Provide company policy information
The best way to keep employees around is by providing them with all the necessary information upfront. Suppose some surprises or events occur during their time at work, such as pay cuts for leaving earlier than expected and not being informed about the leave policy before starting employment with your company. In that case, this may put new hires off quickly, making it rugged enough to already recruit others into joining forces.
Creating an employee handbook shared with new hires at the start of their job will ensure they have access to all necessary information. This can be delivered through your onboarding platform or simply by posting it internally on a company intranet and powering up chatbots. Hence, employees who cannot remember every policy outlined in this guide can get help from them whenever needed.
Provide the tools they need
The first thing an employee will need is a space to work in. This can be as simple or complicated as you want it, but the best way of ensuring they have what’s necessary for their job before arriving on site helps avoid any problems during starting up time at all.
You’ll also want ID cards and access cards organized according to your company policy, so there aren’t neck- wrinkles from looking things up online only when needed. Finally, making sure everything related to these individuals’ communications (email account, etc.) has been created beforehand too.
Conduct a meet and greet
Making the new employee feel welcomed as a part of your team is important. Have an initial list for them with all their staff members and block some time so they can meet everyone else in due course, but also facilitate chats between leaders if there are specific role requirements. This shows that senior management cares about each individual’s work, making people more comfortable integrating immediately without any issues whatsoever because we want our colleagues to be happy and productive).
Avoid an isolating onboarding experience
This is a huge problem that many companies face when it comes to hiring new employees. New hires commonly report negative onboarding experiences and being singled out as an individual can create added stress. Still, there are ways around this with the help of mentors or chatbots who offer support during your first few weeks on board.
Measure onboarding metrics
The metrics that an intelligent onboarding system will throw up can be used to track your process’s effectiveness and efficiency. Some key examples include costs, engagement levels (such as how often someone interacts with content), training expenses, or outcomes once new employees are hired- succession management success rates, among others, depending on what you’re trying to achieve with this type of software.
The best way to measure the ROI of your onboarding process is by looking at how it sits within performance management. If you have an efficient system in place, this will help with new hires and retention rates because talent markets are tight now.
By following the best practices for Employee Onboarding Process, you can ensure a smooth transition into your new role and set yourself up for success with your new employer.
If you’re looking for more information on creating an effective Onboarding Process, or if you need help getting started, don’t hesitate to contact us. We would be happy to share our expertise and help get your new employee up to speed quickly and efficiently.
