How to Introduce New Hires to Your Company Culture

The idea of organizational culture took off in the 1960s when businesses found that their unique mission could give them a competitive edge over similar companies.

Over the years, “Company culture'' has evolved into a term that symbolizes a company’s values and how they conduct themselves internally.

The Relation Between Culture and Employee Engagement

Although companies started out by hiring candidates who are a cultural fit, in recent years this practice has fallen by the wayside. Nowadays, the popular approach is to find excellent candidates and have them undergo an onboarding process that immerses them into your company’s culture

Studies have shown how healthy culture boosts productivity and revenue, on top of proving that employees who are satisfied with their workplace culture are less likely to look for new employment. If you aren’t convinced yet, here are other statistics that show the importance of cultivating a healthy culture.

1. Companies that focus on developing and maintaining a healthy culture have been found to enjoy 40% higher employee retention. 
2. A LinkedIn survey indicates that 66% of job seekers think that culture is a vital consideration when deciding on career opportunities.
3. Teams that are engaged and invested in a company’s mission help drive growth and outperform their peers by 21% in productivity and 22% in profitability.

5 Ways to Design a Culture Focused Onboarding

So, how can you as an HR expert or business owner implement an onboarding strategy that accounts for your culture? Here are 5 Strategies that you can try right away:

1. Assign an Onboarding Buddy

Onboarding buddies make a big difference in the overall experience. They serve as a listening ear and knowledgeable person that can clarify organization context, enhance employee satisfaction and improve productivity.

It goes without saying that adjusting the workload and discussing expectations with the mentoring employee are essential when implementing the buddy system. 

2. Conduct a Behavioral Assessment

Behavioral assessments are borrowed from psychology. They serve to evaluate an individual's personality and whether they fit your culture.

Traditionally, a behavioral assessment is done prior to hiring to ensure that a candidate is culturally fit. However, this means that you may dismiss skilled applicants that are deemed unsuitable. As an alternative, you can try making it a part of your onboarding process.

Doing so makes the assessment more inclusive for high value candidates while also allowing you to observe how new hires handle specific situations, strategize ways to handle them according to company policy and set new hires up to succeed.

3. Make Time for Feedback and Questions

Both items number 1 and 2 are ideal opportunities to have new hires ask questions as they adjust to their new roles.

However, frequent meetings with direct managers, an online satisfaction survey or personal check-ins with HR can go a long way to making new hires feel heard. These also help clear up misunderstandings quicker, helping prevent bigger issues in the future.

4. Involve Various Colleagues

Having people from different roles and departments participate in the onboarding journey helps provide a bigger picture of the company, its structure and operations. Thus making new hires feel like an important part in the company's move towards success, more satisfied with their work and less likely to leave.

5. Express Appreciation

It's important that you let employees know how important they are from onboarding and onwards. Showing appreciation enhances loyalty and productivity among colleagues which benefit the company's bottom line.

You can do this after new hires accomplish a goal or task throughout the onboarding process. For instance, a personalized welcome letter after they accept the job offer or a quick call meeting to introduce them to other team members.

These help make them feel welcome and valued while also teaching to do the same for others when the time comes.