Some Onboarding Best Practices

Last week, we explored the importance of onboarding. This week, we highlight some tactics that can improve your team's and organization's onboarding dramatically.

Lest we forget, onboarding is the process of acclimating new hires to new roles, including the culture, policies, norms, and processes of the organization. It is a critical step in the hiring process that sets new hires up for success and makes them feel welcome and valued. No one wants to start a job where it feels like no one cared enough to prepare for their arrival or they were just thrown in the deep end. Below are some recommendations for effective onboarding:

1. Demonstrate you prepared for their first day: New employees are eager to get going typically. This spirit can be quickly diminished if they show up with no place to sit, no computer to do work with, and no plan to get them up-to-speed. First-day activities may include a facility tour highlighting their work area, formal and informal team introductions, key organizational partner meetings, company overview, team norms and ways of working, computer set-up, email and other tools, benefits enrollment, one-on-one meeting with supervisor, and a schedule of training and development.
2. Design a personalized experience: Tailor the onboarding procedure to the needs and preferences of each employee. This could include linking them with mentors or peer support as well as appropriate resources like training manuals and job aids.
3. Establish clear expectations: From the outset, make expectations clear in terms of their role, duties, and performance standards. This will make it easier for the team member to understand how their position and efforts relate to the general objectives of the business and integrate with that of partners.
4. Encourage a sense of belonging: Onboarding is a chance to make new workers feel a part of the business and its culture. Encourage new hires to socialize and collaborate. Make them feel included in company-wide events and activities. Organizing a group to take them to lunch the first day is always a fantastic start.
5. Leverage their objectivity: Leverage a new employee's objectivity by asking for their impressions and suggestions before they become fully acculturated and stop seeing opportunities. While being a marvelous way to analyze the business and its processes for ongoing improvements, this engagement will also make them feel valued. It allows them to get engaged in the business quickly when they may feel reticent to give an opinion by leveraging a unique attribute existing employees lack.

"Coupled with other culture-building activities, strong onboarding improves staff retention, productivity, and job satisfaction."

1. Arrange for a peer mentor: Leverage a high-performing peer to be their informal guide. This person can answer questions and show them how things really get done in your organization. They should introduce them to other low-pressure peers that will make them feel part of the broader team. Peer mentors should be the person a new hire can feel comfortable seeking clarity without feeling judged.
2. Offer continuing assistance: The onboarding process doesn't end on the first day or even first month of employment. Make sure new hires have access to the tools they need to succeed while providing opportunities for continuous training and growth. Encourage them to write down questions and unfamiliar jargon so you can review them as a batch.
3. Track development: Follow up with new hires frequently to understand how they're settling in and to offer performance coaching. This will make it easier to spot challenges early and guarantee new hires are on pace to achieve their objectives. Remember, their success or lack thereof reflects back on their manager so be invested in their success.
4. Use technology: Automate routine processes to streamline administrative onboarding. This can involve a learning management system to provide training and development opportunities or an onboarding program to manage paperwork and timelines. It can even be leveraged to fill out tedious new hire paperwork before they arrive.
5. Assess success: In order to pinpoint areas that need improvement, it's critical to assess the onboarding program's performance. Key performance indicators like staff retention, productivity time, and new recruit feedback should be evaluated. Ask recent hires for improvement ideas after they have been in role for several weeks. As recent consumers of the onboarding experience, they will likely have the most relevant insights.

People want to feel like the organization, their manager, and their team are excited that they joined. Companies should employ effective onboarding practices that make new hires feel prepared and supported.

Ultimately, good onboarding tactics are early steps in creating cultures where employees go the extra mile. Demonstrating forethought to ensure a positive and relevant experience builds goodwill and long-term engagement. Coupled with other culture-building activities, strong onboarding is a smart financial move because it improves staff retention, productivity, and job satisfaction.