What is employee onboarding?
It’s more than new employee orientation. Onboarding is the process of integrating your new hire into your company and culture. It involves setting expectations and providing your new team member with the tools and information they need to be productive.
To help enhance your process, let’s look at onboarding best practices and setting the expectation with new hires.
Be Ready on Day One
Be ready for your new hire on day one. Set your new employee up for success by making sure they have everything they need on their first day such as:
A computer
An email
Profile created for software like the Microsoft Office Suite
Security logins, passwords, and any access keys
Desk, chair, phone, and any other tools they need to do their job
Job description
Uniform and nametag if needed
List of team members names, roles, and contact information
List of important contacts and resources within the company
Schedule a team meeting for introductions
Provide a one or two-week agenda
Provide a training schedule
First-week checklist of items they need to complete or expectations
Have scheduled one on one meetings with counterparts scheduled
Show them the important places like the bathrooms, break room, kitchen, or other areas like an exercise room if you have it.
Take Care of the Paperwork
This is the least fun part of the first day, but it must be done.
Have all the paperwork for your new hire ready. Complete it early so you can get on with the better parts of your new employee’s day. It may include items such as:
Policies and procedures manuals, employee handbook
Employment contract
Benefits information and sign up
Payroll forms and automatic deposit sign up if using
Any other information they need to begin working for you
Go Overboard on the Welcome
Whether your orientation is one day, one week, or longer, go above and beyond to make your new hire feel welcome.
Incorporate some fun things. For example, you can have different team members take the new hire to lunch each day of the first week. In today’s remote working environment, have lunch delivered to the new hire, and have live interactive video lunches or coffee chats daily for the first week. Take the time to get to know your new hire.
Decorate their office with welcome balloons or a plant. If you aren’t in an office, send a plant, balloons, office decor, or a desk trinket to them. The goal is to make your new hire feel incredibly special.
Assign a Mentor
Give your new team member a mentor. This should be someone you trust and who is loyal to your company.
They should know a lot about the new hire’s job, their usual daily routine, and your company culture.
Your new hire’s mentor can really show them the ropes. They are an immediate friend and confidant. This should be another team member and not necessarily their direct boss.
It should be someone who is easily approachable that your new hire feels comfortable asking questions of.
The mentor as well as the direct manager can show the employee around the office and introduce him/her around.
Highlight Your Company Culture
One of the most important things you can do for a new hire is to show them your company culture. This is an ongoing process, but if you do it right, it helps with employee retention.
You can share your mission, your goals, and your core values. Have your new hire spend time with the influencers and leaders in your company.
The goal here is to introduce the new hire to your shared values during the onboarding process.
To Conclude
Onboarding means what you set it to mean at your company. It can incorporate many aspects of life at your company from the minute the employee signs on, through their initial months with you, and any transitions they make along the way.
Onboarding doesn’t have to be stiff and formal. It can be fun. Most importantly, onboarding best practices mean it should provide your team member with all the tools they need to do the job as well as an introduction to your company culture and expectations.
New hires who go through a formal onboarding program are more likely to stick with your company than those who never had one. It helps instill your company culture which extends to company loyalty.
Set your onboarding best practices today and watch your employee retention rates grow.