Are you in the process of hiring?
If you’re a company hiring new team members, chances are, you’re not only looking for the best team members, but aiming to onboard them in the best possible way.
A proper onboarding strategy has multiple benefits.
From making employees more adaptive to their surroundings and equipping them with tools to excel in their positions, proper onboarding helps create productive employees.
Despite having a high education, skills or lots of work experience, each candidate coming into your organisation needs onboarding.
Reason being, a candidate may be qualified and knowledgeable, but they need to understand your company.
They need to understand the dynamics and intricacies of your company and how culture affects operations and vice versa.
For every candidate, highly experienced or not, here are some key considerations to make your onboarding successful:
Get your paperwork in order
When you’ve hired a new staff member, a lot of documentation must be produced, reviewed and discussed. Some of these documents include:
- An updated job description – the list of duties may change depending on the person being hired
- An employment contract detailing their position, job title, working hours, salary, benefits etc.
- Insurance policies
- Training manuals, employee handbooks, instruction sheets etc.
- Non-disclosure agreements for positions that deal with sensitive data
- Welcome packages – company branded items, stationery, planners, clothing etc.
To have your onboarding process efficient from the start, it is vital that these documents are prepared ahead of time.
Before your new hire begins their first day, paperwork should be printed, reviewed, and approved.
That way, when a new staff member starts their work day, they have all the relevant information needed to understand their job, company, and duties.
Additionally, organised paperwork signals to a new hire that your company is organised, efficient and professional.
Professionalism sets an example for a new team member. It demonstrates the level of efficiency at which the company operates and the standard they should also aspire to.
Confirm the training process
Every new employee requires some form of training to fit into the company.
Like getting your paperwork organised beforehand, Human Resources ought to be working closely with the new hire’s management to identify:
- What information needs to be taught to the new employee to succeed in their position?
- How will this information be taught – instructional videos, seminars, mentorship?
- What other forms of training may be required by their manager?
- What is the budget for this training of the new hire?
- What is the goal that the new employee training must accomplish?
Successful training requires strategic planning. To train an employee means the right knowledge must be decided, organised, and imparted by the right person, using the right media.
Therefore, before new hires begin their first day, these training details need to be addressed to place that employee in a position for success.
Involve the relevant people
Ideally, onboarding falls under the scope of Human Resources. However, bringing a new employee into an organisation should not be isolated to one department.
Whether it’s training, mentoring or even greeting the new hire on the first day, companies need to ensure that the right people from each department are involved in this process.
The department in which the new hire will work, their direct manager, mentors, colleagues who may have previously held their position, or those who will work closely with them need to be involved.
To onboard new hires efficiently, the right people need to be involved.
This involvement ensures the right information is taught which will produce desired results.
Immerse them in culture
When a new hire enters an organisation, they essentially come in as blank canvases.
Particularly for younger employees, this may be their very first job. They need to be guided in terms of adapting to the company’s work ethic, style and standard.
More specifically, they need to be fully aware of:
- The company’s operations – how does the company generate its revenue?
- The dynamics and relationships between departments – how does one department’s activity impact another?
- The key people within each department – managers, senior persons etc.
- The company’s leadership – CEO, COO, etc.
- The reputation the company has within its market and measures in place to maintain or improve that
- The core beliefs and principles that guide the company’s operations
- The mission and vision statements that all team members observe
- Events, special days and observances held by the company
Think of the company as a person. New hires are meeting this person for the first time. They must know who this person is – the personality, character, and philosophy.
Knowing the people within a company, its leadership, principles, and policies help new hires to understand their environment quickly.
Understanding their environment is crucial for them.
Knowing your work environment allows them to successfully navigate their way through the organisation.
They will also know the relevant people, the appropriate practices and the standard to which they should perform.
Regular check-ins
Through a successful onboarding program, new employees will eventually learn the ropes of their new workspace and be able to navigate on their own.
However, being on their own doesn’t mean that management should leave them on their own.
To reinforce your onboarding, regular check-ins help identify:
- How well is the new hire is grasping information?
- Are they smoothly adapting to the company’s environment?
- Are they enjoying and performing at their job?
- What issues are they currently facing?
- What areas do we notice that some additional guidance is needed?
New employees and even those seasoned with the company ought to have regular check-ins with Human Resources and other departments involved with onboarding.
As a result, onboarding is by no means a finite or temporary procedure.
After all the training and guidance has been administered, check-in with employees to make sure they’re on track and progressing well.
This type of support would reinforce the belief that the company is supportive and is committed to their success.
Furthermore, regular-check-ins allow companies to spot areas within their onboarding strategy that require improvement, depending on the employee feedback.
