Employee onboarding and orientation is the most effective way to welcome new hires in an organization. It is an excellent way to create a perfect first impression of the organizational culture and core values.
Onboarding is a continuous process beyond the usual signing of papers on the first day and entails precise planning ahead. New employee onboarding one of the most essential task of your human resources department.
It starts from the hiring process until the new hire fully settles in the company.
Therefore, onboarding is integrating new employees with the necessary organizational knowledge, skills, and behavior to become effective team members. Companies invest in employees to ensure minimum employee turnover to maximize profits so your HR managers should give utmost importance to the employee onboarding process.
Onboarding Process Do's
1. Prepare for new hires before their first day.
Get in touch with the new hire before the first step in the organization ground. Prepare their workplace materials such as personal computers ready to make them feel appreciated on the first day.
2. Brief your new hires about their schedule or team.
Briefly let your new hire know what is expected from them in the company to ensure they are ready from the first day. New hires may take time to learn and adapt to the organizational culture with time, but an overview of the duties and responsibilities sets the genesis of learning.
3. Eliminate junky paper works
HR paperwork must be done but not on the first day in the company for the new hires. Nobody wants to stay the whole day filling in documents on their first day. Make the first day productive by applying technology to register the new hires in the company.
4. Make your company's onboarding process attractive and unique to the new hires.
Different companies apply different techniques to capture their new employee's attention on the first day. Allow your new hires to interact with colleagues through fun games or rewards. For example, Polyvore gives their new hires a gift card worth $100 to make their new employees feel welcomed and ready for the task.
5. Assign your new hires to colleagues to help them make decisions.
According to Forbes, more than 50% of the new employees believe that organizational skills should be learned even though you had a similar position in previous company. Leaving them to figure out may discourage them and, therefore, affect effective onboarding.
Steps of Effective Onboarding Process
The success and the failure of the new hires are dependent on the onboarding training they receive from the first day in the company. Experts indicate that implementing an effective onboarding process can positively impact the organization's outcome and employee retention.
According to The Oval Group, 86% of new employees decide to stay or leave their jobs within their first six months.
However, finding a conducive work culture requires balancing employee engagement and health.
According to Forbes, keeping employees engaged should not compromise their health. Unfortunately, according to employee engagement statistics, most American workers burn out in their work. 83% of the workers suffer extreme stress at work.
Burnout and increase in health complications can negatively affect the productivity of the organization hence reduction in revenue. According to the Harvard business review, there are seven critical steps to an effective onboarding process:
STEP 1. Understand your new hires challenges
Managers are faced with understanding the challenges of the new recruits face in the working environment. Whether experienced or inexperienced employees, they are unfamiliar with the business culture, environment, and how this new organization operates.
New hires, therefore, have to learn a lot to cope with the new working environment and may face challenges while adapting.
To onboard your new hires, managers should understand and help them overcome these challenges by reassuring them of the importance of learning in the early days. Human Resources professionals should create a plan of their company onboarding process in collaboration with the managers.
STEP 2. Boost your new employee learning
Ensure your new hires learn and understand their role in the company.
First, to enhance new employees' learning, managers should emphasize technical learning such as basics of the business like customers and products.
Secondly, focus on cultural knowledge such as the ethics, norms, and core values that make your company outstanding.
Lastly, the onboarding program should include political learning that focuses on understanding the business environment, hierarchy, reporting, decision-making protocols, and how power dynamics influence the running of the business.
STEP 3. Incorporate your new employee into the team
You should accelerate to build working relationships of your new hires with the current employees.
To achieve this, HR managers should inform team members about the role and responsibilities of the new hires that they will be performing and encourage them to help new employees adapt.
Building a working relationship enhances the effective onboarding of new hires as they feel welcomed and appreciated in the organization, resulting in prolonged performance and productivity.
STEP 4. Give your new hires direction
You should be on the frontline leading the new hires on how to do tasks in an organization by setting clear expectations.
According to Gallup's research, the effectiveness of an onboarding program depends on the manager's active role in the process.
Clear guidance helps new employees understand organizational goals, how to achieve them, and the evaluation criteria for their progress. A close guidance during the orientation process helps new hires understand their role in helping the organization and realize its vision.
STEP 5. Help new employees get early wins
Managers should focus on helping new hires get an early win because early wins help them build confidence and fit the culture quickly.
New hires have the urge to prove that they can perform their new roles. You should guide them in areas where they can score wins consistently based on organizational culture.
Consistent early accomplishments will help new hires onboard effectively with the organization and create a bond with their colleagues.
STEP 6. Help your new hires see their future in the company
Help your new employees build psychological loyalty in your organization.
Onboard new hires by taking them through tangible evidence, facts, and explanations from people regarding their experiences in the organization.
Such reflections can help new hires build trust in the organization, enhancing retention. Let the new hires feel valued in their new company.
STEP 7. Pay attention to each individual new employee
Most new employees feel responsibility to the company and have urgency to learn quickly and drive results.
If you have hired several employees, after HR department conducts the general onboarding, managers should focus on individual employees and make each understand their roles to begin creating value for the business.
Managers should have on a customized onboarding plan for each new hire with a specified time to interact with their mentors. The mentorship is a great program to help new hires learn their roles and responsibilities.
Conclusion: Benefits of Effective Onboarding
Enhances employee retention rates and loyalty.
Increases organizational productivity with reduced time and higher performance. According to Gallup, employees who were highly involved in onboarding with their companies earned 147% more than their competitors.
Creates clarity on new hires' organizational mission, vision, and values
It helps the organization attract and retain top talents.
Encourages communication among the new hires and the current employees, fostering a conducive environment for new hires to thrive.
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