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Onboarding is one of the most vital things for any employee who joins an organization. Imagine being a part of an organization that is totally unprepared for your arrival. Sounds terrible, doesn’t it? Though it doesn’t seem like much of a deal, as an HR it is your responsibility to make sure that your new hire feels comfortable in the workplace.
When done right, onboarding can help you turn new hires into lasting employees.
Before we get into discussing the best practices for employee onboarding, it is important to understand that onboarding is very different from the training that is given to the new hires.
The on-boarding process usually includes the following things:
These things aren’t as simple as they seem to be. As a HR you should know, how challenging it is to make sure that a new hire fits into their chosen role. You have to constantly keep track of their progress and their compatibility with rest of the staff.
So here are few best practices for employee on-boarding.
There are three phases of employee on-boarding.
When you join an office, what would you expect from the HR department or other employees from the administration department? That they do their verification and know something about you and your previous work. Your primary responsibility in this phase is to collect details from the new hire and setup a suitable work environment for them. To be specific, this is what you do in this phase.
Verification – Verify the details provided by the new hire from their previous workplace, if any. This is important because you cannot hire someone who has given you false details. Background checks are always important in any field.
Work-station – Setup a work station suitable for them depending on their work profile. Put little effort and setup a personalized workstation with adequate amount of stationery.
Agenda – Set up an agenda for them. This can be a rough sketch of how the new hire is going to contribute to the organizational success. Here you set up goals for their role. And how these goals, when fulfilled, will meet the goals of the company as a whole.
Welcome – Send them a personalized welcome message (e-mail) welcoming them to your organization. Make them feel happy that they were chosen by your company.
“Hey, there’s a new hire who’s going to join us today. You know that, don’t you? Make sure that the on-boarding goes good”, says your boss. You must be wondering, it’s just another new hire and they’ll find their way somehow, what else would you do as a HR to get the employee on-boarding right? Well, here’s what you can do when you have new hires joining your company.
Complete The Joining Process – Complete all the procedures and paperwork related to the on-boarding of the new hire. This is one of the basic things that every HR manager does when they have a new hire. Make sure to collect all the documents without fail and provide them an ID or a swipe card which is necessary for office access.
Introduce To The Staff – Having a good relation with co-workers is as important as having a good relation with your manager. As a HR, you just have to introduce the new hire to the existing employees and give them an opportunity to get along with each other. You might not want the person to just report to their manager and ignore rest of the team.
If possible conduct a team lunch to welcome the new hire to the team. This is one way for them to get to know with whom they are working and to understand the company culture.
Organize A Training Schedule – A new hire should be taken as a trainee for initial 30 to 40 days. Set up a strict training schedule for them and understand if they are able to get along with the way the team works at the office.
Training is an opportunity for you to find out the capabilities and skills of an employee and how well they can work under pressure. It is a chance for them to contribute their opinions and ideas.
Provide Them With Necessary Resources – You cannot expect these new hires to get along with your working processes without providing them with the adequate amount of resources.
When we say resources, it can be any learning material or training them how to use the software and apps that are being used by the team frequently. With so much online training options available, you can give them access to Udemy, Coursera, edX, etc.
The first week/month of joining is very exciting and important for any new hire. But for a HR, it’s more than just a responsibility. There is need to keep track of the training being conducted and how well the new hire is able to get along with their co-workers. Here’s what you do in this phase of on-boarding.
Track The Training – Like said before, training is very important to any new hire no matter how experienced they are. Employees in every organization have own style of working and not everyone can fit into the dimension.
So, training helps you understand if the new hire fits into your work culture. In this phase of on-boarding, you have to keep track of the new hire’s performance and the way they are opening up to their managers.
Collect Feedback – To know about their performance, you should meet with the trainers and keep track of the new hire’s performance. Not just this, you should frequently talk to the new hire and find out if they have something to say, maybe some suggestion, feedback or any vital information about their training.
Post-boarding Activities – These activities are important to turn your new hires into long lasting employees. These are basically employee engagement activities, which will also help the new hire to feel like a valued part of the organization.
Do you think we have missed out on any other best practices? Help us with your suggestions in the comments section below. Do you want to know how Engagedly can help you with employee on-boarding?
