The onboarding period lays the foundation of your relationship with your employees.
And yet, according to Gallup, only 1 in 10 employees strongly
agree that their organization does an excellent job with onboarding.
So what can you do to create a successful employee onboarding process and lay the foundations
for a happy and lasting relationship with your new hires? Let’s find out.
Hi, I’m Neelie. Welcome to another episode of Learning Bites. In today’s video,
we’ll discuss employee onboarding and 5 employee onboarding best practices.
But first: Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel,
hit the notification button, and like this video!
Now let’s get started!
Employee onboarding is the process of getting new hires familiar with
Your organization Your people
Your workflows Your company culture
After a successful onboarding process, your new hires have met their colleagues,
understand their new job, know the criteria used for appraisal, and have access to everything
they need to excel in their new job. In other words, they're set up for success.
That means a bad onboarding experience is one of the worst things you can give
an employee and is often one of the main reasons employees leave early.
So a well-structured and effective onboarding program is a must-have.
Here are five best practices that can help you get started.
Align it with the job description
Your onboarding plan should be aligned with your job description and job posting. It should include
why this position was created in the first place, as well as other information related to the role.
If the onboarding and the job description don't match, your new hire could feel like
they haven't landed the job they actually applied for, and could see them quit in their first year.
Use checklists
Onboarding is a multi-phase process that can take months and even up to
a year. Checklists are a good way to help managers
keep track of what they need to do to deliver the best onboarding experience.
In our in-depth article on employee onboarding, we’ve included a n example checklist that you can
use yourself. All you need to do is follow the link in the description down below.
Be data-driven
No onboarding process starts off or stays perfect. As your organization grows and changes,
so should your onboarding process. You can use metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of your
onboarding program and identify which aspects need to be improved or maybe even scrapped altogether.
Here are some metrics that you can use:
New hire engagement New hire performance
First and second year retention rates
And don't forget to also include qualitative data in your analysis, such as:
Feedback from new hires on the onboarding experience
Feedback from managers on new hires' performance
Reasons for turnover (collected as part of your offboarding interview or survey)
Be structured
Avoid overloading your new hires with irrelevant in formation by deciding
at the start which areas your onboarding program should focus on. Your focus areas
should be whatever your employees need to do their job well. This is
the foundation that will inform the rest of your onboarding activities.
For example, your onboarding program can include:
Your organization’s history, mission, structure, and culture
A brief overview of your customers The team’s responsibilities, workflows, and goals
Officially wrap up the onboarding
Marking the end of the onboarding can give new hires a sense of achievement.
You can have a final ‘onboarding’ sit down with your employee to cover:
Any job-related questions, such as how your new employees are performing
Their future at the company Their feedback for the onboarding process
And there you have it: 5 tips to give your new hires a great onboarding experience.
If you have tips of your own to share, add them to the comments below. And
don’t forget to like our video, subscribe to our channel, and hit the notification bell!
See you next time!