Mastering the Art of Effective Onboarding for New Employees

Mastering the Art of Effective Onboarding for New Employees

First impressions can often have a lasting impact. Your company’s onboarding process is your chance to make an excellent first impression with new employees; it should be about making the new employee feel welcomed, valued and prepared to succeed in their new role. A recent report by Society for Human Resource Management indicated that 1 out of every 25 employees leave their new employment due to a bad onboarding experience. A lousy onboarding can cause a great deal of damage, as it can lead to the failure of a new employee, hamper workplace efficiency and change an employee's attitude towards the company. This can lead to high costs and, in some cases, increased turnover.

The onboarding process begins well before anyone joins the organisation and continues well after their first day on the job. Ensuring that employees have everything they need to succeed in their jobs and preparing training and activities to enhance knowledge and incorporate them into the team is an integral part of integrating new employees.

An effective onboarding program is a powerful tool for all new employees to settle in, get to know the business, and, perhaps most importantly, socialise with all employees. Ensure your new employees get the start they deserve by implementing these best practices on their first day of employment.

Introduce work gradually

Let's be honest. No one wants their first days or weeks thrown in the deep end at a new job. To ensure that the recruits are happy and are given more excellent prospects of success, they should be assigned tasks expected to take no more than three, six or nine months. If things are going according to schedule, each task's level of responsibility can be gradually raised. During this period, check regularly with new employees to resolve problems and amend the task list if necessary.

Assign a buddy

New employees will have someone there for questions and concerns when they are paired up with a buddy whom they meet once a week or twice a month. Choose partners who are good role models with a sense of excitement about teaching new employees how to work. Ideally, for new employees to feel comfortable asking questions about culture and team, they should be colleagues rather than direct managers or supervisors. You can have a buddy program of your own, formal or informal.

Revisit your onboarding process to incorporate feedback

Your onboarding process is not set in stone. You're likely to make changes here and there. Regular surveys or conversations with current employees are essential to gain feedback on your performance and where you can improve. Continue to improve your onboarding experience, and don't be afraid to evolve your processes as your company grows.

You have planned an onboarding process, but your new hires have experienced it. You can make your onboarding process more efficient by gathering their views, perceptions of experience and what they would like to know. You may also find it helpful to take a long view of the feedback and results gathered over time to build up an overview of your best-performing onboarding techniques or steps for determining which parts of this process need to be reassessed. You will always be able to adapt and improve and achieve the best possible results of your efforts by treating onboarding as a living, changing process.

Give a practical perception of the job

During the initiation process, or for the first few months of work, overstating or overselling a job may lead to problems. If the responsibilities or opportunities seem inadequate, a new hire with unrealistic or overly high expectations might struggle to cope. Before deciding to hire, ensure that your new team member understands what it means to sign up for this position, what you'll be expecting from him or her and what he/she needs to do if he or she is going to succeed. This way, you’re less likely to lose a talented employee who becomes disillusioned with the company or job.

The best approach to welcome and retain new hires is to have a robust onboarding process. An efficient onboarding programme may make a big difference in how successfully new hires integrate into the team and how satisfied they are with their jobs, even if it is simple to ignore. If organisations execute the shift excellently, they will likely witness higher staff performance, better morale and productivity, and increased employee retention and engagement.