Onboarding is a new employee’s first impression of the company. If you want a new employee to bring in money and be useful to the company, rather than sit on their pants from eight to five, it is better to take care of effective onboarding.
What is onboarding?
Onboarding is the process of introducing a new employee to a company. It covers the period from hiring to full integration into the team and work processes. Onboarding is a key moment in the adaptation of new employees and has a significant impact on their productivity and retention in the company.
Probably everyone knows from experience how important the first few days at a new workplace are. They affect your further communication with colleagues, your opinion of the company, and your desire to work and achieve results.
The main stages of onboarding
For a faster and better onboarding of a new employee, you need to follow a clear sequence of actions and follow the following steps:
- Preparation for the arrival of a new employee:
- Documentation: Prepare all the necessary documents (contract, privacy policy, and other internal papers).
- Workplace: Prepare a computer, access to software, create a corporate email.
- First day of work information: creating and sending an email with details about the first day of work, including arrival time, office location, and contact information.
- First day of work:
- Meet and Greet: Organize a team meeting where the new hire can get to know the management, team, and other colleagues.
- Introduction session: an overview of the company, its history, mission, values, and culture is provided to better understand and create a picture of the company in the new employee’s mind.
- Workplace: An introduction to the workplace, including safety, workspace organization, and access to necessary resources.
- The first week:
- Training and coaching: training sessions on basic work tools and processes (use of the CRM system, internal communication platforms, etc.).
- Mentor: Assignment of a supervisor or mentor who will help the newcomer adapt, familiarize them with work responsibilities and rules, and answer all questions.
- Basic workflows: familiarization with the main workflows, tasks and projects in which the new employee will be involved.
- First month:
- Immersion in work responsibilities: deeper immersion in mastering work tasks and responsibilities, involvement in projects and teamwork.
- Regular meetings with management: regular meetings to discuss achievements, tasks, provide feedback and assess the new employee’s progress.
- Corporate culture: in-depth study of corporate culture through participation in team events, meetings, and other activities. Getting to know the staff and establishing communication.
- The first 3-6 months:
- Performance evaluation: assessing the achievements and results of teamwork, identifying strengths and weaknesses, and creating a further plan based on these results.
- Training and development: ongoing training, participation in trainings and seminars to improve skills and professional development.
- Support: ongoing support from management and colleagues to ensure successful adaptation and greater staff motivation.
This is a recipe for the perfect integration of a new employee into the team to ensure effective and long-term cooperation, as well as the constant growth and development of a specialist. This allows new employees not only to quickly adapt and understand their role in the company, but also to make as few mistakes as possible due to an understanding of company policy. Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of onboarding.
Benefits of proper onboarding
An effective onboarding process has many benefits that affect all aspects of a company’s operations and contribute to the overall success of the business. Below are more detailed aspects of each of the key benefits of onboarding:
- Increased productivity:
- Quick onboarding: With thorough training, new hires quickly understand their responsibilities and tasks, allowing them to work efficiently right away. You have to admit, when you come to work for the first day and don’t know what you have to do, it’s a bit depressing and doesn’t motivate you to achieve results at all, but rather the opposite.
- Reduced adaptation time: onboarding reduces the adaptation period and allows you to join the team and become productive faster.
- Reduced staff turnover:
- Improving the psychological state of employees: when new employees feel supported by management and colleagues, they become more satisfied with their work and less likely to quit. It also has a positive effect on the newcomer’s psychological well-being and makes them feel at ease and confident. The most important thing is not to overdo it, so that the new employee doesn’t start feeling arrogant and like he or she can do anything.
- Strengthening company loyalty: Effective onboarding creates a positive impression of the company and increases employee loyalty. And for any business, employees are the most important resource after customers.
- Improving corporate culture:
- Integration into the team: new employees become part of the team faster, which contributes to better interaction within the company and achievement of greater results.
- Sharing company values: Onboarding helps newcomers understand the company’s mission and values. This allows you to immediately create an approach to work that will comply with these rules.
- Reducing stress for new employees:
- Clear instructions: Providing new hires with clear instructions and materials helps reduce their uncertainty and stress related to their new job.
- Mentor training: Assigning a mentor to new hires helps them feel more confident and comfortable in their new position. They can always ask a question and get a clear and understandable answer.
- Establishing feedback:
- Regular evaluations and process adjustments: Getting feedback from new employees allows you to continuously improve the onboarding process and other workflows within the company.
- Meeting the needs of employees and creating a more comfortable working environment: Taking into account the opinions of newcomers helps to better understand their needs and expectations, which contributes to increased job satisfaction and, as a result, the achievement of new results.
Effective and proper onboarding has many benefits (increased productivity, reduced staff turnover, improved corporate culture, and resource savings). By investing in onboarding, companies can significantly improve the team atmosphere and the quality of work of new specialists.
Mistakes in onboarding
- Lack of preparation for the arrival of a new employee
- Solution: Create a checklist for preparing for the arrival of a new employee, including setting up the workplace, creating accounts in corporate systems, and preparing an onboarding package.
- Lack of familiarity
- Solution: Organize a warm welcome for the new employee, introduce them to the team, and ensure that they get to know the key employees.
- Lack of clear instructions and materials
- Solution: Provide the new hire with clear instructions and materials to help them understand basic workflows and requirements. Do this in advance and be prepared for any questions that may arise.
- Lack of feedback
- Solution: Schedule regular meetings to discuss progress, resolve potential issues, and provide feedback on the new hire’s work.
- Insufficient support from the mentor
- Solution: Assign an experienced employee to mentor the new hire, help them understand the workflows and provide support. It is advisable to free him or her from daily duties so that he or she can devote the entire working day to the new employee, rather than responding to him or her in between tasks.
- Ignoring the individual needs of the employee
- Solution: Take into account the individual needs and characteristics of each new employee to make the onboarding process as efficient and comfortable as possible. Ask the employee if he or she is satisfied with everything and what he or she lacks to feel comfortable joining the team.
- Lack of training and development
- Solution: Also create development programs in advance, which will describe all the working moments in simple words. And it is also advisable to create internal (or organize free) training and refresher courses.
Conclusion
From this article, you can understand what onboarding is and get important information to avoid mistakes and ensure that a new employee can adapt quickly and easily to the team. Onboarding, like offboarding, is an effective way to increase company loyalty and improve its reputation. It is also important to ensure continuous training and development of the new employee, and then the results will not be long in coming!
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