6 Ways To Create An Exceptional Onboarding Experience for New Employees
There's a lot more to HR onboarding than "What time do I start?"
It's about helping new employees become productive team members. It’s about culture, about building a social connection and about delivering on the brand promise you made during their recruitment. With all the hype and build up that comes with attracting and recruiting the most talented employees, once the contract is signed, it can often feel like your job is done. However, getting the right employees into your workplace is only one part of the challenge. Keeping them there is more important! What could you be doing to create an exceptional onboarding experience for new employees?
1. Build on the excitement before Day One
As we all know starting a new role is exciting, but it is also very stressful. Reduce the anxiety by making employees feel welcome BEFORE they even start. This could be as quick and easy as a welcome email confirming details of where be on their first day, who to ask for, starting time, dress code etc.
Include a professionally compiled ‘Welcome to our Company’ employee handbook which reflects your company’s brand and culture. Here you could incorporate details on the history of the company, your vision and values, photos of key people, an org chart and basic FAQs on ‘need to knows.’
Be organised. A new employee will immediately feel undervalued if they arrive and nothing is planned for them. Have their workspace ready, passwords, logins, advice sent to their team etc. Consider adding a personal touch with a welcome item waiting on their desk, like a card or company branded item.
2. Establish a social connection
While it is tempting to allow most of the onboarding process to take place online - digital onboarding tools, induction videos and back and forth emailing can’t replace human interaction.
It’s essential that you create a face-to-face connection and have someone from HR/Admin as another primary contact who can assist with answers to questions on contracts, OH&S and policies and procedures. Formal meet and greets and introductions are important but creating the opportunity for employee engagement, to socialise and create friendly connections will help new employees ease into the workplace quicker and ensure that they look forward to coming to work.
Consider assigning a buddy to your new employee. This will help the person observe how current employees live the culture and will also help them to build relationships with their colleagues. Another option could be to arrange for some employees to take a new employee out to lunch during week 1, or to hold a morning tea (or similar) to develop a sense of belonging.
3. Make the time to set expectations
Set time aside to meet with your new employees within the first few days to provide answers to important questions they may have, such as:
What is expected of them in the first 3-6 months of employment?
Role requirements?
What does success look like in the company?
Who are your customers/ stakeholders and what is the current vision for your company?
Who are their team members?
Which other departments will they be working with? And whom do they report to if they have an issue?
What meetings and training should they be attending?
Develop a standard checklist to ensure all onboarding tasks are undertaken and clear responsibilities identified so that the employee takes ownership of the process as well. Providing this information right away and giving new employees the opportunity to ask less conventional questions will eliminate uncertainty and allow them to get a better sense of the company and their place in it quicker.
4. Show employees the impact of their work
Keeping employees engaged and motivated is one of the most challenging tasks managers are faced with. It is also a slippery slope – as if employees aren’t engaged at the beginning, it is usually downhill from there, so show them the impact of their work at an early stage. If for example, being customer centric is one of your brand values, then consider how you can include customers in your onboarding process.
Provide the new employee with the opportunity to set up a meet and greet with a customer or stakeholder, or to spend time listening to customer phone calls, so they can experience first-hand the direct contribution their work makes to the company’s broader mission. It’s equally as important for them to spend time getting to understand the role of other divisions in the company, for example, let a sales employee spend some time understanding workflow in your warehouse or on the factory floor.
Illustrating the connecting dots between new employees’ work and the company’s final output will not only give them a sense of purpose, but will make them feel like a valued member of the team.
5. Play an active, ongoing role
As it can take up to 12 months for an employee to really settle in and reach their full potential within a role, scheduling 30-minute meeting times in your diaries in advance to catch-up regularly is another great way to build rapport, encourage 2-way feedback and ensure that the employee is continually learning and growing. Be sure to make these catch-ups happen and don’t keep rescheduling!
At the end of the day visibility matters - the more comfortable employees are communicating with you, the better their long-term experience will be.
6. Deliver on your brand promise
Onboarding is the first time your new employees get to experience first-hand your brand promise and employee value proposition (EVP) that initially attracted them to your company. Be mindful of this and ensure that you are delivering on these promises.
Fulfilling your EVP strengthens the employee’s tie to you culture; whilst failing to deliver will leave them disillusioned and wondering why they ever accepted a role at your company.
When done well, the onboarding process will not only set up new employees on the path to success within your company and save your company money, but will also boost overall employee engagement and satisfaction in the long term.
“Employees who strongly agree they had an exceptional onboarding process are nearly three times more likely than other employees to say they have the best possible job.” – Gallup, 2019
Source: Gallup
Dovetail Brand Engagement specialises in developing unique employee onboarding strategies, aligned to your target audience and aimed at retaining the best talent; differentiating you from your competitors while enhancing your reputation as an employer. Find out more >