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5 Steps to Improve Your Onboarding Process

Are you planning to improve your onboarding process? The onboarding process may seem challenging or confusing especially if you have to prep up with small human resources and information technology resources. A well-executed onboarding process can benefit you by saving a considerable amount of time and effort – all you need is to ace the process and make it more innovative and interactive. 

The process of onboarding must be as straightforward and consistent as possible to lay a positive first impression for new hires. Additionally, an effectively executed onboarding process can also impact the retention of existing, high-performing employees and increase your revenue and growth.  

What is onboarding, and how does it work?

Traditionally, the onboarding process refers to an exhaustive, extensive, strictly informative, and somewhat overwhelming method of acquainting new hires with company policies. This is normally accomplished through a series of slides, forms, videos, sign-ups, and other documents. By stark contrast, the modern onboarding process changed the picture with more interactive, interesting, fun, and engaging versions that are even more effective in making new hires encouraged to know about the organization and feel positive about the new workplace. 

An effective onboarding process can heighten employee performance by up to 11.5 percent, as per Recruiting Roundtable. Gostick and C Elton claimed that 4 percent of new employees decide to continue with the brand after their first day at work. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Labor reports that “a well-structured onboarding program can enhance the odds of retaining new employees by up to 66 percent.” This should highlight the importance of the role of proper onboarding in your organization. 

The onboarding process may vary from one company to another, depending on its size, industry, regions, and other differentiating factors. These next five steps can help you build a best-in-class onboarding program that will not only encourage your new hires but build up their productivity and performance from the very beginning. This will allow you to get the most from your investment in recruitment.

Step 1: Automate 

We have discussed before that the onboarding process has been quite dry earlier. However, you can automate the entire process by strategically positioning and sequencing all the documents, including video training, presentation, forms, and policy information. Thus, you can lessen the burden from your team handling the onboarding program and make your onboarding process streamlined for new employees.

No one wants to be overburden at their desks by signing up and filling up tons of forms for the whole day. By automating the onboarding process, you can schedule the forms to be sent before your new employees’ first day. Once sent, they can fill in all the forms well before they get started with the first day. Instead, they can begin their first day at work with the more engaging and exciting parts of the onboarding program.

Step 2: Make your new employees feel special. 

You need to demonstrate to your new employees the capacity in which they are needed and how they directly contribute to your business. When employees feel needed, they tend to feel more positive. They then will be more likely to stay with your organization. Many organizations welcome new employees with customized gifts they can take home with them. Some go the extra mile to send them personalized gifts even before their first day to remind them how exciting and happy to welcome their new employees. This feature also sets an example of the nature of the work culture they are getting into. They can then start their first day without feeling overwhelmed or daunting about the new workplace. 

Step 3: Create a personal experience to alleviate anxieties

There is another way you can make your onboarding program easy and exciting for your new employees to avoid the feeling of first-day anxiety. You can ask your receptionist or front-office employee to greet them by their name to create a sense of familiarity and ask them to personally escort new employees from the front-office to their workstation planned. 

You can also streamline and grant digital office access leveraging a cloud-based or automation system to prevent them from getting stuck outside or waiting for someone to help them enter inside. Additionally, you can also ensure their physical security by –

  • Providing with a roster to reach the office safely. 
  • Introduce new hires with their respective teams
  • Encourage everyone in your office to introduce themselves
  • Give an introduction to the new employees and give details about their new job
  • Plan a lunch together to help them spend some quality time with their manager
  • Make efforts to prepare their workstation before they arrive

These small and meaningful activities will help you make your new employees feel welcomed and special in their new workplace and role.

Step 4: Make it Interactive.

Another great way of getting your new employee to feel welcome and optimistic about the new job and work culture is to turn your onboarding process interactive. Gamification is a highly popular trend and proven effective in keeping your new employees engaged during onboarding. 

Many companies make their onboarding program fun by including games, costumes, music, skits, and others while introducing their new employees into their company. You can also set up a scavenger hunt game for your new employees to become acquainted with the new work culture and industry jargon. 

Step 5: Discuss what and how they can be successful.

The final step to improving your onboarding process is by providing a strategic approach to sharing your new employees’ goals.

According to Global HR Research (GHRR), one common thing your new employees can be curious about are the things they will learn about their job title, requirements, and how they can be successful in their new role. The onboarding program provides an opportunity to help them understand significant priorities and goals. It is of the utmost importance that they can begin to understand how they can achieve those goals on the first day. Hence, your onboarding process must include discussions on the following and define expectations for his or her role:

  • Define the team’s goals along with key performance indicators (KPIs).
  • Discuss their individual KPIs.
  • Instruct managers or subject matter experts to discuss their techniques.
  • Discuss any bonus or incentives achievable by meeting clearly defined goals. 
  • Discuss the performance appraisal process, promotion criteria, resources they can use to get there, and what it takes to rise to the next level-up.
  • Help new hires understand how and what high-level decisions are made in your company.

Conclusion

As all of those critical elements work together to make a robust onboarding process, your team is going to be working behind-the-scenes to make sure it’s all going smoothly. The only areas left to determine are who are the individuals responsible for the multitude of small moving parts that compose your onboarding process? How are they currently being implemented? How would you currently rate your onboarding process or program? In case you need professional assistance with an onboarding program in your organization – we can help you! You can directly talk to our experts using the chat box or drop us a “Hello” at experts@marrinadecisions.com. If you want to reach us via social media, then you can simply DM us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter

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