How to get onboarding right

Strategies for successful onboarding

Onboarding new employees is a critical step in the employee lifecycle. It immerses people into your company culture, giving them a sense of belonging. A successful onboarding process can help reduce turnover and increase employee engagement. It will also have an impact on your company’s reputation.

Effective onboarding is a collaborative process that involves everyone in the company. It should be designed with all functions involved and communicated widely.

Here are some strategies and questions to answer for you to design or review your onboarding process.

Successful onboarding isn’t just about your new employees’ first day in the office.
Onboarding starts before their first day at work. There’s an opportunity to connect with your new employees as soon as they’ve accepted your offer.

What do you want them to know about? Without drowning them under too much information, or a weighty parcel of company reports and brochures, think about the things that make your company unique and the information that will be useful to them.

If you were to make your preboarding pack digital, you could share videos from business leaders and colleagues talking about the business, the culture and the work they do. You could add some department-specific content so that they have an awareness of the strategy and the goals they’ll be working towards.

When onboarding early talent, you could also give them access to a couple of training courses focusing on professional or soft skills.

Don’t forget all the contractual paperwork – make sure they receive everything quickly so that they don’t feel forgotten.

A robust induction will set the tone
That’s it, your new colleague is coming in at 9.00. Is everything ready? Do they have the equipment and the access to software, folders, etc. they need to do their job? A desk to work at? Not getting this right can seriously affect your employees’ experience and your company’s reputation. If you want to give something more, you can even offer a gift box (mug, waterbottle, notebook, snacks…).

But there’s more than that. It’s about bringing someone into a team and making sure they feel welcome. Before their start date, the line manager or a colleague needs to take the responsibility to schedule meetings with their key stakeholders, the colleagues they’ll be working with closely and external partners they’ll be dealing with. There needs to be a social event too (lunch or drinks) so that they feel they get to meet their colleagues on a more personal level.

Also ask yourself: what knowledge do they need to acquire about your business, products and/or services? Do they need to visit and spend time in offices, factories, warehouses, stores, partners? Do they need to attend a specific course or conference? Do they need a qualification to do their job that you have to provide?

If you’re onboarding early talent, also consider the professional skills and attitudes they need to develop. Early talent tends to require more support during their induction, and you could design a few days’ worth of training and business presentations.

Finally, you need a framework that will enable your new employees to plan their first 90 days in their job. They’ll need to set themselves short-term goals that are aligned to their role’s annual objectives, but also they also need a space to discuss their development and career aspirations with their line manager.

Getting it right
If you’re considering reviewing your onboarding journey, start by asking your most recent employees: What went well? What can be improved? You can also create a focus group of employees from various functions to understand what new employees need to know about the business and its operations.

Three months after they’ve started, take the time to ask your new employees to share their feedback. The probation period works both ways, and a terrible experience might drive employees away.

Written by Catherine Serusclat – Coach and Facilitator