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An employee’s days and weeks at work can be stressful, chaotic, and overwhelming—and then there’s the new hire.Strike a confident, considerate tone by creating an employee onboarding process that is personal and positive without making it complicated. It should answer, in short order, the four main questions all new employees have:
While simple, how well your company addresses these “basic needs” questions will set the tone for how you operate throughout your new hire’s entire career. The point of a solid onboarding process is to increase employee engagement, loyalty, and tenure; without it, you’ll sink more time, energy, and money into the repeated training of new hires than you will other crucial aspects of your business—and that rarely works out well.
Here are five simple ways to make a positive impact on a new employee.
Your new hire should feel like they have a spot they can claim, whether it’s a physical desk or office or a place they can count on to place their coat, lunch, and personal items. It should be clean and posted with their name as if they were always meant to be there.
All technology set-up should be completed before the employee’s first day; nothing makes a new hire feel out of place than having things referred to as “John’s old laptop” or “Patrice’s extension.” All laptops, emails, peripherals, permissions, and phones should be ready for the new hire prior to her first day on the job; this makes training, troubleshooting, and everyone’s first week a little easier.
Your new hire’s first day started with finding a parking spot in a new place; it will take him a while to get the lay of the land. Unless you show him, of course, which is exactly what you should do. Don’t just show him the break rooms and restrooms; introduce him to people as you go, especially the people with whom he’ll be working closely. Before you part ways, give him a map that is labeled with everything (and everyone) you covered.
We can all remember our first days at work as we filled out form after form with the same repeated information. Benefits, taxes, job description, handbooks—more paper gets pushed at new hires on the first day than almost every day following. Streamline this process as much as possible with intuitive Human Resources software that allows cross-referencing, cross-checking, and no crossed eyes.
Go as crazy or as practical as you please here; even fresh office supplies bundled with a company t-shirt can go a long way to showing a new employee that you are bringing your A-game to the table, and that you are expecting the same from her.
And remember, onboarding isn’t just a one-day thing. Create schedules and strategies for follow-up, check-ins, and team meetings. Concerns and accomplishments in this period should be addressed quickly; it demonstrates awareness, responsiveness, and accountability, and lays the groundwork for employee success and satisfaction.
“You never get a second chance to make a (good) first impression” is common advice doled out to job interviewees or new company hires. Companies should also consider this when they contemplate how to help make their new employees feel comfortable while getting up to speed as quickly and painlessly as possible. A positive onboarding experience should begin on day one, promoting an easier adaptation to the company’s culture, increasing employee retention and boosting overall morale.
Here are four simple actions employers can take:
Hopefully, you utilize technology so you can avoid dumping an immediate avalanche of enrollment forms onto the new hire. Online onboarding will enable the new employee to complete most of the preliminary paperwork before the start date. Getting this out of the way will help make that first day more productive and enjoyable.
Make sure the new employee already has all of the necessary equipment and supplies in place — do not make them wait endlessly for a crucial piece of furniture/equipment/hardware to get them up and running. Having someone yell out, “Did we ever order a desk and computer for the new marketing guy?” doesn’t exactly make the new guy or gal feel welcome or respected.
Fans of the Seinfeld sitcom may recall an episode where George Costanza arrives on his first day at work only to sit alone and bored in a sparse, gloomy office. Suddenly, a man bursts through the door with a file in his hand and tells George to “work on the Penske file.” George awkwardly responds that he will, but it was obvious to the audience that he had no idea how or where to begin.
George could have benefited from having been assigned a mentor or peer coach to provide insight about office protocol, organizational structure, etc. Many employees prematurely leave a new job because of insufficient orientation and a manager’s unreasonable expectations. Mentoring goes a long way toward preventing the new employee from feeling lost or neglected by management.
Organize introductions to fellow employees at prearranged meetings, or schedule small lunch groups throughout the week. The new employee may have a hard time getting acquainted if everyone just eats their dry, tuna sandwiches hunched over their computers. Informal lunch gatherings provide a casual and relaxed way to meet other team members.
What else do you do to make a good first impression on your new employees?
Nearly a quarter of staff turnover happens within six weeks of starting employment, which wastes time and resources. When a new hire starts with your company, this will be his or her first chance to see how it operates. Clear instructions, timely responses from management and HR staff, and proper handling of new hire paperwork are important tasks that help instill confidence in new employees. But when your new hire is shuffling between departments during the first week of employment, it’s tough to keep track of where he or she is in the onboarding process.
The solution to this common problem is an automated onboarding system. You can eliminate unnecessary steps, automate your onboarding workflow, and get rid of extra paperwork. Four of the leading benefits of improving onboarding include:
When your employees understand their expectations, their performance tends to be much better. This is especially true of new hires, who are trying to adapt and learn more about the company culture and the new positions that they are filling. Take time to reduce ambiguity around policies and responsibilities.
Onboarding a new employee is often a process can bring stress to everyone involved. When the process becomes more automated, everyone involved can stay apprised of the progress and have a clear understanding of necessary next steps. Automated onboarding also provides the opportunity to discuss the company’s values and expectations in the new role.
If an employee feels confused or overwhelmed when starting in a new role, he or she might start to feel unfulfilled. When you can spend time with the new hire and provide information about goals and the company vision, you are laying a foundation for better satisfaction.
When new hires feel satisfied and have lower stress levels at work, it is unlikely that they will look for other opportunities. Stress reduction, job satisfaction, and improved performance all add up to the ultimate goal of higher retention rates.
Taking steps to improve your onboarding process is well worth the effort with the benefits that this kind of system can offer.
iSolved, a human capital management system, is all about eliminating paperwork, and its newest addition, Onboarding, does just that for human resources and hiring managers. Onboarding is built directly within the Highflyer HR platform, so you can sign in once and access all of the data it stores in the cloud-based system. When new hires feel like they are drowning in a sea of paperwork, Highflyer HR can help you throw them a lifeline.