Onboarding is a very crucial part of a business. According to Glassdoor, when a business has a great onboarding system, employees’ productivity increases by a whopping 70%.
If you think messing up with onboarding is no big deal, think again. After all, you're the one missing out if your employees look for other opportunities. Yes, you need them to get up to speed in your business, but that doesn’t mean you have to overwhelm them.
Here are five steps on how you can properly onboard new recruits:
Prepare in advance
Preparation for the onboarding process starts even before the first day of new recruits. You must take care of a few things and prepare everything they need in advance. These include:
- Paperwork: Employees and employers alike find paperwork boring. Make sure things like the contract, forms, payroll records, and the likes are ready beforehand.
- Workspace: Prepare the necessary equipment for their roles such as a computer, phone, network access, supplies, etc. You can even give a welcoming gift if you like.
- Guide Materials: If there are a lot of technical terms that must be studied, you have to inform the new recruit in advance. A good way to do this is by preparing a guide material that’s easy to digest.
Except from the physical workspace, most preparations for the onboarding process can be taken care of using cloud computing platforms. In fact, CloudTutorial says that cloud computing is especially beneficial to data-driven businesses.
If your business belongs to this category, make sure your company has a management system in place. You can start with their post on knowledge management systems.
If you want to use the full potential of technology and automation, you can also implement an employee onboarding software that makes the whole recruiting process much easier.
Be clear about their responsibilities
More often than not, employers overlook the part where they discuss their expectations of the new recruits. Chances are the greenhorns will have thoughts like are they not doing enough or are they trying too hard.
Although by itself, it’s not harmful to your business, setting the bar too low or too high for other employees will only result in a loss not only for you but also for the recruits.
Either way, you have to be clear about your expectations, and a good place to start is with their responsibilities—provide a detailed job description, discuss their roles, and make sure they’re comfortable with the conditions.
Now that you’ve said what needs to be said, make sure you adhere to the conditions. If possible, the first task should be small and achievable. Only assign them to difficult tasks once you know they can handle it, but make sure they’re able to finish it before the deadline.
Introduce the company culture
Once you properly welcome the new recruits, it’s time for the actual onboarding process. Your first responsibility as the employer is to introduce them to the company culture.
Company culture is what sets apart each business from one another. Every factor that makes your firm different from the business beside you. Regardless of the new recruit’s past experience, they won’t be familiar with your company culture. Below are some of the things they need to know:
- Lingo: All companies will have a lingo consisting of different terms and new recruits most likely won’t know what these terms mean so start with that.
- Traditions: Celebrations. Day offs. Community projects. Most businesses have their own traditions that makes them unique.
- Mission Statement: Knowing the reason for the company’s existence should be a major concern for all employees.
Another aspect of company culture that you must never forget to introduce is the rewards or recognition system. This business component has the potential to make a huge change in an employee’s mindset, and most of the time, it’s what motivates them to work better.
Ask your current employees for help
Onboarding new recruits is a team effort, so don’t take all the responsibility. Ask your current employees for help, or at least make them aware that they must treat new recruits kindly.
Working can be exhausting, so the new recruits should have some friends among their coworkers. By seeking help from your other employees, you’re giving the greenhorns more chances of building internal networks within the company.
Exchange feedback
It’s also important to know how they’ve been doing so far. The best way to do this is by being blunt and ask the for feedback after the onboarding process or during its late stages. At that point, they should be closer to you, which makes it easier for them to voice their opinions.
In exchange, you can provide them with feedback as well. Doing so will help both sides gain insightful information which you can then use for future recruits.
Final Words
Having a good onboarding system not only helps the business productivity, it also provides new recruits a better workplace which may result in your company having a better reputation. As long as you have a good reputation, you won’t ever have to worry about manpower because jobseekers will be the ones looking for your business.