8 Best Employee Onboarding Practises Every Company Should Follow

In these fickle times that we live in, the onboarding process is essential to sensitive millennials who are most likely to be your new hires. As a CEO you must realize the right onboarding process is a lot more than just first impressions. When you spend time planning how your new hires get introduced to your company, it gives them the impression of you being someone invested in them. This will positively affect their future performance, their drive to hit goals and overall satisfaction with this new start.

This article has been written to help you succeed in these aspects. Consider the following 8 step onboarding process that will assist your new hires into integrating quickly into your company:

Before Day #1

1. Creating an agenda for the employee’s first week – this is much easier in planning this than it is to come up with with the new hire in the office waiting around. If you are unclear on what goes into this agenda, spend some time with the new hire’s manager or other teammates to decide which aspects are important. Realize this could be a great time to assign mentors or work buddies.
2. Welcome each new employee with a gift – to assist in allowing the new hire to feel like part of the team, present the new hire with branded materials on their desk. Easy ideas would t-shirt, work bag, pens, coffee mug or a notepad. This helps the new hire feel very welcomed and builds brand loyalty immediately.
3. Helpful information could be sent out – assist the new hire by clearing first day jitters. You can do this by clearly communicating the information required for the first day. Include details such as parking rules, office directions, dress code and whom to speak with when you first start your work.

 During week #1

1. Assist in getting the lay of the land – on day 1, help the new hire out by giving them a tour of the office. Ensure you include simple and essential information like where their workspace will be, where the bathrooms and break room are and where the copier and employee mailboxes can be found. Introduce the new employee to the other staff during the tour and encourage questions along the way.
2. Ensure time is spent on orientation – when you’re in dire need of help, it could be tempting to throw the new hire into a new project on day 1 as fast as possible. However, doing so can cause more damage than good – two feelings that should not be toyed with on day 1! If possible, try using the new employee’s first day to conduct orientation of sorts. Try having a few current team members take out the new employee for a meal while putting time aside for paperwork, casual chat, and introductory meetings.
3. Cover the right work processes – As the new employee’s first week progresses, ensure the new employee and manager meet a couple of times to ensure important work processes are discussed. Eg – new staff members must know email rules and protocol, communication requirements and internal decision processes. They will also require demos on using the various techniques and tools in the office that they would have to use on a daily basis like work schedules, productivity or internal communication apps. This would be the ideal scenario to set short and long term goals.

During the 1^st 30-90 days

4. Invest in training – while productivity losses are frustrating, a new employee’s 1^st 30-90 days must be looked at as an initial training period. Train all new hires in this time on all aspects from the ins and outs of the product line to the brand’s positioning in the market. The minute this introductory period is over, your new hire will be a much stronger worker than the one you threw in the deep immediately.
5. Job shadowing isn’t horrible – one of the essential ways to train new hires is to have them shadow your employees. However, don’t just focus on the employees in the new hire’s department. Cross training is essential and should be allowed by having the new hires shadow employees from all divisions in the company. This gives them a more holistic understanding of the way the organization works.
6. Create feedback opportunities – ensure new hires are aware they are free to share new ideas. They may not be open to it in the beginning but over time, all feedback and insights need to be encouraged.
7. Dive into review #1 – at the end of 90 days of work, you will be required to evaluate the new hire. From here, the new employee has to be fully integrated into the company working a full load. Spot weaknesses here. It will help you nip potential problems in the bud or terminate the new hire’s employment prior to invested resources running out.

 Allowing new hires to shine

There is a major difference between teaching and telling. The distinction is important when it comes to onboarding. Instead of throwing plenty of information at the wall hoping for some of it to stick, you could create an engaging program helping new employees begin contributing immediately.

Example – job shadowing could be made mandatory every 2 days in order for new hires to see the other employees in action instead of just being told the way things work.

While clear cut programs are great, don’t hesitate to provide team members freedom to be different and open to change. There’s a reason you’ve hired that person. It makes sense to encourage them to use their talents to add to your business. This will help new teammates to get going faster, assisting them to feel like part of the time sooner.