Employee onboarding – three most critical steps
5 min read
New employee onboarding is a comprehensive approach to orienting a new hire. During this process your new employee should not only get all information to function effectively within your team, but also feel welcomed and appreciated. But why do managers care so much about onboarding? According to Aberdeen's onboarding research report, organizations with a standard onboarding process experienced 54% greater new hire productivity, 50% greater new hire retention and two-times the level of new hire engagement.
First day at work. A new employee usually starts with filling the forms and signing papers. In the meantime, they are meeting the new team, shaking hands, smiling, trying to remember names, departments and stakeholders. Much time is needed to get to know people and their responsibilities. Before this happens, the ‘newbies’ may neither feel comfortable, nor be capable of doing their job efficiently.
Introduce your new employee on the company intranet home page. Let everyone greet this new person. Give your new hire access to the company structure chart and the employee directory. These tools show not only the corporate hierarchy, it shows the pictures, contact details and the location of each team member.
Every company has its corporate culture - dress code, office atmosphere, communication style, working hours and many other rules that were set or established themselves organically over time. Only those who operate in this environment for some time usually “feel at home”. For the new hires it is a gradual process of gathering information and adjusting to the new culture.
If you company has a knowledge base or an employee manual, create a special FAQ section for new hires. All new people in your team will have approximately the same questions; save your and their time and get these questions answered in one place. Don’t forget to add some humor to the document so that your new member doesn’t feel he reads just another boring instruction. If you still don’t have a knowledge base or an employee manual, you should seriously consider creating one. It gives an instant access to necessary information, reduces HR costs and helps in many other ways.
Your newcomer has survived the first week at work. But have you done everything to help him or her get on board? Does this person know all colleagues, have access to all necessary documentation or information? If your team is growing (like ours) you will regularly welcome new members. Onboarding will take much of your HR department time, since successful onboarding will take both time and effort.
Create a checklist of all the things that need to be done for successful onboarding. You can include: HR documents, access card, parking pass, computer setup, intranet account, introduction to the team and all other procedures which will help your new employee to become a member of your team. You can make a template and duplicate the task for each new person. It will both save your time and guarantee that your newbie will be happy and function effectively within your team.
If you are interested in free onboarding and employee engagement tools available in Bitrix24, check out our HR solutions page.
Step One: Who are all these people?
First day at work. A new employee usually starts with filling the forms and signing papers. In the meantime, they are meeting the new team, shaking hands, smiling, trying to remember names, departments and stakeholders. Much time is needed to get to know people and their responsibilities. Before this happens, the ‘newbies’ may neither feel comfortable, nor be capable of doing their job efficiently.
What to do
Introduce your new employee on the company intranet home page. Let everyone greet this new person. Give your new hire access to the company structure chart and the employee directory. These tools show not only the corporate hierarchy, it shows the pictures, contact details and the location of each team member.
Step Two: How do I fit in?
Every company has its corporate culture - dress code, office atmosphere, communication style, working hours and many other rules that were set or established themselves organically over time. Only those who operate in this environment for some time usually “feel at home”. For the new hires it is a gradual process of gathering information and adjusting to the new culture.
What to do
If you company has a knowledge base or an employee manual, create a special FAQ section for new hires. All new people in your team will have approximately the same questions; save your and their time and get these questions answered in one place. Don’t forget to add some humor to the document so that your new member doesn’t feel he reads just another boring instruction. If you still don’t have a knowledge base or an employee manual, you should seriously consider creating one. It gives an instant access to necessary information, reduces HR costs and helps in many other ways.
Step Three: Am I there yet?
Your newcomer has survived the first week at work. But have you done everything to help him or her get on board? Does this person know all colleagues, have access to all necessary documentation or information? If your team is growing (like ours) you will regularly welcome new members. Onboarding will take much of your HR department time, since successful onboarding will take both time and effort.
What to do
Create a checklist of all the things that need to be done for successful onboarding. You can include: HR documents, access card, parking pass, computer setup, intranet account, introduction to the team and all other procedures which will help your new employee to become a member of your team. You can make a template and duplicate the task for each new person. It will both save your time and guarantee that your newbie will be happy and function effectively within your team.
If you are interested in free onboarding and employee engagement tools available in Bitrix24, check out our HR solutions page.
