New employee onboarding plays a critical role in an employee’s success and keeping talented people within your organization. Before you question the benefits of following a new employee onboarding guide, consider that Gallup reports:
- Only 12% of employees believe their organizations do a great job onboarding new team members.
- Up to 50% of employee turnover happens within 18 months of getting hired.
- Companies often spend six to nine months of an employee’s salary trying to find and onboard a suitable replacement.
These findings show that a great onboarding process for new employees can help businesses retain talent, save money, and improve productivity. The following guide should put you on the right path to onboarding success.
Understand the Goals of Your New Employee Onboarding Process
The employee onboarding process begins long before you hire someone. First, you need to understand the goals of your onboarding process so you can create a repeatable plan for success. Knowing your goals will make it much easier for you to fine-tune a strategy that works well for your organization’s unique needs.
Common goals of new employee onboarding programs include:
- Identifying the skills needed to do a job well.
- Finding the right person to fill a position.
- Collecting information and documents to make the hire official.
- Explaining performance expectations to new hires.
- Setting up accounts and permissions.
- Introducing new hires to the company culture.
- Training new employees so they have the skills to meet your expectations.
- Getting the employee involved in an ongoing project.
Onboarding doesn’t end once you get someone trained and working. You should visit them regularly to discuss their performance and get feedback.
A lot of companies confuse employee onboarding with orientation. The two can play complementary roles, but they serve separate functions.
Schedule an HR consultation with America’s Back Office to learn more about ways you can combine the benefits of new employee onboarding and orientation.
Attract the Right Recruits with Honest Job Advertisements
Attracting qualified applicants interested in your open position will help streamline your hiring and onboarding process. Start by writing honest job advertisements that explain what you need from applicants.
An effective job announcement should:
- Describe what your company does and what type of position you want to fill.
- Briefly explain what applicants will do if hired.
- Emphasize essential skills and educational requirements that successful candidates must have.
- Mention secondary skills that could make applicants more appealing.
- Offer an overview of the position’s salary and benefits package.
- Tell people how to apply, such as filling out an online form or coming to a job fair.
By following these steps, you should reduce the number of unqualified applicants that you get, which will save you a lot of time.
Explain the Position’s Expectations and Benefits
Employees need clear expectations so they know when they fail and when they succeed. If you don’t give someone an outline of their job’s performance expectations, you can’t really blame them for falling short of your goals.
You also need to explain the benefits that come with the position. Your compensation package should include a salary or hourly pay rate and diverse benefits. Make sure every employee knows what their benefits packages include. A strong benefits package can reduce employee turnover and save you money in the long run.
Contact America’s Back Office for an HR consultation that helps you streamline your employee onboarding process.
Provide Training to Fill Any Skill Gaps
Most of your employees will probably need some training before they start working independently. For instance, you might need to teach them how to:
- Use proprietary software.
- Fill out forms specific to your company.
- Communicate with team members and managers via an app.
Even someone with a lot of experience in your industry can feel out of place when walking into a new office. Make sure your training program identities all gaps in knowledge so you can get your employee started as quickly as possible.
Introduce the New Employee to Your Existing Team
New employees can feel out of place when they start jobs. They’re walking into a social environment where people already know each other and have complex relationships. The job might not require much communication with the rest of the department, but you should still introduce the new employee and give people a chance to learn about each other.
Developing a sense of belonging and camaraderie encourages employees to do their jobs better. A person who doesn’t care about letting down their manager will typically work harder to prevent a co-worker from staying late. The sooner people start forming bonds, the more productive the team will become.
Provide Ongoing Engagement to Keep Employees Happy and Productive
A lot of HR professionals miss this step, but ongoing engagement is still part of the onboarding process. You need to make sure that your employees understand their jobs and goals. Over time, requirements can change, so you need to keep them updated.
Ongoing engagement will also help you collect feedback that contributes to your organization’s success. A new person can offer a fresh perspective on your business processes. Ask them to give you ideas to determine whether those ideas are worth incorporating into the company’s standards.
Don’t forget to engage remote employees, whether they work outside of the office permanently or for a short period. Remote working can feel lonely. Checking in on people reminds them they’re part of the team and others rely on them.
How America’s Back Office Can Help
Do you want to make your new employee onboarding process more efficient and effective? Schedule a consultation with America’s Back Office. An HR consultant can help you choose turnkey solutions that make it easier for your business to focus on meeting client needs instead of dealing with human resources.
