The Ultimate Guide on How to Improve Your Employee Onboarding Process

With 65% of workers in 2021 seeking a new job, you may be finding yourself hiring more employees than ever before!

It can be so exciting to get new employees in your company, but the hard work isn’t done yet. You still need to complete a successful onboarding process that helps those new employees find their footing in their new roles!

What can you do to make sure that they are happy with the decision to work for your company? The answer is create a cohesive and consistent process that fosters communication and support. So… what exactly does that look like? 

Keep reading as we discuss some of the essentials that you’ll need in your employee onboarding process for higher retention rates. 

Get the Essentials Out of the Way First

You always want to get all of the necessary legal and corporate requirements done right away. This is important so that they don’t get forgotten or swept under the rug. 

Make sure that new hires have filled out any paperwork, completed crucial documentation, and provided any information HR needs right from the get-go. It may help to create a new employee packet that outlines everything they will need to do with a checklist of your company’s requirements.

Check out https://WorkBright.com/employee-onboarding-software/ to get some ideas on how to streamline this process and make it extremely easy for everyone involved. 

You also should be sure that your employees know other essential information, like whether the bathrooms are or how to get in and out of the building. These are things that seasoned employees often forget a new person may not know, so always think about what you would want to know as a newbie and relay that information to your new employees. 

Encourage Employees to Make Their Own Connections

When you have new employees that don’t know anyone yet, it can make things a little awkward and uncomfortable. To make sure that your employees are settling in well, you should come up with opportunities for them to talk to new and existing employees. This will help them feel like part of the team. 

You could do this virtually or in person, depending on what works best for your business. Some ideas include a game of trivia, a new hire lunch, an escape room, or a virtual happy hour. 

Always facilitate these so that you can get the conversations flowing. You will want to start by giving everyone an opportunity to introduce themselves and possibly even matching new hires to mentors so that they have a “buddy.” This will help even the shyest employees be a little bit more relaxed since they will know who to turn to with questions. 

If you’re planning to onboard a lot of employees at once, you can try to treat this as a cohort of sorts. They will be able to work with their mentors, but also with each other, to solve problems, ask questions, and share experiences.

Ask Managers to Engage More With New Hires

Many new employees will look to their managers for guidance as soon as they start at their company. Managers are crucial for helping a team feel like an actual team. 

If their manager isn’t really available or doesn’t seem interested in helping a new person, it can be a huge discouragement right from the beginning. This is not a good sign to new employees that they will enjoy their time at this company, so in some cases, it might become a red flag. 

To make sure this doesn’t happen, you need to consider the experience of your managers during the onboarding process as well.

Talk to your managers to make sure that they know what to communicate when you find employees for their teams. They need to talk to the new hires about things like:

• Department goals
• Team goals
• Their management style
• Priorities and expectations
• Key performance metrics

With this information in mind, your new employees will quickly understand what their role is on the team and how they can do their work most effectively. When someone knows what they are supposed to be doing (and how to do it), it is easier for them to be more productive and motivated to do their job. 

Draft an Employment Guide

A great way to reduce the nerves that a new employee might have before their first day is to let them start poking their head around the internal employee information as soon as their offer is accepted. 

Your new employee can look into things that will help them know what to expect before they start, such as your company values, what technology your company uses, and what the standard procedures are in day-to-day operations.

As part of your Pre employment Screening, you may also want to include a way to track the employee’s understanding of what they have learned along the way. A simple way to do this is by setting up checkpoints that you want the employee to follow as they navigate the site and ask them to answer simple questions in a virtual platform about this information. 

For instance, you can ask the employee to do certain tasks in your company’s preferred communication software, such as find out how to add their manager or figure out how to create a new chat, so that you know they are paying attention.

Not only does this show you that your employee is motivated to get started and learn, but it will also help them know key things that are helpful for those first-day jitters. 

Communicate the Process and Workflow Plan

Speaking of communication, it’s very important to communicate to your new hires what the process is for feedback over their first few months and how their workflow plan will develop. This is yet another way to make them feel more comfortable with the expectations that they have in their new role.

Generally, you’ll want to have “check-ins” regarding progress on a set schedule. A common option is a meeting between the employee and manager at:

• Two weeks
• 30 days
• 45 (or 60 days)
• 90 days

Past this, you may still want to have your manager check-in with the employee as often as needed if they are still feeling a little lost. Communication is key here because if your manager doesn’t know that the employee isn’t happy, it could lead to low retention.

During these meetings, the manager needs to discuss the employee’s work with them, their process of getting that work done, and their overall performance. This is also a great opportunity to talk more about what the employee needs, in terms of support or resources, to do their job better. 

Obtain Feedback From New Employees

It may not be nice to hear that your onboarding process needs work, but if it does, it’s better to know sooner rather than later so that you can make the necessary changes.

As soon as your new employees are done with the process, you will want to gather feedback from them to figure out what they liked, what they didn’t like, and what they think may have been a better way to do things. 

Think of this as an investment in future employees’ experiences. This data will give you crucial information into why hires might leave, what employees are looking for, and more. 

It’s best to do this electronically so that you can easily have all of your data in one spot to analyze it. 

Although it may not be as direct, you’ll also want to keep your eye on review boards commonly used to discuss businesses and positions. These include websites like Glassdoor, Indeed, or CareerBliss.

Your employees may still not feel comfortable giving you real feedback, but if you see posts on these sites that are referencing being new or just starting out at your company, it can give you additional information to work with.

Rock the Onboarding Process for Your New Hires

There are so many different ways to do the onboarding process when you need to hire new employees. However, there are still key things that you’ll want to keep consistent no matter what business you’re in to ensure that your employees are comfortable, secure, and excited about the job.

Even so, don’t be afraid to add a little flair and put your company’s stamp on your procedure. Once you test it with a few groups, you’ll learn more about what you can do to make it even better. 

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