Create the onboarding program everyone wants to talk about!

The quality of an onboarding program can be indicative of the company culture, positive or negative, take your pick! The onboarding process is prime real estate to make a lasting positive impression with your new hire, and if your new hire is wowed, they are more inclined to tell other great talent about your company. Referrals from great employees are the best form of marketing you could ever ask for and the most flattering!

The onboarding process is a critical and key component for the new hire process that you want to be sure to capitalize on and not slack on! The first days and weeks of employment are meant to be an exciting time for a new hire as they embark on their new journey and new chapter in their life. Remember, a company may be well accustomed to hiring weekly thus going through the ‘routine’ constantly but hires typically only experience this process every so often and the impression always lasts! These first days and weeks set the tone for their ongoing time at the company, form a base line of their knowledge and an expectation of experience working for the company. Ensuring that this experience is all managed within the framework of a safe and inclusive environment is imperative. 

More often than not the onboarding process tends to be a rush to getting the basics covered and achieved in order to start getting a return on the employee’s employment with the company, ultimately, taking away from the new hire experience. And remember, the onboarding process does not start when the employee walks in the door, no no, it starts well before that!

Here are some great tips for taking your company onboarding experience to the next level!

Check in after the offer acceptance and before their start date

• Oftentimes there can be a good amount of time between a new hire accepting their offer and walking in the door. Keep your new hire warm and engaged during that time period. Consider a virtual team meeting before they walk in the door, getting to know one's coworkers before the big first day can make a lasting impression. Show your new hire your trust in their hiring by allowing them access to certain portals or systems so they can get familiar and read up on internal company and employee related literature.

New Hire welcome gift

• Personalize the experience by presenting your new hire a new hire essential pack on their first day. Great items to include are items such as coffee mugs, water bottles, pens, notebooks, and it does not hurt to have those items with your company logo! Proud employees often enjoy company-logo items.

Buddy system

• Starting at a new company can be intimidating, especially a large one, so pairing a new hire with a dedicated buddy to navigate the first couple of weeks provides them with one individual to go to for questions, first hand ‘lay of the land’ from a seasoned employee, and provides them an instant connection to help make them feel included from the onset. 

Streamline the paperwork process

• There is nothing more frustrating and arduous than a complicated and disjointed paperwork process. Analyze your processes and determine how best you can succinctly get the important documents you need from your new hire in a timely but hassle free manner.

Keep the presentations to the basics

• There is nothing worse than a day filled with long, arduous and boring powerpoint presentations by disengaged individuals. Spice it up! Disseminating onboarding knowledge does not have to be boring! 

Introduce new hires to key leaders

• Consider having different leaders of the organization come and meet your new hires in during the orientation presentations or take them around afterwards to meet the leaders in their element!

Personalize the ‘first day’ experience 

• Take your new hire out to lunch or plan an in-house luncheon on their first day with their immediate team to break the ice and get to know each other in an informal setting.

Develop a formal new hire checklist

• Map out timelines and actions that a new hire needs to take in the first few weeks of their employment that allows them to check off once they have achieved each task to keep them on track. If action items are located across various systems be sure to provide clear and fool proof instruction on how to locate all of these actions.

Create a lingo guide

• Every organization has their own jargon and lingo and when you are new this can be overwhelming. Help make the integration process a little easier by creating a lingo guide so they can quickly get up to speed on all those company acronyms that you write in emails or talk about in meetings!

Progress Check In 

• On a timeline of your choice, I recommend 3-4 weeks, the human resources representative (or comparable position) should make a point to check in with the new employee to gauge how their first couple of weeks are going and get important feedback. Perhaps the new employee does not feel supported by their immediate team members or manager and has concerns bringing it up directly, having a non-immediate individual check-in is a great way for these issues to be brought up. Creating a safe space for the employee to bring up any issues or concerns they are experiencing is key. Keep it casual and comfortable!

Hopefully some of these ideas have piqued your interest if you have not already considered or implemented them.

Another noteworthy comment to make is that we are in unprecedented times due to the Covid pandemic which has employers quickly pivoting from in-person to virtual onboarding programs. Stay tuned for tips around creating a successful virtual onboarding program!

Have other great ideas? I would love to hear them! Drop a note below to keep the conversation going!

**This is a personal piece written by Terri-Lynn Levy