A Quick Employee Onboarding Process Guide – That Really Works

Being in a corporate environment, what do you think could possibly the toughest job. HR managers go through numerous challenges on a day-to-day basis. One of the most intense ones is hiring and onboarding new employees. Succeeding the quest of selecting the right candidate, although the talent crunch has become immensely important than before. A welcoming experience is vital for newer employees to make them pro-active and motivated. But how could you create the one? Whats needs to be included in an effective employee onboarding process. If you are obsessed with such questions? If so, then here you have a quick employee onboarding process guide the gives all your answers.

After devoting endless hours identifying, interviewing, recruiting the candidate, if the new hire goes for a better landscape, then all your efforts go in vain. You need to start from the initial stage. If the candidate accepts an offer, agrees with the joining date, but what if backs out at the last stage. A more structured employee orientation process and defined employee onboarding can eliminate situations like this. An effective employee onboarding system would increase employee engagement, retention rate, invoke a sense of loyalty and trust for the company, etc.

What is Employee Onboarding?

However, there isn’t any exact definition of employee onboarding. The meaning of employee onboarding changes from firm to firm. While the process usually tends to be similar, the time period and the tasks involved in making each onboarding process unique vary. According to Human Resource Development (SHRM), Employee onboarding is a step-by-step process of helping the new hires to adjust and socialize with the colleagues. Even learn attitudes, develop skills, attitudes, and behaviours required to function effectively in the organization.

What’s the real definition of employee onboarding? The traditional meaning of the onboarding process is as follows:

“The employee onboarding is an organizational process of transforming new joinees from applicant to employees.” The process ensures that paperwork is done precisely, hires adjust to the job’s social and performance aspects, and grasps the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviours required to perform the jobs exceptionally.

In Simpler words, the employee onboarding process ensures that your new hires get started on the right track. The employee onboarding process can be broken down into two categories, such as:

• Formal Onboarding:  A formal onboarding comprises tasks and procedures that abet the new employees to adjust with his/her new positions. During formal onboarding, new candidates are generally segregated from the existing employees to experience coordinated activities such as classroom training, socialization, etc.
• Informal Onboarding: It refers to semi-organized activities by which new hires learn about his//her jobs. Informal onboarding includes tasks such as one-on-one coaching, meeting with the management, colleagues, and minutiae of getting started with the company, such as receiving badges and equipment. Regardless of whatsoever the onboarding system chooses from, whether formal, informal, or a mix of both, getting new hires up to speed is really an expensive task. According to surveys, companies spend up to 30% of a hire’s annual salary during onboarding.

You might be wondering; how long should employee onboarding process go. The time-period of the employee onboarding process varies from companies to companies. Here is a guide that will help Hr managers and other associates design an excellent employee onboarding experience.

During the hiring process

Often hiring and onboarding are considered a separate process. New candidates get a first impression of your business during the hiring process. So, remember your customer experience efforts should be thoughtful and welcoming, the same as other onboarding processes. For doing so, you need to,

• • Write Clear Job Description:  Write a crystal-clear job description that gives your new hires a concrete list of all responsibilities.
  • Give your new hires an overview of how you will structure your hiring process and how much time each stage will take.
  • Follow Up Early and Often: Oftentimes, there are changes in your employees churning. Always there been the proximity of your employees shifting to greener landscape. So, it’s crucial to interact with employees at every stage of the hiring process.
  • Give Your Audience Full Attention: A close bonding between employees and the management makes the team more productive and goal centric. So, respond to any questions that your employees may have.
  • Give Employees Full Information: Your first impression on your audience could have a lasting impact. Give your candidates exact details and concise information, which eliminates the chances of further confusion.

During the Offer Period

• • Opt for More Personal Mode of Communication: Communicating offers via telephonic calls would be more personal and better than an email offer. It’s recommendable to schedule your calls ahead. Likewise, you won’t end catching your candidate busy.
  • A Warm – Welcoming and an Enthusiastic Offer Letter Would be Best:  Employees are the most vulnerable business assets. Your employee onboarding process is the best possible way to create an impactful impression among your candidate. If you have a welcoming onboarding process, your candidate will feel more enthusiastic and prepared to join their roles.
  • Minimal Salary Negotiations: Hiring skilled employees at minimal cost is a critical task of HR managers. But do remember to be courteous with the salary negotiations. Intense salary negotiation can be demotivating and confrontational. But when done accurately, it can help the business solidify relations with the employees and establish a core of mutual respect.

Weeks Before New Hires Joining Date

Prepare all the necessary documents, systems, software the new hires will need to perform their job well. Here are some of the guidelines you must follow:

• Documentation
• • An Offer Letter
  • An employee agreement letter
  • An employee handbook
• Set up employee’s accounts
• • Firstly, a company email.
  • Add in companies’ groups.
  • Create an account in companies HRIS software
  • Productivity software (Desk time, Asana, etc.)
• Prepare New Hires Tech
• • A laptop
  • Accessories he/she will need
• Ask for new hire’s phone numbers, photos so you can design employee IDs, business cards.
• Ask the HR department to call the employees before their start date. So, you can confirm their joining and can even congratulate them. It’s an initial stage towards establishing relationships.
• Ask the new candidates to fill onboarding, which constitutes details like meal preferences, if allergic to any food items, T-shirts, and offering a company t-shirt in the welcome kit.
• Arrange an office lunch to welcome the new candidates.
• Send the new joinees a welcoming note, informing them about what to expect on the joining date, such as HR meetings, team lunch, intro sessions, etc. Moreover, make them aware of the expected time of arrival.

The Day prior to New Candidates joining Date

• Arrange the workspace, set up the system, put a welcome kit. It’s recommendable to include the following items in your welcome kit:

• • A welcome note
  • New Joinees paperwork and documents
  • Office Notebooks, pen, t-shirt, if any office accessories.
  • A document briefing employee’s first-week work schedule.
  • Make sure new joinees work mail is functioning, so you can send work emails, meeting invites, and so on.

On New Joinees First Day

• Conduct a small welcome or intro session.
• Have someone be ready to welcome the new joiners
• Give your employees a detailed office tour. Moreover, introduce them to all department heads.
• Conduct a semi-formal meeting with the team so that the new joinees would have an overview of their roles and duties.
• Take the new candidates out for a team lunch. That’s how you can develop coordination, teamwork amongst the group.
• Give your new hires downtime, so they can set up their systems, set passwords, or just create new accounts.
• The next and the lengthiest step is the completion of paper works. Schedule time for paperwork.
• Now it’s time for new hires for HR meetings or discussions, which should entail details about benefits, payroll, company rules and policies, holidays, organizational structure, and much more.

During First Week of Employees Hire

According to a survey, 1 out of every 25 employees quit their jobs because of a negative customer experience. The first few months of your employee’s probation period is the most vulnerable one. Here are some of the guidelines which need to be followed.

• Conduct regular meetings.
• Ask your new hires the feedback about the onboarding process. So, you can improvise the onboarding process for future hires.

Key Elements of Employee Onboarding Process Flow

All your hiring efforts will go in vain if your candidates churn or opt for a better workplace. Hiring the right folks for the job is unfeasible without a definite employee onboarding process. There’s nothing to stun about; an effective employee onboarding process flow includes tactical and cultural elements. As you determine to bring vibrant change in the organization, you need to examine opportunities to enable, enlighten, and impassion employees.

• Enable: Enable, encourage and empower your employees to be productive as soon as possible by giving them industrial training, providing them with the necessary tools which will empower them to carry out their jobs in a more efficient way.
• Enlighten: Give your new hires an overview of the opportunity that exists with your organization and even communicate the reasons for choosing you. Moreover, train them for the potential careers available within the organization.
• Impassion: Passionate employees boost productivity and drive your business outcomes. Being an HR manager, find out ways to encourage your employees, which will grow the operational efficiency. Impassionate your employees by challenging them in productive ways, recognizing them for their efforts, and rewarding them for their success.

Importance of Employee Onboarding

An employee onboarding system is an ultimate business tool through which a new joinees is being introduced to the company’s social, cultural, and performance aspects so that the new hires get familiarized with the office culture quickly, which results in increased productivity, customer satisfaction, etc.

For most organizations, employee onboarding is just limited to completion of new joinees paperwork, documentation, and explaining process. It’s an immense mistake; doing too less during the crucial stage can lead to lower employee engagement, poor performance, declining turnover, and much more. So, what are the benefits of the employee onboarding process? What is the purpose of employee onboarding? How an effective employee onboarding process could give you pretty specific results. Let’s discuss the benefits of the employee onboarding process, which you are going to reap using the employee onboarding process:

• Higher Employee Engagement Rate: An engaged employee’s taskforce is the biggest asset a company owns. An engaged employee is enthusiastic, passionate, and always strives hard to go beyond their expectations, which results in increased productivity, profits, enhanced product quality, lower absenteeism, and higher turnover. But according to sources, only 33% of the employees are engaged.
• Strong Employee Experience:  While joining, new hires have great expectations from your firm or organization. The employee onboarding process is the best way of welcoming hires and making them realize their decisions are being valued. But do remember, in today’s intensely competitive market, a job opening is at an all-time high stake. There isn’t any shortage of job opportunities available. If the new hires aren’t satisfied with your organization’s work culture, they will soon switch their jobs and opt for the opportunity that suits them better. An effective employee onboarding process sets the pitch for the overall customer experience.
• Higher Employee Retention Rate: The term employee retention defines its ability to retain its employee for longer. An employee retention strategy includes all those practices which bind the employees longer to an organization. Employee retention is the topmost priority of the organization this year. Employee retention could be really expensive. While you should expect some sort of employee turnover, you can still improve employee lifetime value. An organization with an excellent employee onboarding process has improved the new employee hire rate by 82%. It even reduces workplace discrimination. To know more refer our blog on Understanding and Reducing Workplace Discrimination.
• Easier Talent Hiring:  A satisfied employee has a higher retention rate and even attracts strong candidates. An exceptional world-class onboarding experience doesn’t just only help in retaining talent but even has numerous benefits. A satisfied employee gives positive reviews about your business across several channels such as Google, Glassdoor, LinkedIn, etc. Moreover, they will recommend your firm within their networks. Employee referral programs are the best channel for sourcing as they are faster, less expensive to recruit, stays longer, and so on.

Final Words:

An outstanding employee onboarding process gives your new hires a dose of motivation and encourages them to explore new territories without any fear and hint of hesitation. The employee onboarding process benefits both the top line and bottom line of the business, like enhanced productivity, which affect your top line. Others, such as improved retention rate, can have a significant impact on the bottom line. Do consider your employee onboarding process as a never-ending process, as you will be implementing newer ideas as you will be able to gather feedback to improve. Sooner you will be going to reap more benefits from your employee onboarding process system.

The core of outstanding management is its employees. An exceptional employee onboarding process can ensure that their taskforce is satisfied and have increased productivity and positive worker retention. If you have any master tips for or techniques for an effective onboarding process. Share it in the comments below.