Onboarding is a complex process that serves several different purposes. Chief amongst them are making your new employee feel a welcome part of the team and preparing them for the work ahead.
When you onboard new employees, it pays to have everything pre-arranged and planned. Without careful planning, hires are often left to their own devices, which can make them nervous and uncomfortable. It also leaves the forming of important professional relationships to chance and wastes a brilliant opportunity to shape and mould the individual into the kind of employee you want and need.
To help you plan and prepare your process, we’ve created this handy, step-by-step guide on how to onboard new employees.
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1. Pre-workplace preparation
The onboarding process begins as soon as an employee accepts the job offer. That means you need to be prepared and get the ball rolling as quickly as possible. Ideally, you want everything ready to go as soon as the employee agrees to take the job. This includes information regarding the job role, the employee’s responsibilities and their pay and benefits, as well as any contracts and agreements they need to sign.
However, some things can be left until a little later. For instance, the employee’s Day One welcome guide - which contains all the practical information they need for their first day - can be sent out nearer their start date.
One of the main aims of the onboarding process is to make new hires feel comfortable in the workplace. Starting a new job is a nerve-wracking experience and your company should aim to use the onboarding period to ease any early jitters. One of the best ways of doing so is by providing the employee with all the information they need. We often fear the unknown, so making sure the hire understands what’s going to happen during the early days of their employment will dampen any first-day nerves.
However, it’s important not to overwhelm fresh employees with too many documents. Think about practical considerations. What they’ll need to arrive (parking information, security information etc) and what will help them get started (login details, contact information, who they’ll need to report to), for instance. Over time you’ll refine what you put in this starter pack, making it more and more useful.
- Clarify job role, responsibilities, pay and benefits
- Speak with the new employee over the phone
- Ensure all paperwork is sent quickly, signed, returned and processed before the start date
- Provide all the information that the employee will need for Day One - start date, location, login information, what they need to bring, instructions for parking, dress code and a rough agenda for the first week
2. Day One Introductions
Though this may be just another day at the office for you and your team, it’s a big, big day for the new hire. Recognising this fact and making a concerted effort to welcome the employee and make them feel comfortable will go a long way.
The onboarding new employees process is so important because it lays the foundations for the employee’s future relationships with the company, management and other employees. A welcoming, thoughtful and considered onboarding process will get you off on the right foot, make it easier to forge effective partnerships in the future. It can also help improve employee retention.
With this in mind, we would recommend having someone ready to welcome the new employee and show them around a little. This is usually the manager or supervisor’s job, though some businesses opt to have another employee do the meet and greets. Everything should be pre-prepared for their arrival, including the employee’s workstation. You don’t want them to feel as though they’re an afterthought, so make sure you avoid having to quickly clear desk space or squeeze them onto another worker’s desk.
The morning of the first day will usually involve introductions with department managers, team supervisors and other employees. While a quick general introduction to the entire office is often a good idea, more in-depth, personal introductions should be kept to the employee’s immediate team and superiors. The rest can wait! You don’t want to overwhelm the new hire with a million and one names.
An introductory meeting with HR is also valuable. This gives the employee the opportunity to meet their HR rep and ask any early questions they may have. We would also recommend giving the employee a little personal time to catch their breath, relax and complete some basic administrative tasks. Taking an hour or so out to decompress and process things can take the pressure off.
Finally, swag bags have recently become a regular feature of the onboarding new employees process. They typically contain essential Day One information, as well as a few company-branded goodies, such as office supplies or a team t-shirt.
- Make sure someone is ready to welcome the new employee
- Prepare the employee’s workstation for their arrival
- Present the employee with their welcome bag. It should contain everything they need to get started and often includes the company’s “welcome swag,” such as branded supplies and apparel
- Perform introductions with the relevant manager and team members
- Arrange an onboarding meeting with HR and provide a space in which the new employee can ask any questions they may have
- Give the new hire a little personal time to settle in and complete basic onboarding tasks
3. Day One Settling In
As a new member of the team, a hire won’t always feel completely comfortable talking to other members of the team or approaching people they don’t yet know well. As part of the new employee onboarding process, you want to ensure that they’re welcomed into the workplace and aren’t left feeling lonely or isolated. To prevent this, think about organising it so that the employee has lunch with either their manager or members of their team.
It’s also beneficial to partner new hires with an experienced team member that’s willing to act as a sort of “mentor.” They can be the first port of call should the employee have any simple questions or issues and will also help them learn the ropes and get to grips with their first assignments.
Finally, any spare time should be used to check that the employee has everything they need to continue onboarding over the next few days. To help with this, you may want to give a brief rundown of what they can expect to do during their first week.
- Organise for the new employee to have lunch with their manager or members of the team they’ll be working closely with
- Partner the new employee with an experienced team member that will act as a suitable mentor
- Run through the “starter list” to ensure that the employee has everything they need to get going
- Provide a more detailed account of what the employee will be doing for the rest of the week and what you would like them to achieve
4. Making the most of the first week
Just because the first day is over and done with, doesn’t mean that those initial nerves have disappeared and the employee is perfectly settled in. Onboarding new employees is a long-term process that aims to look after and prepare the employee over an extended period. Though the first week will be primarily dedicated to training (we’ll talk about that in the next section), there are other things you need to think about during these early stages.
To demonstrate that you’re invested in your new employee and how they’re getting on, we would recommend scheduling regular check-ins throughout the first week. These don’t have to be lengthy conversations. Instead, they can be presented as a quick chat or an opportunity to ask questions or raise concerns.
It may also be beneficial to give the new hire a chance to explore the wider organisation. This could mean arranging meetings with senior figures in the company, such as the CEO if you’re a smaller startup or middle management figures in larger businesses.
The first week is also a good time to define an employee’s key responsibilities, explain the routine work they’ll be doing on a day-to-day basis and detail how their performance will be appraised. Some new hires will also want to discuss the future. Though it’s early days, understanding what the future holds and how they can progress gives employees something to work towards and demystifies the inner workings of the organisation.
- Schedule regular check-ins with the employee
- Send out a welcoming department-wide new hire announcement
- If possible, introduce new hires to individuals higher up the hierarchy and give them an opportunity to talk
- Define and set out the employee’s regular tasks and key performance indicators. Make sure they understand how they’ll be appraised and what’s expected of them
- Take some time to talk with the employee about their future. How can they progress? What awaits them? What do they want from their time at the company? What are their professional interests?
5. Offer training to bring your new hire up to speed
Training is essential if you’re to get your new hire up to speed and working as you would like. Though the employee may have experience in the role you’ve offered them, there are always differences in the way organisations operate and what management expects of its workers.
Though training is a key part of new employee onboarding, it varies so drastically from one company to the next that it’s difficult to speak in specifics. However, we would recommend starting with the essentials and building up from there. Consequently, you’ll often begin the training programme by talking about the company rules, safety regulations and the code of conduct.
Throughout training, you must make sure a new hire understands that they should seek help whenever they feel that they need it. This is a learning opportunity and should be embraced as such. As a result, communication is key.
While most training programmes are thorough and many will take up the entire first week of work, it’s also a good idea to try and set some starter assignments for the trainee. This gives them a feel for the work they’ll be doing, makes for a welcome break from training and helps them settle in.
- Dedicate the first week to training - you should already have a carefully-considered training programme in place
- Focus on essentials first, eg. company rules, safety regulations, code of conduct etc.
- Provide plenty of opportunities to ask questions and ensure lines of communication are always open
- Ease the new employee into the role by setting starter assignments to complete in between training sessions
6. Employee engagement is all-important
With the first week over, it’s time to think about the long term. The next few weeks should see the hire integrate into the team and assume their normal workload. However, that doesn’t mean that onboarding is over. Scheduling check-ins at the 30-day, 60-day and 90-day marks lets the hire know that you haven’t forgotten about them and keeps communication lines open. Arranging meetings with other employees and managers from across the wider organisation also gives them a more informed perspective on how the business fits together.
This is the time to get the employee’s feedback on the new employee onboarding process, too. A simple feedback survey allows you to ask what the hire liked and disliked about the process and where it could be improved. Responses must be as honest as possible, so it’s a good idea to communicate the value of constructive criticism in refining the onboarding process for future hires.
- Schedule check-ins for the next three months. It’s common for managers to organise a 30-day, 60-day and 90-day check-in with new employees
- Send an employee onboarding survey so that the hire can give you feedback on the onboarding new employees process. Honesty is important, so emphasise that you’re looking for constructive criticism that can help you improve the process for future hires
- Encourage the employee to meet a wider range of people from across the business. This could take the form of informal meetings or lunch dates
- Consider how you’ll reward the employee’s good work or progress over the first months of their employment
7. Think about long-term teambuilding
You can’t always organise larger teambuilding exercises immediately, particularly if you have a large staff turnover and regularly receive new arrivals. However, they are a fantastic way of integrating new employees into the team and building stronger workplace relationships. The same can be applied to more informal “mixers” and social events. As always, it’s essential these are inclusive (not everyone enjoys going to the pub), appropriate and in keeping with the business’ code of conduct and ethos.
Last but not least, you need to consider how you’re going to draw the new employee onboarding process to a close, without removing a new employee’s safety net all at once. While your scheduled check-ins will go some way to achieving this, you may also want to consider offering the employee more training opportunities. Alternatively, you could bring them in to work on specific projects that align with their professional interests or that they can learn a lot from.
- Organise team-building events that will help new hires integrate into the team
- Arrange social events just for employees - allowing them to get to know each other in a more relaxed environment and without the presence of managers
- Think about the ways you can tail-off the onboarding process. The extensive support the employee initially receives will need to be wound down as they settle in but you can’t do so all at once.
That draws our step-by-step guide on how to onboard new employees to a close. As you’ve probably gathered, much of the onboarding process is devoted to making new hires feel comfortable and welcome, while also easing their nerves. The most effective way of doing this is extensive preparation. No one wants to feel at a loose end in their first week, so keep them busy, ensure they meet their entire team and focus on getting them ready for the real work with a high-quality training programme.
We’ve compiled all of the above points into a single, downloadable checklist that you can find here.