Employee’s Onboarding

Introduction

Converting the promising candidates into top-rated employees with a systematic and purposeful process is called an employee onboarding process. The carefully planned onboarding steps for employees help them to build relationships, and tools to get settled and comfortable in the company to perform their work. The onboarding tool such as Sapling helps to automate the workflows of employees which helps the employer to create positive employee experience. This starts from the recruitment process where a candidate thinks of working with you  and your company. The onboarding experience of an employee basically sets out the tone for their entire career through experience gained by them during their tenure at your company. A bad experience can lead to early departures whereas a good experience can kick off long-term happiness.

Employee Onboarding Process 

A successful onboarding process requires elaborative, well documented and deliberate steps. The below are the steps an employer should use for the onboarding process of an employee. These steps can be supplemented with the company culture to provide a better onboarding experience to an employee. 

1. New employee recruitment:The recruitment practice of a company shall help the candidate to understand and get a clear picture of the role required to be performed by the employee. It shall also provide an idea about the company’s values, culture, mission and people. The recruitment practices should leave employees with a clear sense of what your company wants in a role and also who you are as a company—your missions, values, culture, and people. The company can do so by reviewing their website, job description or any interview questions from the perspective of a candidate. The company’s endeavor should be to provide clear and accurate information to a prospective employee. The employer should be transparent about the policies of the company which includes scheduling policies, remote work policies, and vacation policies.

The employer should review its employment processes, procedures, and policies with its internal human resources team or with outside help from Bambee HR.

2. First Office visit:the new employee shall be provided with the transparent glimpse of the day in the life at their office.The employees are highly affected by the environment at the workplace. Workspace compatibility could even indicate a candidate’s overall compatibility with the company culture and work styles. Therefore, the best practice is to show the candidate the place of working and the equipment they will be using etc. They should be given a chance to look around and put questions in case of any doubt about the workplace. The employer should also introduce the candidate to everyone they come across.

3. An Offer Letter: THe employer should appreciate that the candidate chose the particular employer over other employers. The extension of the job letter to the employee indicates that the employer values the new hire and its talent. A message to an employee that the employer can’t wait to work with the employee drives the true sentiment of the employer. The employer should highlight the job responsibilities, requirements and expectations from their role.

4. Early onboarding for new employees: Tell the candidate that his decision to join the company is worthwhile. The official onboarding of an employee starts when the candidate signs the offer letter. There should be a 2-3 weeks window period between the acceptance and the start date. To achieve this, the employer should encourage the hiring managers to track the candidate’s experience. Some information which can be shared with the new employee includes:
   
   1. An itinerary for the first week
   2. Company’s email address and phone number 
   3. Access to the company’s communication tools
   4. Checklist of assignments and goals for the first week.
   5. Information highlighting work anniversary celebrations and other events unique to your company.
   6. Send welcome email quotes to the candidate mentioning why they’re excited to work with the new hire.
   7. Allow the new hire to ask any questions or concerns.

5. Welcoming new hires on Day 1: Share a personal experience that helps the new candidate feel comfortable, welcomed, and appreciated. Plan to conduct personal meetings with the new hires gives a personal feeling. This can be achieved by
   1. Scheduling “bookend” meetings to check in with the new hire.
      1. 30 minutes the first thing in the morning for a welcome
      2. 30 minutes at the end of the day for a debrief 
   2. Schedule a team lunch or virtual lunch with the new hire’s immediate team. This lunchtime should mainly focus on informal talks and not work details. 
   3. A welcome kit to be given to the new hires which includes apparel and office supplies, customized with your company’s brand, colors, and logos.
   4. An ice-breaking session to make their first team meeting memorable. The session attendees may get an Icebreaker Box — packed full of delicious snacks, icebreaker questions, and customizable greeting cards.
   5. Supply videos, web pages, or other documentation that features leadership presentations, your company’s mission, history, and other stories that bring your organization to life. In order to make the onboarding and training process a breeze, you may create personalized employee onboarding videos in practically no time. Here you can learn more about how you can do that only by adding the text you want to share, with no additional equipment or skills being necessary.
6. Onboarding and Orienting New Employees in the First Weeks: Help new employees understand the expectation from them in their new role and also envision future possibilities. The best practice to achieve this is by
   1. Sending out a hire announcement.
   2. Scheduling “meet and greets” with collaborators and teams across the company.
   3. Scheduling “meet and greets” with company leaders or top performers so new hires can hear their stories and learn from their experiences.
   4. Make a list of regular tasks, goals for the first year, stretch goals, and key performance indicators.
   5. Provide information about the growth potential for their specific position or upward mobility at the company in general. If someone was promoted from the new hire’s position, have that person share some insight about their experience.
7. Ongoing Employee Engagement & Team Building: Opportunities should be given to the new employees to build key relationships. There should be ample opportunities for the new hires to make connections across the office. To achieve this,
   1. Organize team-building events.
   2. Complete 1-week, 30-day, and 60-day pulse check-ins to find out how new hires feel overall and also find out if they have the specific support, resources, and equipment they need to work efficiently and effectively.
   3. Ask direct managers to establish a regular check-in schedule—a long-term must-do for all employees.
   4. Randomly pair the new employee with people across the company for virtual coffee

Conclusion

The process detailed above makes the employee onboarding a soothing experience to turn them into top-rated employees of the company. Apart from this, it helps in setting an image of the company and also highlights the experience of the employee at the workplace.

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Along with this document, make sure you see these other templates in our library:

• Can an employee resign without a resignation letter?
• Probationary Period
• Employers’ guide to notice periods
• Employers’ guide to dismissing employees