The employee onboarding process involves training new employees for a certain period of time to familiarise them with the company and their job. In addition to having an informative purpose, onboarding also helps to engage employees by making them more committed to the company and feel a part of the team. In fact, a study by Click Boarding, an onboarding software company found that “69 percent of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experienced great onboarding”. So how can you make your employee onboarding experience as successful and seamless as possible? Read our guide to find out!

1. Onboarding should begin before day one

When you hire an employee, you want them to be familiar with the company and their responsibilities from the outset. Because of this, you want to make sure that you begin the onboarding process with them prior to their first day at work. Not only does this make your employees more productive and comfortable in their new role, but you also don’t need to spend as much time training them, meaning that you can focus your attention on other projects.

Your employee also needs to feel as though you have handled their arrival professionally when they start work. For example, if you’re hiring them to work in the office, you should make sure that they have an allocated desk before they arrive, as well as other necessary things like access cards or a computer. That way, your employee can get settled in right away and you leave a positive lasting impression.

2. Acknowledge and introduce your new employee

On your employee’s first day, make sure to properly introduce them to the rest of the team so that everyone is familiar with each other in order to make collaboration easier. Apart from introducing them to the rest of their coworkers, however, you should also take them on a tour of the work environment if they are working on-site so that they get to know the facilities on offer and the general space they’ll be working in during the day.

It may also be a good idea to connect your new employee with a mentor or onboarding partner who can communicate and work closely with them during the first month of their onboarding. This way, onboarding feels a lot more personal for your employee, and they are more likely to be engaged.

3. Be clear about expectations

Although your employee should know about the company’s mission and its values, it’s important to nonetheless go through everything that is expected of employees during the onboarding process, which can encompass things like the quality of their work or the company’s code of conduct. You should also take the time to schedule a meeting with your employee during their first week at work to see if they have any questions or concerns about their job, and act on them accordingly.

4. Create a memorable first day

Making sure that your employee enjoys their first day at work is vital to their engagement and retention. A simple but effective way of doing this is to make sure that they have a warm welcome: for example, tell them how excited you are that they’re joining the company, and try to encourage other employees in the office to reach out to them as well, whether it’s in-person or via email. You can also consider inviting your new employee to have lunch with you and other employees to integrate them to the team and also prevent any feelings of awkwardness or loneliness that can arise from being a new hire.

In addition, you can include some small gestures or little touches to make your employee feel more welcome, such as gifting a welcome gift, having a cup of coffee and snacks ready for them at the beginning of the day, or hanging up a small decoration at their desk.

5. Make sure there is a balance on their first day

While onboarding should consist of training and orientation so your new employee can familiarise themselves with their duties and company policies and procedures, you should try and spread this out over a few days or the first week so that they are not too overwhelmed at once. Make a checklist of all the things that you want your new employee to learn as part of their training, and then plan a schedule where you can spread these out for them.

6. Survey your new employee about the onboarding process

After your new employee has completed the onboarding process, you should ask them for feedback on what they liked about it and what could have been improved. By taking into consideration and acting on the feedback you receive from your employees, you can further improve the onboarding process for employees you hire later on in the future. This increases their engagement and retention, given that employees are more likely to stay with the company if they experienced a great onboarding as mentioned before.

Conclusion

Research shows that 69% of employees are more likely to stay with their company for three years if the onboarding process was great. This is because onboarding not only familiarises them with their job and the company, but it also helps to engage them by making them a part of the team and included in the company. Here is a summary of the tips you can do to make the onboarding process more successful:

• Make sure your onboarding process begins prior to the your employee’s first day
• Acknowledge and introduce your employee to the rest of the team so they become more familiar with their coworkers from the offset
• Be clear about your expectations of them, including the company’s mission and values, code of conduct and their work
• Create a memorable first day!
• Make sure their first day is balanced so they’re not too overwhelmed with training and orientation
• Survey our employee after their onboarding process is over so you can improve the experience for future hires