9 Powerful Ways to Ace the Onboarding Process for your New Hires

Every business enterprise has been wondering the question, what does the best onboarding experience for new hires actually look like?

To define, onboarding is a process by which a new employee is introduced to the company’s new work culture. They get the required training to seamlessly finish the task and function independently in the new work environment.

Studies have shown that half of the hourly workers quit their job within the first 120 days, and nearly 50% of the senior outside hires fail within 18 months.

During a survey, the organizations perceive the employee onboarding experience tends to improve retention rates, productivity time, and customer satisfaction. This proves that onboarding is crucial to the functioning of a rapidly growing organization.

Now that an onboarding experience is paramount, how can companies master it while keeping it all low-cost? While it may seem challenging, know that there are multiple solutions.

After all, the people with a highly effective onboarding experience say that around 89% of them feel engaged in their work, and 87% say they have intense clarity about their role.

Some ways to make your onboarding experience effective are:

• Complete Important Paperwork and Share Crucial Information Before the First Day at Work:

You certainly do not wish to fill the new employee’s day at work with heaps of paperwork. Instead of spending hours doing the monotonous manual paperwork, automating these steps with employee onboarding software is worthwhile. This modern technology allows you to gather e-signatures for all the necessary paperwork. And the best part is that software helps employees speed up things like company policies, employee handbooks, and co-worker’s introductions.

• Make Out Time for Introductions:

First impressions make a difference- so if you’re looking to welcome the new employees, make sure to begin their first day with a meeting, which can be in-person or virtual.

Technology can assist in creating these connections even if teams work in different locations. For instance, the HRs may foster the IT staffing and onboarding process and help new employees become acquainted with existing employees through your virtual ice breaker.

Some of the possible ways are:

1. Team Trivia: Your human resource manager can have everyone submit a strange fact about themselves. The team will have to guess who’s connected with that fact.
2. New Hire Questionnaire: Invite the new hire to fill out a get-to-know questionnaire with all the questions related to their interests, favorite treats, and even hobbies.

Know that it’s essential for the employees to know their managers better than anyone else.

• Conduct a Buddy Program:

Workplace friendships can be a blessing in disguise for employee retention and engagement. In addition to giving the new hire a team introduction, assign them a new buddy and partner to help them become familiar with the company and the people.

An onboarding buddy helps new hires build valuable connections for not just the people but also the organization. Some ways of doing that are:

1. Giving new hires an understanding of the organization’s culture and structure.
2. Increasing productivity time.
3. Helping hires find more job satisfaction.
4. Providing more significant support from the new hire’s manager and the team.

• Send a Company Kit:

Receiving a company kit makes an employee feel accomplished and adds to the accomplishment of joining a particular company. There are immense options: coffee mugs, hats, notebooks, branded pens, company t-shirts, and many more.

Whether you select a small gift or something even more elaborate- make sure it’s relevant enough and serves meaning to the people receiving it. Just ensure that the gift you give isn’t something they won’t like, such as an ill-fitted t-shirt with an awkwardly large logo.

To make the right choice, ensure thinking twice about the message you’re sending. Does the gift help increase the company’s goodwill? Or does it integrate well into the company culture?

It’s all about making a wise choice in the end!

• Invite New Employees to Lunch:

Assist the new hires in building new connections by treating them with a company-sponsored lunch with their immediate team, department employees, or collaborations. For employees in a work-from-home or hybrid setting, send them a gift card or organize a video chat for lunch.

All this will shred awkwardness and ease the onboarding process. You can consider some ice-breakers like a trivia game or even warm up the conversation by letting the employees know the company culture, team, mission, values, and more.

Remember not to restrict these team-building activities only to the first day. Instead, make it a routine, so employees feel motivated and drive better results.

• Announce New Employees on Social Media:

Posting about new employees on social media can be your chance to put the new people in the spotlight and get some extra chocolate points with future candidates. It shows the world that you value the new employees and how proud you are to have them join your organization.

Post this as an announcement with a social media graphic that crafts the message by just themselves.

• Organize a Training Program for Remote Employees:

If your new employees live far away and you have no budget constraints, then consider calling your employees to the office for in-person training right during the onboarding period.

Suppose remote employees would not be at the location. In that case, the in-person meeting can nurture a sense of belonging, allowing them to meet their coworkers and become aware of the office culture.

For virtual onboarding, ensure

1. Teams meet over a video call.
2. Encourage employees to keep project management upgraded with everything new and latest.
3. Give employees access to instant messaging software like Slack or Microsoft Teams.

Turning a keen eye to these practices will build an exceptional onboarding experience.

• Take Feedback with an Onboarding Survey:

Has your onboarding program been capable of giving your new hires a worthwhile experience? Well, the best part of getting insights into your schedule is using your employee feedback to refine your onboarding program.

When evaluating the feedback, look for new trends and compare your goals to the employee’s experience. Doing so lets you determine the scope for adjustments to make the process even more effective.

To ensure the effectiveness of your program, you can take a quick recap of your onboarding presentation by asking questions like:

1. Company culture, values, and mission
2. Team integration policies
3. A glimpse of onboarding activities.

Nailing the essentials of structured onboarding and making the first day memorable are ways to smoothen the onboarding process.

• Motivate Employees to Employ your Language:

Every firm has its corporate language, whether through specific phrases or acronyms. Make sure to let your new employees become acquainted with all the necessary tools, and jargon employees use in your organization.

These may be used as business jargon or a manual for handling difficult conversations.

In Conclusion

General onboarding training can prepare employees for having the most significant impact ever. However, scalable training is the best way for an ever-growing company to meet your organization’s objectives and goals.

How do you channel these tips to your new employees? Consider contacting Voyager Partners, who specialize in IT Staffing Solutions and more.