Improved onboarding

You might be just a few small steps away from much-improved employee onboarding

Looking back over your career, what would you say your own predominant experiences of the employee onboarding process have been? When starting a new job, have you usually found yourself simply going through dry procedural matters with a HR staffer, before being directed to your desk and left to fend for yourself? Or are you accustomed to a rather warmer, pleasanter and even enjoyable onboarding process that is memorable for all of the right reasons?

If the latter more accurately describes your past encounters with the onboarding process than the former, you have probably been quite fortunate in your career to date.

Sadly, all too many employers don’t seem to recognise just how important it is to get their onboarding approach right. So, how can you enhance your own firm’s onboarding strategy in a manner that makes the lives of all of your employees – not just the newcomer – a little easier?

 

It’s true, what they say about first impressions

Most of us know that the initial contact we have with someone can be one of the most memorable and powerful stages of our relationship with them.

While the onboarding phase probably won’t represent your first face-to-face contact with the candidate, it is still a vital stage, as you will have both decided by now to work together. It is therefore crucial to leave your new staffer with the impression that you genuinely value them, rather than only up to the point of them signing on the dotted line of an employment contract.

It is truly the little things that can often make the biggest difference here. You shouldn’t leave your new arrival waiting in the reception area for an hour on their first day, and you should be sufficiently well-prepared to know what to do and say, and when. It is also ideal to spend more than just a few minutes talking to them about their new role, before they commence their work for you in earnest.

Remember that you need to establish a trustful rapport with your new worker from the beginning, so that they feel comfortable communicating any concerns to you. All in all, it is your job to equip your new staffer with everything they require to be a success at your company.

 

Nor should onboarding be restricted to the first day

Remember that it’s the first few days and weeks that will be especially precious to your employee as they gradually adjust to their new responsibilities. Your onboarding strategy therefore shouldn’t come to an abrupt halt at 5pm on the first day. It pays, instead, to think about it as a procedure rather than a single task, potentially lasting for months, depending on the specific needs of the company and staffer.

Ultimately, there are many more ways in which you can enhance your employee onboarding that we could not hope to cover in a single article. This is why you should always investigate the many other potential opportunities for optimising your firm’s onboarding – including looking at applicant tracking systems, like our own software, Webrecruit ATS, that include a dedicated onboarding module.

 

Why not book your demo of our fully-featured and easy-to-use recruitment and onboarding software today, so that you can swiftly get to work on further refining your firm’s approaches to both of these crucial areas, whatever the stages at which they may presently be?



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