The step-by-step guide to new hire onboarding
The step-by-step guide to new hire onboarding
Table of contents
New hire onboarding is like a foundation. It gives your new team members the tools and knowledge they need to succeed in the company.
Good onboarding actually starts before day one. Advanced access to tools and an overview of the training schedule is a good pre-employment training kit.
Welcome emails, a pre-start meet the team call, useful resources and an online guide all help your new hires integrate more effectively. But you need to go further and invest in onboarding the same way you invest in recruitment.
Onboarding begins with a commitment to invest in your team’s success. If you want your onboarding to work, you need to carefully unpick your induction process. Redefine what success looks like for new hires and determine the best way to deliver that.
The real onboarding challenges are not administrative but psychological. Understanding the impact of some essential components is key to a relevant, sustainable, and thoughtful onboarding experience.
Communicate
If new hires get silence from you between accepting the offer and starting the job, you’re already sending the wrong message. It is important to keep your new employee engaged during that time. It can help to ease their anxieties and to get enthused about your company.
A nice welcome and introduction email goes a long way toward helping a new hire to fit in.
Train for culture
Training isn’t just about ‘dos and don’ts’. Training is for culture too. The best training helps new employees get familiar with the company culture and mission as well.
Making your mission known to employees will help them to share in the success of the company and it lets them feel like they are part of a bigger team with bigger goals.
Much like your mission supports your vision, values help you achieve your mission.
Concrete values define expectations.
Taking the time to embed them into your company culture is a great way towards a positive team mentality.
Training for culture is also about training your employees on how you interact with customers, talk about your product and more. In order to train for culture, you need to invest in bespoke training because your product and culture are unique.
Social blending
When done well, socialisation creates a sense of membership. An established sense of belonging serves as a motivational factor. It fosters shared meaning and values.
Introductions are a big part of onboarding. Take the time to introduce new hires to the rest of the team, even if you can only do this online.
People naturally want to feel accepted. They want to connect to the culture of the company and to other team members. They also want to be appreciated for what they bring to the table and how their skills work in the company’s favour.
Online learning
Whether you have a mentoring program or a video learning library, you’ll want to offer some form of training for your new hires.
The purpose of onboarding is to welcome new employees and get them up to speed as quickly as possible. In an era of remote or online working, it makes sense to employ online training, digital tools and well structured accessible pathways.
To be successful, online training must be engaging, immersive and successful. The best online training makes use of digital experiences. Digital experiences use a mixture of digital media, personalised checklists, role-related resources, text and even games, to engage the user and help them to learn and retain information better.
Remote onboarding
New hire onboarding is especially important for remote employees because they won’t have access to the in-office ‘watercooler chats’ that help people settle into physical jobs.
Building a remote culture requires a more concerted effort. Here, communication is even more important – you want your new hire to feel plugged into the workplace.
You can use video chats and team meetings to get the new team member to feel welcome.
Give employees a sense of safety
New hires may feel insecure about their position in your company. They aren’t yet familiar with the culture or confident about their role.
It’s important to create an onboarding process that makes employees feel safe and confident about their place in the company.
You can do this by building an emphasis on human connections during the onboarding process.
Assign onboarding buddies whose duty is to help the new hire feel comfortable and welcomed. Incorporate frequent one-on-ones where the new hires can ask questions or troubleshoot issues.
Onboarding success
The key to successful onboarding is not to rush it. Some employees take longer to build relationships and get up to speed on the work than others.
The process has to be fluid to accommodate them and their needs.
You should ensure that your new employees have the smoothest possible transition. That way, they can start providing value to your company very soon.
At BestAtDigital, we create custom digital experiences to train and upskill your team. Speak with us today about your onboarding challenges.
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The step-by-step guide to new hire onboarding
Onboarding is like a foundation. It gives your new hires the tools and knowledge they need to succeed in the company.
Good onboarding actually starts before day one. Advanced access to tools and an overview of the training schedule is a good pre-employment training kit.
