With a great employee onboarding program- You can engage your new hires, show them your company’s culture and attract them to stick with the company for a longer period. With a good onboarding program, your employees can kick start their journey with your organization on a high note. But, before we get to making the onboarding program engaging, let’s first understand what is onboarding and what it involves. An employee onboarding program is the process that helps your new hires seamlessly integrate into the company. It helps the new hires to learn about the organization’s mission, values, and goals, and then they are put into job-specific training. To help the organizations create better employee onboarding programs, we have listed down a few things that you need to set right.
1. Plan your pre-boarding activities
Your new hires shouldn’t get overwhelmed and flooded with lots of things to finish. So, take it slowly and plan the pre-boarding activities well. Usually, the pre-boarding activities should start before your employees start their first day. There is a lot of paperwork during onboarding which can be done digitally and you can also give an employee handbook to your new hires in advance so that they get familiar with the company’s policies and culture. Also, give them an onboarding checklist that can help them to find out what happens during onboarding so that they can be little prepared.
2. Give the onboarding program the time it needs
Usually, most companies rush through the initial onboarding program. But, if your employees don’t get enough time to learn the skills, then it gets hard for them to perform well at their job. There cannot be a specific period for an onboarding program that works for every organization. But, it should usually be more than four months that’s necessary for your employees to get started with their work without anyone’s assistance. Providing the required time for the onboarding program and doing regular check-ins can help the employees in a big way.
3. Don’t make them feel overburdened
After joining, your new hires need to learn a lot to get used to the workspace and the job. But, do not overwhelm them with lots of information. But, make sure you give them enough time to get familiar. Make your onboarding program structured and conduct regular assessments to find out how quickly your employees can grasp the concepts. If they are lagging, slow it down till they pick up the speed. If you closely monitor their progress and help them when they need it, they can reach proficiency more quickly.
4. Find time to welcome the new hires into the team
Work relations are very important for new hires especially to get them going. Positive work relationships can help to solve problems together and help each other out when needed. It improves employee engagement and satisfaction. In Fact, for most of the younger generation of employees, having a good peer group is very important and one of the first aspects that they look for in an organization. Conduct regular informal meetings, plan team lunches, and make everyone feel like it’s their extended family.
5. Take feedback
Along with doing regular check-ins, ensure you take feedback after the completion of the onboarding program. You can conduct a survey or just do a one-on-one conversation with your employees. Ask them what they feel about the overall onboarding experience, what they liked and what they disliked etc. This kind of feedback would give you lots of insights into where you are going wrong and how you can improve so that you provide a greater onboarding experience in the future. It also sends out a positive message that you care about the employee’s opinions and their experience with the onboarding program.
6. Conclusion
A well-designed and structured onboarding program can help your employees to start their journey well with your organization. Thus, organizations should ensure that they do enough research and plan everything properly to provide a great onboarding program.
About the author
Costa Lamprou is a PPC and lead generation expert with experience in product development, sales and training who helps businesses reach their full lead gen potential.
