Why is onboarding important for a new employee?

Every Director, HR manager, and executive knows what is employee onboarding and why is onboarding important for a new employee but still, they miss out on the little details that matter a lot while creating a powerful employee onboarding process. We have tried to cover every detail of the employee onboarding process in this blog. In the end, we have kept some actionable best practices for you. 

What is employee onboarding in the HR Department?

Employee onboarding is the process where a new employee learns about the values system and all the necessary aspects of that organization. This process is also known as organizational socialization as the new employee also gets social with their subordinates.

88% of employees believe that their employer did a poor onboarding process. You must make sure you fall in the 12% zone as there are a lot of benefits attached to it. Your company’s growth factors are attached to it. So in the next section, we have discussed why the employee onboarding process is important.

Why is efficient employee onboarding important?

An efficient employee onboarding process will make sure that your employee is comfortable and all their needs are taken care of. 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experience great onboarding. This increases the efficiency of your employee, the HR department as well as your business.

Here are some benefits of having an employee onboarding process:

1. Faster Induction

When you have developed an employee onboarding process, you would have a roadmap ready to follow. You can complete all the steps of the onboarding process according to their chronology faster. This would lead to a well planned and fast induction of the new employee. A good and fast induction will lead to satisfied and more engaged employee culture.

2.Reduces employees anxiety

Most of the people get really nervous when they join a new company. That’s because almost everyone gets out of their comfort zone while going to a new place. When you design an onboarding process for them after taking care of their needs, they will feel relaxed and have lesser anxiety as they’ll have a plan to follow.

3. Creates a great first impression

Employees are generally unaware of onboarding processes as it differs drastically from business to business. Also, there are chances that employees only go through very few onboarding processes throughout their careers. If your HR department has developed a great onboarding experience for employees, it will create a good lasting impression on your employees. This is where they become your assets from just being an employee. 

4. Delivers Core values and Mission

Your business was derived out of some core values and has a mission and vision to look forward to. You can align the thinking of your employees with your business in the onboarding processes itself. Initially, the employees will be curious to learn about your business. This means they have a longer attention span. They will adapt to your core values and principles throughout their journey with your company.

How to start with the employee onboarding process?

You can use this checklist for your onboarding purposes:

1. Give the offer letter

This is the first step of the employee onboarding process. Your employee becomes a part of your company after multiple rounds of interviews. you need to send them either a digital or physical offer letter and ask them to send the offer letter back with a confirmation of their position. Offer letters should contain information like salary distribution, terms, and conditions as well as all the legal details that are important for the employee.

2. Discuss the waiting period

After you have sent them an offer letter, discuss the waiting period. The waiting period is the amount of time that you will have to wait before the employee joins your organization. Waiting period generally occurs as the employee might be serving a notice period in their previous company but that might not always be the case. It is important that you discuss the waiting period and negotiate if you want to.

3. Send the list of documents

When an employee joins a company, they are asked to provide some kind of documentation like their identity proof or their previous salary slips. These things are important for documentation in the HR department. Make sure you send your new employee an email that includes the list of all the documents to be provided by them.

4. Set up their accounts

There are many different types of accounts that an employee will require from the business’s side. For example, Gsuite account, company messenger account, project management account, etc.

The authority of these accounts would depend on the position that the new employee is getting in. So if the employee is hired for a higher position they would get more access then the one at the executive level. Again this completely depends on your company policy. 

5. Do an orientation session

When the employee joins for the first day, do an orientation session for them. This orientation would include welcome meetings, introduction to their superiors and subordinates, explaining them the HR policy, etc. Make a prioritized task list and follow it accordingly. This session is important because it would motivate the new employee to communicate with other people in the company. 

6. Have a training session

Now, this is a step that you need to follow for a few days after an employee joins. You need to develop a training session for the employee depending on their position. Some tasks in the training session like reading about the company culture or mission and vision of the company would remain the same across the company.

7. Take feedback regarding the interview and onboarding process

Lastly, after the employee has settled in the office, you ask them to give you brutally honest feedback on your interview and onboarding process. I have had the first-hand employee onboarding experience and they would know exactly what is right and wrong about it. This feedback can help you a lot in business process optimization.

These were the steps of an employee onboarding process. You must follow each of these steps chronologically and keep on adding details to each step.

Best practices for effective employee onboarding

Here’s the list of some of the best practices for having a smooth and effective employee onboarding experience

1. Personalize the onboarding experience

This is one of the most important things that many HR managers neglect. A personalized onboarding experience is not a difficult thing to provide. You can find a few details about the new employee like their personality traits, their food choices, or something about them and use it to personalize their experience. 

For example, if the employee likes photography, you can initiate conversations around photography and ask other people who are interested in a similar hobby to join in. this would give your new employee a sense of belonging in your organization. 

2. Ensure they communicate with their subordinates

A new employee will have to talk with their subordinates each day for the rest of their office tenure. However, they might not even know the name of the guy working for the last 5 years in a different department. It is important that you make the new employee communicate with their subordinates in a friendly chat or discussion. 

3. Provide a buddy

If you have been in the HR department for long enough you must know the buddy system. Buddy is an old employee who would partner up with the new employee to make sure that their onboarding experience is going as planned. The new employee can communicate with their buddy in case they get stuck somewhere during the onboarding process. 

4. Provide them a welcome gift

This is what pretty much everyone does but still is the best practice for the employee onboarding process. A welcome gift does not need to be materialistic and expensive. you can give them something valuable like a chocolate, a mini plant, or a personalized gift according to their interest. That would be more than enough. This makes their first day memorable and creates a long-lasting experience in their mind.

5. Assist them with technology

This is a serious problem that new employees face almost every time they join a new company. Especially fresher as this would be their first job and they might have no practical exposure to such technology. They might be certain aspects of the computer or any other device that the employee will not fully understand. Be open to answering the questions or tell them whom to contact if they need IT-related support. Make sure you connect the new employee with the person who handles technical issues. So, whenever they are looking for assistance, they don’t have to go through you.

For example, new sales employees might not be aware of the different functionalities of the CRM your company uses. Provide them with the necessary resources to adapt to the new solutions and tools that your company uses.

The Gist of this blog

Employee onboarding is a necessary part of your HR operations. It creates a friendly environment for new employees and makes them comfortable around the office atmosphere. It results in more efficiency and fewer communication gaps. As a result, your business goals will be achieved. Every organization must create its own employee onboarding process after trying out the above-mentioned best practices. If you have any questions regarding the employee onboarding process or have any other best practices that we can add in the blog, let us know in the comments below.