5 Tips to Improve Your Employee Onboarding Process
In this guide, discover 5 top tips that will help you to improve your employee onboarding process.
The job market in the UK is booming once again. There are two main reasons for this:
- The global pandemic is officially over
- Remote jobs continue to grow in popularity
Therefore, it’s not surprising that 78% of businesses recruited in Q1 2023 (Totaljobs). No matter which industry your business is in, you likely recruited new employees, too.
Welcoming new employees into your business is incredibly exciting, whether they’re going to work in the office or from home. However, it’s absolutely vital that you nail the onboarding process, as this has a huge amount of influence on an employee’s performance and motivation levels moving forward.
If your onboarding process is currently lacking in quality, then it’s time to freshen it up and make it perfect for the modern employee. This way, you can ensure that future employees will be thrilled to join your business.
Where should you start when it comes to improving the employee onboarding process? Simple — use the 5 tips in this guide as a blueprint for success.
Create an Employee Handbook
The first thing you need to do is create an employee handbook that contains all of the information that new hires need, such as:
- A welcome statement
- Values
- Policies
- Expectations
- Legalities
This gives new hires a chance to get up-to-date on all of the information they need to know. Otherwise, they’ll be left in the dark surrounding certain factors, which isn’t good for you or them.
Get started by learning more about employee handbook & policies. From there, you can get to work on creating an amazing employee handbook that will transform your onboarding process for the better. Remember, it’s 2023, so it’s a good idea to make your employee handbook available in both digital and print formats. After all, if you’re going to be hiring remote employees from different cities, then they’ll need to access your handbook online.
Answer Questions
Usually, when people join new organisations for the first time, they have a ton of questions they want to ask. Interestingly, though, many new hires are afraid to ask all of the questions on their mind, which can lead to them entering their new roles with confusion surrounding certain parts of their role.
What’s the solution to this? It’s easy. Encourage new employees to ask questions, from the initial interview to the waiting period in the onboarding process. This shows them that you care, and it ultimately helps to ensure that employees get answers to important questions.
Provide Training
When an employee has officially agreed to join your business, there might be an interval period in-between of a few days or even a couple of weeks before they officially start.
During this period, you should stay in contact with them and provide them with the relevant resources that they need for training. For example, if their role is going to involve using Salesforce, the employee should be given training on how to use Salesforce before they actually start in the office.
Think carefully about the tools and apps that your current employees use. Are they easy to grasp? Or, do they require training first? If the answer is the latter, you’ll need to create training resources for all of your relevant tools and apps so that your onboarding process is truly effective.
Team Them Up with a Seasoned Employee
It’s no secret that joining a new company can be a little overwhelming for some people.
One of the best ways to nullify this is by teaming up your future new hires with seasoned employees. This’ll give new hires access to knowledge on the go from your employees who’ve been there and done it all. Plus, it’s a faster way for new hires to make friends and ultimately become integrated into the company culture.
If new hires are going to work in your office, sit them next to the seasoned employee of your choice. You’ll be surprised at what a positive impact this will have on them!
Socialise New Employees
Next, there’s the social aspect.
Rather than throwing your employees in the deep end right away, it’s important that they’re properly introduced to their new colleagues. Usually, the best way to do this is through socialising. For example, new employees should be invited to team-building events. Here, they’ll be welcomed into the company in a more fun and informal way. It’s a great way to take a weight off their shoulders and make them feel relaxed from the beginning.
