Too many companies think of employee onboarding as an afterthought. Once you’ve found the right employee for the right position, the rest will work itself out, right?
Wrong. Failure to appropriately onboard a new employee is one of the top reasons for new hire turnover. Onboarding is an essential process that gives your new employee their first real sense of what your company is like to work for. If they are ignored and pushed aside right from the beginning, they’re certainly not going to stick around.
Make sure that your onboarding program is laid out in a thoughtful and creative way. Onboarding should be part of your company’s strategic planning, and it shouldn’t be something that you throw together at the last minute whenever you hire someone new. Here are a few tips to help make your onboarding process more successful:
- Make it fun.
Too often the first day of work is consumed with paperwork, sexual harassment videos, stale introductions, and an empty desk. Of course there will be administrative things that you’ll need to take care of on day one, but do your best to make the experience personal and creative. Replace paperwork with human-to-human interaction whenever possible, and give your new employees ample opportunities to get to know the people they’ll be working with.
- Involve the new employee’s manager and teammates.
Ideally, the person your new employee reports to should be an integral part of their onboarding experience. He or she should have an opportunity to discuss what will be expected of them with their new manager and get a sense of their manager’s personality and work style. It might also be a good idea to partner your new employee with a buddy who works in a similar role. He or she will be able to give your new hire the company tour and introduce them to key people, helping them feel at home faster.
- Don’t start the day off cold.
A simple way to help your new employee feel more relaxed is by sending them a welcome packet before their first day of work. Let them know what will be happening on day one and convey how excited you are to have them become a part of the team. You can even include names and pictures of their teammates to help them get a jump start on the often stressful process of quickly learning new co-workers names.
- Create reachable goals.
Perhaps the most important thing to starting your new employee off on the right foot is giving them real work that can be completed within their first few weeks on the job. Too often companies leave new employees twiddling their thumbs by the end of the first day. Show your new hire that they are a valuable and important part of your team by getting them started with an achievable task as soon as possible.
Learn more about how to successfully onboard new employees by contacting Level Up Leadership today. Our strategic planning consulting services can help you improve employee hiring, onboarding, and retention throughout your organization.
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