Gone are the days when the onboarding process for new employees was like waterboarding. Clearly, you have spent so much of your time looking for the perfect employee. So why not spend a little more time ensuring they get onboarded to speed quickly?
So many companies continue to do the employee onboarding process wrong. Are you one of them? Don’t worry, you have landed in the right place. Here in this article, we have discussed how to do the HR onboarding process the right way; with intentionality and a detailed formal checklist.
We have also kept the onboarding remote employees scenario in mind and have provided efficient ways to face HR onboarding process challenges no matter where your employees work. Now employee onboarding process in recruitment can be an intimidating process to set up. Continue reading the article to have detailed insights into employee onboarding best practices your new hires will love!
What is an Employee Onboarding Process?
Employee onboarding is a process in which new hires gain the knowledge and skills to become effective members of an organization. It gives a strategic method of bringing new employees to the organization and providing them with information, training, mentoring, and coaching throughout the transition.
This process begins at the acceptance of an offer and continues throughout the first six to twelve months of employment. Clearly, the right employee onboarding process in recruitment can make a huge difference in the long-term performance of the employee as well as the company. Successful organizations tend to work systematically during the onboarding process for new employees and cover all its angles.
The employee onboarding process includes a daunting task. Especially after the impact of the pandemic it had become even more complicated. In fact, HRs have had to reimagine the role of talent acquisition. With an increasing number of companies movies towards onboarding remote employees or hybrid recruitment, teams face a new challenge of onboarding remote employees.
Why is Employee Onboarding Important?
Making the first impression on that new employee is as important as treating that new customer. No doubt, providing a superb HR onboarding experience is a must in the modern-day workspace. And with the right blend of planned activities and employee onboarding tools, you can make sure that employees feel welcomed.
It’s crucial to build their understanding of your culture and fasten their performing time. A structured HR onboarding process can result in a 20% increase in manager satisfaction and a 50% increase in new hire productivity. Not only this, but 58% of employees are most likely to stay with the company after three years.
The major two motives of an employee onboarding process in recruitment include:
- Improving the way how newbies feel about your company.
- Prepares new hires to become productive fast.
Clearly, the above-stated points offer you a key to your company’s and new hire’s success. No doubt, this process has become more important to employers in recent years as they have recognized the critical role of human capital in organizational success.
During the entire employee onboarding process in recruitment, a constant attempt is made to make new hires feel important as individuals to the company. When employees understand they matter as an individual and not just another employee, it improves the employee satisfaction and retention rate of the company.
How does Employee Onboarding differ from Employee Orientation?
Onboarding and orientation are two popular learning and development programs designed to help new employees acclimate to the organization. Many people still think these two-term as similar. However, that’s not true. Although often used interchangeably, onboarding and orientation are not the same!
New hire onboarding is a wider term that involves many of the critical formal processes from procedural to cultural learning. While onboarding new employees process aims to get your new hires fully up-to-speed. Orientation only includes a one-time step of welcoming new employees to the company. In simple terms, we can say that orientation is one part of the onboarding of new employees process.
Additionally, employee orientation ensures that new hires know and understand company policies and procedures. For many, the orientation program is only one part of a larger program referred to as the onboarding new employees process. Onboarding refers to the hiring and integration process used to seamlessly integrate new employees into the company’s environment.
The Main Types of HR Onboarding Process
The three types of onboarding new employees process include:
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In-office HR Onboarding Process
As mentioned earlier also, it involves the basic onboarding of in-office employees where face-to-face interactions are done.
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Onboarding Remote Employees
This type of onboarding new employees process takes the help of technology to overcome face-to-face interactions.
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Hybrid Onboarding Process for New Employees
This type of HR onboarding process includes a combination of both in-office and remote onboarding depending on the employee’s need. Certainly, it requires a bit more planning than the usual onboarding process for new employees.
Onboarding remote employees become super easy if you use the right onboarding tools. In conclusion, no matter where and how you onboard newbies, the ultimate goal includes making them feel confident so that they can efficiently face the challenges integrated with their role.
So what are the best practices for the new hire onboarding process? Continue reading the blog to learn the important tips and tricks that will help you to minimize the new hire turnover.
How long does the Onboarding Process in Recruitment Take?
Certainly, a successful new hire onboarding demands a well-planned step to clear out all the confusion. The complete onboarding of new employee process begins even before the first day of the new hire joining. Furthermore, it might go up to a period of 6 to 12 months depending on the job profile’s nature and company culture.
We have divided the entire onboarding process in recruitment into 4 stages to provide you with an understandable structure in brief.
Once the employee accepts the job offer, the typical employee onboarding process in recruitment begins. Here, you need to take care of all the papers work and contacts. Moreover, you also need to effectively arrange the significant employee onboarding tools, accounts, and banking details.
This way they can effectively get access to all the equipment they need to get started. As you don’t want your new team members to spend more time requesting necessary documents rather than getting familiar with the organization’s system. In the end, the ultimate google of this stage includes attracting reliable candidates, creating positive impressions, and clear communication of goals.
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Planning onboarding activities and introductions on the first day
In this phase, the employee finally gets the opportunity to meet his colleagues and gets a sneak peek into his new working environment. It includes an introduction to a learning environment, office tours, and a glimpse of company policies and culture. Here, you can briefly tell them about your organization and its goals.
Generally, this process takes place during the first week of joining. Certainly, this stage plays a very crucial role in terms of building trust among the teammates. In the end, the ultimate goal of this stage includes making the new hire comfortable and establishing expectations for the new hire.
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New employees after their first day
Once they understand how the mechanism works, it’s time to begin learning about the ultimate missions of both the department and the organization. Here, you need to involve the new hire to fit into your culture. For this, you can create some short-term actions, and weekly goals, that will help them to feel contributed to the workspace.
In addition, most organizations also provide training for specific roles to their new employees. This helps to enhance their confidence and improve their skills to perform a certain task. In the end, the ultimate goal includes introducing new arrival to the workspace, developing understanding, and providing valuable training.
In the last stage, when the new employee finally begins to perform their duties and responsibilities. It’s super important to consider their reviews in terms of any discomfort, confusion, or unhappiness. Make sure they have all the required resources to develop themselves. Furthermore, you must not only listen to their oughts but also make significant efforts to support them mixing conveniently in the environment.
Moreover, integrating this feedback in the onboarding new employees process can also help improve interaction with future newbies. In the end, the ultimate goal of this stage includes ensuring the work progress of newbies, improvements in new hire onboarding, and fostering company culture.
Benefits of the Properly Set Onboarding Process for New Employees
For Organizations
1. Minimizes new hire turnover
A study states that the onboarding new employees process can improve retention rates by 82% and productivity by 70%. No doubt, a good employee onboarding process in recruitment results in an improved employee retention rate. Around 28% of new employees tend to quit their job in the first 3 months.
2. Contributes to a positive environment
Offering multiple solutions to solve new employees’ confusion in the employee onboarding process makes them feel valued. Furthermore, increased employee retention due to a bad employee onboarding process results in demotivating the remaining staff.
3. Reduces cost
Leaving your employees to sink and swim on their own might cost you even more than your expectations. A good employee onboarding gives the very first impression of the organization’s interaction with the employee. Moreover, failing to provide a positive atmosphere instantly turns down their interest in the company. According to a study, an empty position can cost you 150% more than an active employee’s salary.
4. Facilitates good communication
An effective HR onboarding process facilitates good conversation between the team members and the new hire. Because it provides deep career insights and focuses on complete access to colleagues.
Hence, it motivates employees to effectively communicate within the organization. Furthermore, good communication automatically results in good productivity of the team and the organization.
For Employees
1. Enhances productivity
A better employee onboarding process in recruitment fastens the settling down of the process of the new hires. In simple terms improved employee satisfaction results in higher employee engagement.
Hence, engaged employees result in increased productivity from the beginning. On the other hand, the more inefficient the employee onboarding process, the more time it will take for new hires to get productive.
2. Feel welcomed and motivated
A successful HR onboarding process put constant efforts to make the new arrivals feel valued and important. Similarly, if you make them feel welcomed, it results in boosting their confidence to achieve the targets. The more your employees feel motivated the more they will plan to invest in the organization.
3. Improved sharing of information
An effective onboarding process for new employees focuses on providing clear information about their functions. Updating them with all the important messages and changes makes them feel involved. Hence, this makes it easy for them to access significant resources directly without reaching out to any third party.
Best Practices for Onboarding New Employees Process for Every Stage
Below we have stated some successful new hire onboarding ideas that you can start implementing today.
Stage 1: Pre-onboarding
1. Provision employees before they arrive
Provide employees with a details job description in the hiring stage. This improves the chances of selecting the most perfect candidate who can perform the related tasks effectively. Pre-arrange all the important documents they need to submit before arrival.
Try to make them feel supported even before the first day. Sent them a descriptive email stating all the important requirements and schedules they need to cover on the first day. Introduce the new team member(s) including some fun facts (telling fun facts can really help the team bond with each other).
2. Spread out the paperwork
Clearly, performing paperwork acts as one of the most frustrating tasks out there. It takes a lot of initial time to check and sign every angle paper and provide the required information on them. However, even a single mistake in the data results in consuming much additional time. Hence, try to keep your paperwork short and simple so that it doesn’t irritate the employee.
Furthermore, try to complete all the time-consuming documents before the employee’s first day. As you don’t want your new employee to stress out about filling in details rather than learning the culture. Integrating with electronic paperwork offers us a faster way to speed up the process as it removes the unnecessary delays of postage and manual entries.
3. Have a detailed written checklist
Include a checklist of important things to prepare for before the new employee onboarding starts. Organizations using comprehensive checklists report comparatively better retention rates. Having a detailed checklist helps an organization to make sure the newbie is set up for success.
Furthermore, a great onboarding checklist can streamline your new hire onboarding process. Below we have listed some of the significant aspects to must include in your checklist:
- Acceptance signature or e-signature in terms of onboarding remote employees
- Starting date and schedule confirmations
- Clear job descriptions and sweet welcome email
- Paper works including employee contact, banking, tax forms, and non-disclosure forms
- Providing access to all new accounts and employee onboarding tools
- Providing orientation or additional training plans where required
- Follow-ups and feedback after the first week or first month
4. Get the team involved (and aware)
Encourage other employees to initiate a conversation. This really helps to make the newbie comfortable and wanted. Prepare and involve the team members to reach out to the new hire by providing their information and the dates of their first day.
In addition, the teammates can even congratulate and welcome the new member with a warm welcome message. Or you can even arrange a welcome coffee idea by inviting all the team members to participate. This will improve employee engagement and improve the work atmosphere.
However, in the case of onboarding remote employees, this introduction step might require more attention than usual. In a virtual environment, directly reaching out to colleagues and asking for quick confusion might be difficult. But not with the right tools that can effortlessly overcome these barriers to communication.
5. Refine your first touchpoints
As mentioned earlier, the onboarding process for new employees begins after they receive the job offer. Once they check out the offer, they will probably reach your website or social media to look for the company culture. Moreover, providing a positive experience to them hugely impacts their decision in accepting the offer.
Therefore, you need to focus on all initial touchpoints to make sure it gives them a positive idea about your brand. Furthermore, you can always create a company culture section on your website and add employee reviews to it.
6. Communicate culture early
Provide cultural insights as soon as possible. Live and breathe them thoroughly into your employer brand. Give a clear sense of what your organization wants from the role and who you are as a company.
Be transparent about your mission, values, culture, and people. Moreover, you can organize meaningful sessions with the senior leaders to give an idea about the short and long-term goals.
7. Give onboarding gifts
Have a welcome kit for the onboarding process for new employees. A basic welcome kit includes a letter or a card from the president or their supervisor welcoming them.
Furthermore, you can even involve the teammates to sign the welcome card and include a company gift too. Give them a gift certificate to the company store so they can purchase additional items of their choice that would match their taste.
Stage 2: Planning Onboarding Activities and Introductory Sessions on the First Day
1. Assign a buddy
Pair up your new employees with experienced memes who could help them with further responsibilities and confusion. This way they will always have someone to rely on even when you’re not around.
In addition, it will provide them with proper informal support and minimize the chances of them feeling alienated. 56% of new hires say they want a buddy for the first week of their job. Hence, assigning a go-to person can really help them to understand the environment.
2. Use emotional intelligence
You can utilize emotional intelligence to analyze formal employee surveys. Since it helps to provide a detailed idea about what your employees desire from you.
3. Exciting welcome parties
Organizing exciting welcome parties can add a lot of value to new hires’ eyes. It results in making the work atmosphere a lot more welcoming and motivates employees to improve engagement. On the other hand, in the case of onboarding remote employees, you can make the process fun with exciting virtual onboarding games.
This helps new hires to effectively interact with the team. Furthermore, it improves the trust game among the team. Furthermore, scavenger hunts offer a fun way to get the employees familiar with the company’s policies and future goals.
4. Create an epic welcome and workspace orientation experience
Take out some time and pre-arrange the work set up of the new hire before his/her arrival. Create a dedicated workstation for them where they can work without any disturbances.
Furthermore, providing an unmanaged workspace with on-spot improvements might make them feel unwelcome. In addition, you can also automate some friendly reminders to scale up their efficiency.
5. Provide training on cultural aspects of the organization
Provide the necessary training required for the role. This will help employees to sharpen their skills and become more productive from the start.
When providing training to remote employees, consider recording the sessions for their later use. Furthermore, this way they will not feel they are missing out on something important.
6. Utilize different training methods
You need to shape their unique characteristics by providing them with special training depending on their responsibilities. Provide customized training sessions with multimedia blended learning and AI tools for quick progress.
Stage 3: New Employees After Their First Day
1. Plan the ramp into meaningful work
Work with the team to define new hires and their core function to get started. Don’t straight away burden them with detailed projects and solutions for the workshop. Instead, gradually fit the responsibilities into their desk. Moreover, remember to do regular check-in to ensure their progress.
2. Keep scheduling tightly structured
Share clear insights on first-day schedules with your new employees. It will make them feel confident on their first day. As they will not feel clueless and waste most of the day waiting for tasks. Moreover, this way they can mentally prepare in advance for the expectations they need to fulfill on their first day.
3. Create one on one meets
Try to organize one-on-one meetings with the entire team and CEOs. This helps them to feel involved while they will get to know about the culture. In addition, it will give them an idea about whom to report to daily, when the meetings take place, the type of task they will work on, and more.
When talking about remote employees, consider focusing on incorporating perfect video meeting tools to make them feel connected. Arrange meetings at the beginning and the end of the day for new arrivals. This will help them to coordinate effectively and enable them to solve their confusion at right time.
4. Leverage reliable employee onboarding tools
Organizations can integrate with top automated tools to fasten the key processes. The automated tools make it super convenient for HRs to save their time from recurring tasks and actually concentrate on more important ones.
In addition, these AI employee onboarding tools make the complex process far more adaptable irrespective of the type of onboarding you practice. Thus, you can efficiently help your new hires while rescuing the need for manually interfering in every aspect.
For instance, with automated equipment, companies can effectively evaluate their progress and provide personalized support in less time. Especially for virtual interactions, these employee onboarding tools work wonders to track and collaborate with remote teams.
5. Share cascading goals & set clear OKRs
Clearly, objectives and key results offer a goal system tool to encourage engagement around measurable goals. It aims to communicate the goals early and immensely impacts their decision-making in the initial months. Furthermore, you can periodically share teams’ inputs and results with the whole team.
6. Reinforce key teams, and stakeholders as well as book regular chats
No doubt, developing a positive atmosphere offer a key to retention. Therefore, clearly provide new hires ways to easily connect with other team members. Provide all the necessary contact information and email IDs of team members at this stage.
7. Inspire new hires
Involving experienced colleagues who are familiar with the roles and responsibilities of new hires can benefit in giving detailed insights into the tasks. It helps them to inspire by their work and get detailed insights into how things work. Not only this but, they can also share their stories of experience which can motivate the newbies to get started.
Stage 4: Employee Evaluation
1. Celebrate the first-year anniversary and early wins!
Offering new employees recognition for progress increases their confidence and motivates them to keep up the good work. For instance, when a new hire completes his first client call or successfully completes his first target, you can recognize their achievements by sharing it with the team. Especially in the case of onboarding remote employees, don’t neglect to celebrate wins. It helps to foster a sense of connection and keeps them motivated.
2. Get feedback
Conducting regular check-in and feedback gives an accurate idea about how well they have settled into the environment. Ask new arrivals about their observations and talk to them about their point of view to improve them. Moreover, check if they have been stuck anywhere in the process. Furthermore, you can always set weekly or monthly targets to understand their progress in detail.
3. Don’t stop after the first month
Clearly, the onboarding process for new employees includes a long process. And stopping after the first month isn’t the best option. You need to continue the onboarding new employee process regularly even after the first 30 days. Check their progress periodically for the next three months, or even after a year.
Top Employee Onboarding Tools of 2022
The main aim of integrating top employee onboarding tools includes accelerating the process while smoothing the overall efficiency. Clearly, we have a wide variety of new hire onboarding tools to choose from. However, finding the perfect one that suits all your environmental needs includes a long process.
Luckily, we have provided you with top employee onboarding process tools that you must consider in your onboarding toolkit. Moreover, keeping in mind the hybrid employee onboarding culture, these top tools will surely give you the perfect equipment to overcome remote challenges. These top-tested HR onboarding process tools include the following:
One of the top onboarding remote employees tools for organizing plans effectively includes Trello. It enables organizations to quickly visualize the task in an understandable way.
FactorHR offers an amazing employee onboarding tool for growing teams. It effectively automates complex processes and results in improved workforce productivity.
This top tool helps organizations to effectively share and access documents without any fear of fraudulent activities.
CakeHR acts as one of the faster onboarding tools to overcome the challenge of long paperwork. It provides HRs with deep employee databases easily.
Another popular feature-rich assessment software suitable for walk-in recruitment drives is Xobin.
VivaHR provides us with an affordable onboarding new employee process tool with straightforward nature. It comes with various in-built employee onboarding process feature that you can’t ignore.
For more, you can tap on the link for important hiring tools that will help you to boost your progress!
Optimize the Onboarding Process
No doubt, we can not ignore the advantages of an effective onboarding new employees process. Certainly, a successful HR onboarding process requires pre-planning so that new hires feel supported in all aspects. And integrating with the right employee onboarding tools and organizing the new hire onboarding effectively helps you to build the ideal working environment.
This blog included several new hire onboarding ideas to help you with your onboarding process in recruitment. Even if you implement a few of these practices, you can surely see an improvement in your working culture.
Our company would love to prepare you perfect employee onboarding tools kit and help you to create other ideas to keep your employees happy, productive, and loyal to your company. Let us know your thoughts/takeaways in the comments! If you are looking for employee staffing options then CronJ with its 10 years of experience in 15+ domains can certainly help you get the best workforce for you in a matter of hours. Contact us today to get the best-fitting talents!
