4 critical elements of your onboarding process
TRANSCRIPT
Hiring is important.
It may even be one
of the
important areas of
a business.
Without hiring, a
company cannot
scale
It cannot
grow
It cannot
Produce
revenue
It cannot
compete
It cannot
SURVIVE.
But, there is one aspect of a business that is equally as
important as hiring:
Onboarding.
Too often, onboarding is a process that many
companies decide to
figure out as they go.
They wait for questions to get asked, respond with
inconsistent answers, give new hires a quick office tour, have them sign on the dotted line, and send them off to work.
This scenario is flawed.
Onboarding needs to be
purposeful.
It needs to be
PLANNED.
It needs to be
THOROUGH.
It needs to be
MEASURED.
It needs to be
CONSISTENT.
It needs to be
SUCCESSFUL.
If it isn’t, you’re setting your
employees up for a rocky path.
www.hrbartender.com/2012/recrui4ng/employee-‐turnover-‐caused-‐by-‐bad-‐onboarding-‐programs/
25%of companies said their
onboarding program did not include any kind of training.
60%of companies indicated
they don’t set any milestones or goals for new hires.
The result?
Turnover.
And when those unhappy employees explain that they are leaving, employers pour a lot of money
into trying to get them to stay.
But what if companies didn’t
do that?
Imagine the difference that
could make.
So, what can you do to help your onboarding program?
We’ll tell you of the most critical elements.
One of the biggest mistakes employers
make upon the initial offer is that…
Hiring and onboarding
get looped together
This is especially true of a new hire who is relocating. Amongst the
chaos of interviewing, moving, and actually starting their job,
onboarding gets lost in the mix. This is a critical mistake, and one thing you can do to alleviate this
from happening is to:
Answer their questions! WHAT SHOULD I BRING?
DO I NEED MY COMPUTER?
SHOULD I COME EARLY?
HOW EARLY?
WHAT SHOULD I WEAR?
WILL ANYONE KNOW WHO I AM?
This will take a lot of stress off of their plate. The more information you
can tell them – the better. This will allow them to get prepared ahead of time so they are in the right frame of
mind on their first day.
And while onboarding and relocation need to be treated as
two different areas, they should be complementary of one another.
In other words…
Even though relocation and onboarding are
separate processes, they need to be a part of the
same system
“How do I do that?!”
Your company can do this by ensuring that those in charge of these processes communicate
with each other. Employees should be receiving information that is
consistent across the board and is relevant to them at the time they
receive it.
Ensure that managers in charge of each area have set up a “home
base” for employees to go to. This home base should be a place (an
online wiki, Relocation Management Software, HR
platforms) where they can go to access documents or store any
information that they might need.
For Example:
Organizes questions, documents, and any
information they might need to know into one organized
area.
You can also create pre-made documents or
guides that HR departments can re-use that answer questions
ahead of time.
You should always try to have this
mindset:
minute
This will help you
remember that the
moment you get the
green light from your
candidate, they are
considered a part of
your organization.
Vetted Information that cannot be easily
obtained anywhere else
Hyperlocal information:
Commute Parking
Neighborhoods Where to grab lunch Public transportation
Local schools
information about:
We’re going to let you
in on a little secret.
If you don’t provide
employees WITH this
information, they will turn to the internet.
You can’t control
what they find there.
And as we all know:
Not everything on the
internet is true (so try to prevent employees from looking!)
GIVE THEM VETTED ADVICE AND KNOWLEDGE FROM YOUR OWN EMPLOYEES.
THIS WAY, YOU can CONTROL THE INFORMATION
new hires receive.
And you can do this in a visual way!
By providing results in a visual format, it will
help employees digest information in a more
engaging way!
What’s the first question your new hire is going to get asked by their friends and family after day 1?
“How was your first day!?”
“How was your first day!?”
Your company’s grade for the day
“How was your first day!?”
Your company’s grade for the day
(make sure it’s a good one!)
“How do we get a good
grade?”
1. Make sure
everyone knows the new hire is coming
There is nothing worse than getting awkward looks and
confused stares on your first day, so make sure the rest of the team knows about your new hire and
what their role will be.
One way we do this at UrbanBound is by putting up signs in the office with information about our new team
member and a welcome sign at the front door!
2. No paperwork!
Try to present new hires with paperwork ahead of their first day in
the office. You can have them come in before their start date or do some of the paperwork over email, that way
the first day isn’t filled with mundane tasks. You can also block out a few hours throughout the week to go
through paperwork gradually, as not to bombard them right off the bat.
3. Have something
waiting for them at their desk
It doesn’t have to be anything extravagant, just something to
make them feel welcomed! At UrbanBound we give new
hires a card from our leadership team, an UrbanBound water
bottle, a t-shirt, and chocolates.
4. Treat them to lunch
Lunch doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just something to get new hires out of the office and talking with other members of the team - at UrbanBound
we always go to this tiny dive restaurant down the block and it has
turned into tradition, it’s a great initiation for new hires!
5. Remember their family
“Research confirms that the failure rate of new executive hires is close to 50 percent. Most of these frustrating and expensive
failures are more the result of personal or family dissatisfaction than job-related issues.”
If your new hire relocated with a family, send them something – flowers, a card, anything!
Let them know that they are equally as important to the success of this new endeavor as your employee. And, it
wouldn’t hurt to continue reaching out to them for the first few months - if you are
hosting an event, going to dinner or drinks, volunteering, invite spouses to come along! Encouraging families to build relationships
and networks is going to make a big difference on whether or not they begin to
identify with their new city as home.
according to Forbes:
“90-day onboarding programs are rare. What is more common are one to two day onboarding programs primarily focused on educating new staff members about legal
and policy-related rules. . . as a result, firms are losing talent—HR industry studies show
that a great amount of staff turnover (possibly as high as 20%) can happen within
the first 45 days of employment. (It costs between $3,000 and $18,000 to replace
quitters.)”
www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2013/07/19/how-‐not-‐to-‐lose-‐your-‐new-‐employees-‐in-‐their-‐first-‐45-‐days/
91% of millennials
expect to stay in a job
for less than 3 years
If Millennials don’t feel like there is room for growth, they’ll look
for employment elsewhere - and soon. If you end up training and onboarding an employee just to
have them leave in a few months, it can get extremely expensive
and time consuming.
Training & onboarding a
new hire can cost
anywhere from
25%-200% of annual salary
• Measurable and attainable goals • Resources necessary for success • Something to be working towards • Benchmarks to gauge progress
Set up what success looks like in the first 90 days by giving:
If employees have something to work towards and a new skill to acquire, it will give them a
benchmark for how well they are performing.
GIVE new hires A CLEAR PATH TO WORK TOWARDS
If they don’t hit goals, reevaluate where skills need some nurturing
and plan accordingly for the following quarter!
The 90-day mark is a great time to give employees an opportunity to let you know what they’ve liked or not liked so far. Let them tell you what they want to work on, where they need help, and what you can do as their employer to help them. The main influencing factor for the current
generation in the workforce is the opportunity for growth, so by starting
employees out with a jam-packed 90-day plan, you are setting them up for success.
As you can see, onboarding needs to be
given as much attention as every other area of your
business.
Strong onboarding programs will help retention, performance, growth, and structure. Make sure
that you have processes set in place!
Happy onboarding!