Here’s all you need to know about building, implementing, and refining your employee onboarding process.
Employee onboarding is a vital step in building a healthy company with thriving employees. With the correct perspective, adequate preparation, and follow-through, you can make the process efficient and get great results. This guide will take you through every step from start to finish, providing tools, tips, and resources. By the end, you’ll be ready to begin your new employee onboarding process with expertise and confidence.
Before we jump in, let’s go over some essential points about new employee onboarding.
Many companies get better results when they approach onboarding as a process rather than a task to accomplish. However, it does require more planning and attention to detail. The process can be divided into 5 phases.
The tasks and goals for each stage differ, as well as the amount of time required, because of factors such as:
Planning helps a company avoid surprises and onboarding problems while giving employees advance notice of what’s to come. Here’s a look at how to structure the 5 phases of onboarding.
This stage begins after an employee accepts a job offer and before the agreed-upon start date. It often begins about a week before that start date. Pre-onboarding gives the new hire their first taste of the organizational culture and company policies. Companies can show that they are serious and well-organized while also displaying heart and concern. They do this in pre-onboarding by getting things done efficiently while also anticipating the questions and needs of the new employee.
Companies can mail or email a new hire letter and a welcome package that includes paperwork to be completed. The package might also include directions to a company portal that also provides much of the information and paperwork needed at this stage. In pre-boarding, the company can offer:
At the same time, managers and other employees will be taking care of other pre-onboarding jobs, such as:
The orientation phase starts on the new employee’s first day and continues for another day or two. In this phase, the new hire gets more familiar with company culture, policies, and mission.
To feel oriented is to feel a sense of one’s relative position in a physical place or an organization. The trick is to not overwhelm the new employee with a bunch of chores, even though there might be much to accomplish. Make the first day memorable for good reasons. You might, for example, start with a greeting over pastries and coffee where the new hire begins to meet the team.
Many companies assign an onboarding buddy, who is a trusted employee. The buddy establishes rapport with the new hire, helps them navigate the workplace, and introduces them to key team members. The buddy system minimizes the chances of the new employee feeling isolated.
Examples of what might await a new employee during the orientation phase are:
At this stage, much of the responsibility of managers is to carry out the script for these first crucial days. They might also:
One way to approach this phase is to allow a day or so for people-focused orientation. This is a somewhat “warm and fuzzy” time to converse with coworkers, get acclimated to the work environment, and receive necessities like laptop and parking pass.
Then comes a day or so to meet with HR or those in charge of their onboarding process to make sure all the paperwork is done. It’s also a good time to review essential safety and security measures. Employees might have lots of questions to ask, too. Many see this as the breather before the real work begins.
Depending on the work done by a company, these short-term and long-term training needs might be addressed at different stages:
As new hires are ready to get something accomplished and show their value, it’s a good time to review performance expectations, goals, and how success will be measured.
Onboarding shifts from a broad company view to the new employee’s team and job duties. Depending on the company and the job, this phase could last a few days or a couple of months. Employees learn the “meat” of their roles during this targeted training period — things like using the tools required for the new job, communicating with team members, and understanding job expectations. The employee begins to enjoy being part of a unit and developing team spirit.
Managers might want to set up weekly one-on-one meetings with the new employee. The need for this will depend in part on how much daily contact the manager has with the new employee. The individual attention can help the new hires hone their skills, learn faster, and get clarity on expectations and opportunities for growth.
Ways to approach training include:
This is the transition period from “trainee” to “employee.” Employers lay out clear expectations and can anticipate the new employee’s ability to understand and complete their job responsibilities. Even so, employees might still have questions and need assistance with fine details and procedures at times.
Employees will have had time to digest the flood of the information that first came their way. They now can review the onboarding checklist they received to see if they have missed anything.
It’s now time for managers or the HR department to send out a post-training survey, to get feedback on the training process.
The final phase of a structured onboarding program is ongoing employee development. Employees should be able to meet the goals set for them, feel like they’re part of the company culture, and understand what’s expected. Elements of this phase may include check-ins with the HR team for feedback on performance and progress. The employer may set up self-paced learning and other opportunities for the employee to continue expanding their professional development.
The new employees might still receive extra oversight from their manager during this period, along with frequent feedback on the employee’s performance.
About 3 months from the start date, the company should ask for employee feedback on the onboarding process. Besides asking new hires for this feedback, companies should survey their coworkers, managers, and perhaps even select customers or clients. Collection methods can include an onboarding survey, frequent check-ins, video chats, and real-time workplace conversations.
Your new employees may have suggestions for improving your onboarding program for the next generation. And the input from others can tell you things about not only your onboarding process but also your new employee’s performance.
Properly planned and structured onboarding helps new hires establish relationships, understand expectations, and get involved with the company culture. These elements build a better employee experience and a more engaged, motivated team member.
Even businesses that haven’t shifted to a remote work structure find that virtual onboarding tools provide benefits to both employer and employee.
To make remote employee onboarding a success, use the best practices outlined in this section. Many of them apply to the onboarding experience for all new hires, whether they’ll be performing remote work or working in-house.
You can’t communicate with new remote hires the same way you do with people on-site. Decide who will be responsible for sharing information with them regarding their first day, including providing a virtual version of your company orientation program. Get things off to a good, early start by sending a virtual welcome package.
You can stuff this with many practical items. But it’s just as useful to include things like company swag and maybe a gift card for lunch on their first day since you can’t take them out remotely. Another variation on that theme is to schedule a team lunch the first day and allow remote employees to order lunch and have it delivered to their locations.
If your new hire is starting remotely, work with your managers to hyper-plan their first 5 days, because they won’t have colleagues around to point them in the right direction. Consider using video conferencing and other digital tools to address these virtual onboarding tasks.
Since this new hire won’t be in the office on their first day, if ever, you’ll have to ship their laptops and/or other gear to their home. Teams leaders will need to address related issues ahead of time, including:
Hiring managers and HR staff who onboard remote employees have a lot of essential HR paperwork to complete. Paperless onboarding makes it easy to welcome remote workers.
Items you can shift online — for all new hires, not just remote workers — include:
When a company is onboarding remote employees, virtual training is the go-to solution. There are many ways to accomplish this: Google slides, internal training videos, live video calls, and group online training sessions for good, old-fashioned collaborative learning.
However, an employer might not want to lean too much on slides and videos. For one thing, different people have different learning styles, so it’s important to offer remote employees different ways of receiving the same information. Furthermore, training sessions are a great way for remote workers, team leaders, and coworkers to get to know each other. These sessions can help the remote worker feel connected to and engaged with his new employer. One-on-one video conferences and group online training sessions provide extra value to remote workers.
Now let’s look at some fresh ideas to incorporate into the processes we just outlined. An effective employee onboarding process flow begins before the new hire’s start date. You can try any of these beginning about a week before the official start date.
For many companies, the onboarding experience begins as soon as a person signs an offer letter. Once a candidate accepts a job offer, they and the hiring manager or HR contact set the start date. Onboarding can begin somewhere around that date.
It can, and it should. There usually is no need for a waiting period before onboarding can start. Before their start date, a new hire might participate in a meeting, visit the office, meet their direct manager or team, or begin the new hire paperwork.
Many new employees confuse the term “probationary hire” with being “on probation,” which is not the case. Being a probationary new hire doesn’t mean the new employee is in trouble or perceived as “less than.” It is a time to acclimate to the workplace culture and work environment, complete training programs and achieve high performance. However, some companies delay health insurance and other benefits until after the probationary period. It’s also a time of evaluation for both the employee and the employer.
In a word, “yes.” Generally, employers should plan to budget money to pay their newest team members for onboarding activities. The U.S. federal government would consider many of them to fall under the Fair Labor Standards Act. That’s because most onboarding processes involve training and other mandatory activities as a condition of employment.
Employees expect to be paid for many activities they participate in before starting the job. For example:
A hiring manager should budget to pay a new hire for completing tasks they wouldn’t normally be expected to perform on their own time. However, this might not include those that are part of the application process outside the scope of a typical workday.
Certain phases of being hired are not considered to be paid time. For example, the application, interview, background check, drug testing, and other pre-employment activities are not compensable.
Even after an employee is hired, common unpaid activities occur during onboarding. Examples include:
A good onboarding software program or service can go a long way toward helping HR teams overcome challenges while simplifying the onboarding experience for all parties.
Onboarding software helps to automate onboarding tasks and combine them into one platform. A company can buy a software package or enroll with a Software as a Service company. These services also update along with new onboarding trends and practices. Key onboarding features offered in the best employee onboarding software include:
In a nutshell, a digital dashboard creates a faster and more seamless experience for all involved because it eliminates the need for endless streams of paper. Since employee turnover is costly, creating the best employee experience possible for new team members can save you money. Integrating a new employee onboarding solution can help with retention and talent management at all levels.
For more in-depth information about the employee onboarding:
