5 Ways to Set Up a New Employee for Success Through Effective HR Onboarding – HR Affiliates Blog
An effective HR onboarding process for new employees is essential. You want to put your employees in the best position to succeed — making them feel like a part of the team, and understanding their challenges. Setting your employees up for success will encourage a long-term business relationship. In this post, we cover 5 distinct ways you can enable a new employee to have a fruitful career at your company through an effective onboarding process.
Immerse your new hire in your company culture
This tip is far easier said than done. Giving your new employee an accurate representation of your business’s culture can prove difficult. It’s absolutely necessary, though, that you share that honest information with your new hire early on. As Jim Vaselopulos of the Forbes Coaches Council writes, “It is important to share the unspoken office/team expectations, inside jokes and cultural norms for people to be at ease.” HR onboarding should work to facilitate an inviting glimpse into a company’s culture from day one by carrying out interactive (and not cheesy) first day activities.
Share your HR information over time, not all on one day
It’s pretty widely accepted that the first day on the job will be boring for a new hire. Learning about benefits, parking information, company history, etc. can be overwhelming and frankly not interesting. Instead, HR should share this kind of information over the course of the new employee’s first month or series of months to eliminate any signs of early burnout. Retaining top talent in today’s job market is one of the most difficult challenges for HR. By actively avoiding situations that will overwhelm your new hire early, you guarantee their first experiences at the company will be positive and not incredibly dull.
Make the first day about them, not about you
HR onboarding has a unique opportunity to make a new hire feel welcome before they even start. As Ryan Paugh of Fast Company writes, a simple gesture like getting the new hire their favorite snack or beverage on their first day goes a long way. Employees remember when their superiors make them feel empowered, so make the first day entirely about making them feel special. It’ll go a long way, especially when they decide to stay at your company.
Facilitate arranged 1:1 time
HR onboarding can go one step further than simply scheduling meetings with key people in the new hire’s department. Purposefully facilitating one-on-one interaction amongst new employees and senior leadership will have immense benefits. This will allow a smoother transition for the new employee, while supporting them in becoming more comfortable with the company. The new hire will look at their new coworkers as real people, which will ultimately help your business with retention dramatically.
Check in consistently over the course of the first year
Your HR onboarding tasks don’t end after the first day, the first week, or even the first month. The lines that separate HR onboarding and the beginning of the employee life cycle should be hard to define. As your HR department periodically gets status updates from your new hire over the course of their first year, the employee will feel a deeper connection with the company. When you establish this kind of connection, especially over the course of their first year, you give your business the best possible chance of retaining that employee.
Hammering out an effective HR onboarding process can be complex and frustrating. We fully understand that a nuanced and sensitive approach to bringing on a new hire will result in a longer employee life cycle and a more productive company culture. We want to help your company find an appropriate balance in its HR onboarding practices. Fill out the form below, and let’s talk directly about how you can land and then retain top talent.