Understanding Employee Onboarding: Key Strategies for Success

Effective employee onboarding is crucial for enhancing satisfaction, retention, and productivity. Discover strategies to create a strong onboarding process that supports new hires’ success and aligns with company culture.

By Brad Nakase, Attorney

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Table of Contents

1. What Does Onboarding Mean?

2. What Makes Proper Onboarding Crucial?

3. Summary of the Onboarding Process

4. Novel Techniques for Onboarding

For new hires to succeed in the long run and for the productivity of the company, quality onboarding is essential. Discover the reasons why a strong onboarding procedure may have a significant effect on employee satisfaction and retention, as well as creative approaches to embracing new hires.

What Does Onboarding Mean?

The process of transitioning new hires to a company is called onboarding. Along with learning about the company’s structure, culture, goal, mission, & values, it also covers the orientation procedure for new personnel. Some firms offer a two- or one-day onboarding program; others offer a month-long, more comprehensive sequence of events.

Orientation and onboarding are sometimes confused. Onboarding is a full procedure that involves leadership and other staff and can take up to 12 months, whereas orientation is required for completing documentation and other basic activities.

What Makes Proper Onboarding Crucial?

All newly hired staff members receive onboarding; nonetheless, the caliber of the onboarding matters. A manager or HR specialist would frequently give a new hire a stack of paperwork and take them on a tour of the facility while introducing them to people on the spur of the moment. Nonetheless, a well-executed onboarding process creates the groundwork for both the business and the employee to succeed in the long run. In addition to helping staff members succeed at the beginning of their professional lives with the new company, it can increase productivity and foster engagement and loyalty.

According to a Gallup study, employees who thought their employer did a fantastic job with onboarding were almost three times more likely to believe they were in the best imaginable job than those who didn’t. In general, only 29% of recent hires said they had the tools and support needed to succeed in their new positions. There is much space for improvement in this.

According to numerous studies, there is a direct and positive relationship between the profitability of a business, customer satisfaction, safety record, absences from work, and employee engagement. A well-designed onboarding program presents a prime chance to increase employee engagement through various means, such as establishing a positive rapport between fresh hires and management, reaffirming the organization’s dedication to supporting employees’ career development, and demonstrating management’s recognition of employees’ abilities.

In a similar vein, the value that workers will receive from joining a specific company is outlined in an employee value proposition (EVP). Through the organization’s culture, it is embodied daily and represents the promises made throughout the recruitment process. Employees see for the first time during onboarding how a company’s EVP might or might not be achieved.

Summary of the Onboarding Process

An onboarding program can be designed in a variety of ways, but the following elements are essential to the procedure:

Pre-boarding: It is advisable to arrange for new hires to visit the workplace, send them orientation materials, and care items, and designate a buddy to assist with integration prior to their formal start date.
Orientation: Along with reviewing the employee handbook and important regulations, completing paperwork, going over administrative processes, and doing other required training, you should also introduce them to the company’s structure, vision, goals, and values.
Building the Foundation: While acknowledging that assimilation of these principles takes time, make sure the onboarding process continually embodies the organization’s mission, culture, brand, employee value proposition, and other fundamental characteristics.
Mentoring & Buddy Systems: Assist new hires with direction, support, and organizational intricacies by partnering with hiring supervisors to assign mentors or pals.

Novel Techniques for Onboarding

An onboarding program’s various components can be provided in a way that best suits the company and its resources by combining various techniques and processes.

To make new hires enthused about joining the organization, certain companies are implementing creative methods including games, videos, and team-building activities. They are also striving to ensure that individuals have operational workstations and hardware so they may start working right away. A few instances of this involve:

Facebook has a policy known as the “45-minute rule,” which states that new hires can start working as soon as they arrive because most of their gadgets and systems are ready when they report for duty.
Leaders at Boston-based national construction company Suffolk Construction encourage recent hires to take part in a range of team-building activities, such as paddling the Charles River.
New hires at Farmingdale, New York-based performance bedding firm Bedgear go on a walking tour across midtown Manhattan to see other companies that offer personalized goods, such as Samsung and Warby Parker.

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