Effective Onboarding Tips That Will Make The Entire Process Much Easier

Practical onboarding is crucial after hiring an employee. You need to assist new employees to get familiar with the work environment, their roles, and the level of commitment they have to put in to achieve results. Here are some practical tips you need to know that will make onboarding seamless and effective.

Welcoming Employees

After you are done selecting the recruits, send them relevant information about the company, the tasks they will be performing and the rules they would most likely follow. Let them get familiar with their responsibilities and provide them with safety instructions. If you already have tasks assigned, send them their weekly schedule, so they can understand their duties.

Several tasks and duties might even require orientation or a few training sessions. In situations like these, let them know of the training sessions, so they can plan.

Setting Goals

It is crucial to set a road map for your employees. Gradually assign responsibilities and tasks over the coming weeks, as the onboarding process will take from a few weeks to several months. You can use the SMART goal strategy to plan out the tasks your employees will be performing. This goal strategy makes your goals achievable, time-bound, realistic, and measurable. After you have set the goals, check in on your employees once a month or bi-monthly to review the progress.

Being Available

As you will be in the process of onboarding your employees for several months, ensure they have the required support to perform their duties. For example, there might be some tasks that they can’t get their head around it, so helping them out would be great.

You can also assign team leaders to supervise certain tasks that would need a little guidance. The team behind Zenefits suggests introducing the employees to communication channels they can use to get their answers. Working on HR management is also a great way that helps in streamlining the onboarding process.

 

There are a lot of management apps you can use to track the progress of employees, assign them tasks, and streamline a plethora of processes that will save time and better manage the workflow. Dedicating some time to research will make the process of choosing a reliable HR app much easier.

Improving Internal Communications

Letting new employees make internal contacts are key, especially during the first few weeks. You can invite the newly hired employees over lunch or dinner and let them meet the team, including the CEO. Welcoming them like this will instill confidence and let them understand the mission of your organization. The stakeholders can even share their vision to motivate employees and let them pursue the set goals.

Guiding New Employees

Guiding your employees through orientation classes and training sessions might not be easy when the tasks at hand are technical. In situations like these, pairing employees with a senior can be beneficial, as they will have support while doing tasks. Providing support also boosts their confidence and increases their productivity by many folds. Their onboarding buddy can guide them in identifying their role in certain tasks and let them execute the best way possible.

Keeping It Simple

There will be a lot of jobs and tasks that employees would be learning after they have joined. However, keeping the tasks simple, especially during the first few weeks, is a great way to move forward. Furthermore, the employee has to understand company policies, safety guidelines, and compliance policies, but not all at once.

For example, it might be best for an employee to introduce workplace harassment and compliance policies. Everything else should be introduced, but slowly. They won’t be needing everything at the start of their job, so give them time to learn and understand everything step-by-step.

The training and material you provide should be according to their job competencies. For example, if you are running a construction company, the construction workers you hired should know the safety regulations, the standard way to perform tasks, the ability to safely use construction tools, and their rights in case an unfortunate event like an accident occurs.

Everything else might not be of use to them due to the nature of their job. Therefore, always provide job-specific training and material, as putting on too much can be overwhelming for a recruit.

There are still a lot of tips that can be followed to streamline the onboarding process. Adjusting to a new work environment takes time, even when you are providing the necessary training and enhancing your skill set. Besides working on new hires, make sure the employees already onboard welcome them and provide the required assistance to make the integration a lot easier.