By: Christina Nguyen
The onboarding process is one of the first rituals a new team member completes before becoming integrated with your organization, making it a crucial stage to make a fantastic impression. Onboarding is much easier if there’s a standardized procedure that can be replicated, so each new hire gets the same warm welcome. Maintaining a defined system can also help reduce errors and confusion for quicker, more efficient execution.
Here are some ways to improve your onboarding process to give it some uniformity while maintaining excitement and engagement:
Get all your training materials together and organize them.
Are your training materials all over the place? Do you have how-to videos, a shadowing period, and a handbook? Training is the part of onboarding that tends to differ among roles and departments, so it’s easy for this stage to be a little more scattered. Make sure all training materials are sorted out for each team member in their portal. If you’re not using such software, having a Google Doc or other tracker and folder for each individual person with links to everything they need in the right order can work too.
Diversify your training materials.
We’re all familiar with boring training in the form of a text-filled manual. Training can take the form of animated videos, infographics, and even live demos and shadowing sessions. Keeping training lively gives your new team members a sense of your creativity and desire to keep them engaged, further creating a positive first impression.
Make sure your employee handbook has more than just instructions.
The employee handbook should go beyond the basics and bring your organization and culture to life. Don’t forget to reiterate your mission, vision, goals, and benefits ‒ especially anything that pertains to employee and societal well-being. If you’re committed to a particular social cause, such as donating to mental health nonprofits, clearly state this.
Don’t make their first day just signing paperwork.
If you’ve got a lot of paperwork for team members to read through, it might be tedious and can fill up the entire day. See if you can spread out the paperwork throughout multiple days and what other options you have for their first day. This can include introducing them to their coworkers ‒ not just in their own department but company-wide. You could even tell the other employees that they’re going to meet a new coworker so they can be sure to be on their best behavior.
To speed up the part that IS paperwork, make sure everything is as filled out as possible beforehand. Make sure all necessary parties have signed everything, and all the logins have been created. Better yet, use an e-sign tool to allow new hires to complete any documents beforehand that they can!
Have honest check-ins.
No matter how welcoming your onboarding process is, everyone thinks differently. It’s entirely possible that some new employees may feel somewhat left out or just not fully acclimated ‒ remember, this is all new for everyone.
To help smooth the transition, consider scheduling formal meetings designated for onboarding check-ins or just informally asking new team members how they’re regularly doing.
A smooth, mindful onboarding can make quite an impact on a team member’s sense of belonging, safety and security in their new organization. A standardized, diversified, engaging process can help them gain an understanding of your company’s culture early in the process and set the stage for your future together.
What are some ways your company onboards team members in an enriching, welcoming, inclusive manner that boosts engagement? Feel free to let us know in the comments below!
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