Organisations with great onboarding practices achieve on average 2.5 times more revenue growth and 1.9 times more profit than companies that harbor poor onboarding. It’s the vital system that serves as the building blocks for continued success within an organisation. This is because the workforce are the most valuable asset to a company’s profit.
But what exactly is onboarding? How do company’s deliver a successful customised program, and what are some best practices? These vital questions are uncovered below.
An onboarding program is vital as it gets employees familiar with their new roles and serves as the platform for their success in the organisation. During the process, new hires will learn about company culture, philosophies, best practices, team dynamics and everything else they need to get up to speed to thrive within the business.
Wielding a successful employee onboarding process increases new hire engagement, decreases employee turnover and leads to higher productivity. 69% of people stay long term at an organisation for 3 years or more if they have great onboarding. On the flip side, 9% say they have left a company because of the poor initial experience.
Effective onboarding delivers a consistent message to new hires and makes them feel valued. Ultimately training them to be role model employees. First impressions are everything, right? The same applies to onboarding, leave a positive first impression, and new hires are more likely to stay with the company.
This is a question that doesn’t have a one-word answer with many different variables in play. A loosely spoken rule in HR is that it should be approximately three months.
However, recent research has shown many benefits from increasing the time to a year, allowing for a more thorough process. New hires will have more time to get accustomed to their job, feel comfortable, productive, ask questions when they arise and become familiar to their work environment.
Giving employees the support for an extended period shows they are valued and invested in. Just this alone can improve retention by 25%. Allowing time for more in-depth training, extensive mentoring and meetings with seniors can cement their role in the organisation and enhance the employee experience.
An onboarding process must be customised depending on your organisation's needs. It’s not quite as simple as one size fits all. Examined below are several different practices for a company to implement:
Before your new hire starts their first day, onboarding should already be in motion. Here are a few suggestions on what that might look like:
When new employees have completed their mandatory training, give them a tour around the facilities. A few things to consider:
Schedule meetings with stakeholders who are key to their success throughout the new employees first few weeks and months. These can be mentors, higher-ups or members of their team. This shouldn’t be a process that finishes quickly. Make sure to organise recurring meetings for months in advance.
It’s vital that new staff members have someone to turn to and ask questions. This can be a direct line manager or a team member of a similar level. It is advantageous to pair the new staff member with an existing employee of an equivalent level as they provide relatability, and advice is retained better.
Select an existing team member who embodies what you want from your new recruit. This way they learn best practices quickly.
New employee onboarding checklists enable managers to ensure that everything is ready for when their new hire starts. Likewise, helping new employees understand what is expected of them in the first few weeks at their post. Here’s a number of items that should be on the onboarding checklist:
- Background checks
- Contracts
- Agreeing salary
- Work schedule
- Non-disclosure agreements
- Job description and responsibilities
- Sending welcome emails
- Set a start date reminder
- Convey dress code
- What to bring (Paperwork)
- Delivery of training materials
- Hold a one to one meeting
- Create a welcome package
- Notify current team members
- Administer role-specific training
- Check-in with the new hire consistently over their first few weeks
- Tour of the office
- Introduce to other team members
- Showcase what you have worked on
- Invite them to lunch
As onboarding is related to their job, they should be paid. Ultimately if the organisation has undertaken a diligent and thorough interview process, this should be no problem. Onboarding should be a lengthy process . In some cases, it can take up to a year. A valued employee must be paid for their training!
Although it is not a legal requirement, it’s best practice to invest in the employee from the very start. Ultimately the new employees are learning information specific to the company and industry, which the organization will benefit from in the future.
myAko is the intuitive learning management system that makes administering, managing and tracking onboarding easy. The online platform facilitates the automated delivery of over 2000+ engaging courses. Most importantly, organisations can upload their own customised courses for employees to complete. Training administrators are well satisfied with myAko as managing new employees' schedules is made easy through events management capabilities and recording training completion is trackable in real-time.
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