Regardless of whether you’re conscious of it or not, the experience you create during the process of onboarding a new employee can determine whether or not you have happy employees. It is worthy of note that the first impression an employee perceives would go a long way in determining their future with your organization. Sometimes, it feels like you’re spinning your wheel trying to recall everything they need to learn. A good onboarding process can go a long way to increase retention and ensure new employees gets up and running swiftly. More so, it ensures employees become effective sooner, which would undoubtedly build their confidence and help them improve.
As a recruiter, your hires should believe that they have made the right decision by joining your team. A great onboarding experience has a long-term impact on employees and for good reasons. As an HR personnel, it behoves you to understand that onboarding goes way beyond signing paperwork, sharing manuals and documentation. Without a structured system for the onboarding process, new employees would find it difficult to catch on and get acquainted with their new position.
On the other hand, an effective onboarding system helps new employees understand your core values and learn how their work can be structured within those values. Also, it builds connections with new hires and helps them feel a sense of belonging within the new community. We have compiled 7 strategies by which you can onboard happy employees – thereby increasing retention rate.
1. Invest time in onboarding checklists
Designing checklists for new employees would help you systemize your business. By so doing, you will be able to transform a process that can be overwhelming to one that is significantly less complicated. Furthermore, having an onboarding checklist guides you into checking each of the key hiring steps.
2. Provide a mentor
Employees’ first day at work is usually stressful, but the level of the stress would be determined by the employer. To soothe this stress, you should assign a mentor to each new employee. This way, the new employees would feel they have someone to guide them as they integrate with the new system.
3. Place them in customer service for a start
One of the best ways by which new hires would adapt to the system and understand your products/services is by working in the customer service department. This strategy has proven to be one of the best in helping employees understand the organization. Placing new employees in customer service would help them to understand what customers want and how they think. This would make them more empathetic to customers’ needs and will make them better equipped for their eventual position.
4. Engage them immediately
The best way to integrate a new employee is to get them involved in a project immediately. Assigning a new project or asking them to join a team in an ongoing project would give new hires the kind of engagement that’s required to get them going.
5. Do regular one-on-ones
Having frequent communications with new hires would help you understand the challenges they might’ve encountered somewhere along the line. You should set aside some minutes every week for a one-on-one conversation. Also, you should endeavour to know a couple of things about their personal lives. This way, you build a more human connection with them.
6. Create an avenue for all employees to communicate
Communication is key to building a strong and lasting relationship. Hence, it behooves you as a recruiter to ensure that the existing employees engage in some form of communication with the new employee.
7. Make it fun
In all honesty, the process of onboarding can be stressful and complicated. However, you should endeavour to create an aura of fun around it. For instance, you may create a new member welcome kit with all sorts of goodies. Furthermore, new employees can get to meet other team members and get their own first impression of everybody within the organization.