The Importance of Onboarding
Don Schmitz/Human Resource Staffing
An effective onboarding process helps new hires feel that they are part of a larger organization and that they are important.
How people are treated when they join your organization determines whether they become productive quickly, whether they become engaged and participate in decisions and innovation, and how long they stay with your firm.
Learning from a wide variety of employees the accomplishments of the past will lead to greater security and comfort. The orientation can start as early as the job offer. There is nothing like opening your email and finding a senior manager welcoming you to the organization.
The Orientation Process
The hiring process is very much like bringing someone new into your family. Consider the experience from the employee’s perspective, and then make an effort to make it fun, interesting, exciting, painless, and as simple as possible.
Orientation content might include sessions on the corporate history, the values of the company an overview of the strategy and fiscal goals, an overview of the finances and a greeting from some senior-level executive.
A large portion of many onboarding programs is now developed as e-learning modules and can be offered to the employee before they even start. An online resource that is regularly updated, and always accessible, is the best practice when it comes to information sharing. Topics that can be covered best in e-learning modules include the history, organization structure, social networking policy and of course, the benefits provided.
Once the new employee settles into the job, HR might send a reminder email that certain materials are available online, and encourage the new employee to frequently visit the Intranet for information.
The manager should be the key player in the onboarding process. His role does not only include the formal process but the informal activities as well.
Managers can mentor all of the orientation themselves, but it takes valuable time and doesn’t help team members get to know each other quickly. Instead, add the knowledge of your experienced people and assign a couple of mentors to new employees.
These mentors can come from the same area or better yet a different area to prevent them from gaining to narrow a viewpoint of the company. Research shows clearly that providing a mentor who can offer insights into the corporate culture, who can explain the organizational structure and help the new employee understand why things get done in the way they do, is a major contributor to increased productivity and lower turnover.
Weekly feedback sessions with the manager help the new employee stay on track. As soon as possible have the employee lead the sessions. These feedback sessions help them know where they are going and what they need to focus on.
Throughout the orientation, be sure the new employee understands where he or she fits in and why you do things the way you do them before assigning the work. This will ensure that their efforts are aligned with the team goals.
Further Orientation
After the basics are covered, subsequent training may extend for several months. Some programs include rotational assignments; others may include special projects that are designed to expose the new employee to parts of the company he would not normally have any contact with.
A get-together of all the employees hired in a particular month or quarter, with activities designed to introduce them to one another. This helps new employees expand their knowledge of the company by rubbing elbows with employees they regularly never come in contact with and provides them with knowledge of the larger organization. If your company has more than one location, this may include visiting other sites.
Employees who have experienced a successful orientation will be more productive, feel better about the company and understand his role in helping it grow.
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of this article cannot be accomplished without the expressed
consent of Human Resource Staffing. Don Schmitz is a popular
speaker and writer on all aspects of HR and CEO of Human Resource
Staffing. Don holds graduate degrees in Education, Administration
and Human Development.
Contact Don@HumanResourceStaffingInc.com
952 854 6040
