What is Onboarding?
Employee onboarding is broadly defined as the process of familiarizing a(new) employee with the organization’s policies, the employee’s role in the organization, and the organization’s culture.
What is the onboarding process for a new employee?
The onboarding process is broadly defined as the process of familiarising a (new) employee with the organisation’s policies, the employee’s role in the organisation, and the organisation’s culture. It also involves creating an environment in which the employee is made comfortable enough to interact freely with his/her colleagues and establish social relationships in the workplace.
How long is the onboarding process?
The consensus among HR professionals is that onboarding should take at least three months. However, some research suggests that companies can increase employee retention by extending onboarding throughout an employee’s entire first year.
What’s the difference between onboarding and orientation?
Orientation is the process through which recruits are introduced to their jobs, workplace, co-workers, and responsibilities. Whereas effective employee orientation answers any questions or concerns a new colleague may have, makes them aware of company policies and expectations, and eases them comfortably into their new positions.
Onboarding is a thorough process where new employees are introduced to their respective departments. They learn work by attending meetings and starter projects with co-workers. Managers can schedule regular meetings to check up on their new employees so that they become comfortable in asking about work-related queries. Orientation is a subset of the overall process.
Is onboarding the same as training?
Training is a sun-stage of onboarding that deals with technical as well as functional parts of knowledge building. Onboarding is the bigger scope of the first 90 days which deals with Pre-Arrival, Orientation, Training and Performance overall.
What is an online onboarding process?
Online onboarding deals with the entire workflow of traditional onboarding but digitally. Online onboarding has now been seen in the current days with the entire workflow from online onboarding form fill up, digital policy and undertaking sign-off to providing training via online sessions. The process may remain the same, but the platform or the way it is worked upon would differ.
What makes onboarding successful?
An onboarding process is deemed to be successful when there is a streamlined flow of events. From the Pre-Arrival stage to Training, a proper laid out process flow makes the onboarding process successful.
Check our blog on smarter onboarding for better engagement and greater productivity.
Why is onboarding so important?
A solid and streamlined onboarding process has a positive effect on the satisfaction, engagement and performance of new employees. Without proper onboarding, negative effects can arise such as:
5% of new employees quit immediately after a disastrous first day, hence it becomes very important to have a proper process in place.
20% of new employees will leave within the first 45 days of employment if they start to harness the feeling of not being of importance to the organisation.
Almost one in every three new employees will leave the company (voluntarily or involuntarily) before the end of their first year hence it’s very important to have a longer onboarding process to increase the retention rate. A good onboarding process leads to faster integration of new employees while decreasing costs.
What are the phases of onboarding?
There are supposedly 4 phases of onboarding which are as follows:
- Pre-arrival: The first phase is about pre-arrival. That is to develop a perfect method to make the onboarding process a great experience for the new hires. To make this phase more effective one needs to do the paperwork beforehand. So that when the employees visit the organisation he/she can prove to be productive from the very first day.
- The orientation: The second phase is about making the new employee/joined feel that they too are a part of the team and the organisation. This is very important to make the employee/trainee feel comfortable and to do gestures that help them to feel connected. Therefore, the first week of every employee is very important.
- Soft training & core training: Never overburden an employee in the first week itself. All the training processes or procedures must come in the first month. The learning phase of every employee is important therefore, in the first month the employee will automatically take the initiative to learn more so that he/she proves to be productive. The employer needs to make plans for the employee to get good training and to be more productive.
- Performance: Planning an ideal training program is very important so that the new hires can take an interest in the program. Moreover, they need to be given proper feedback for their work done. This will help them to get a scope to improve and do better.
What are the benefits of onboarding?
The benefits are many but to have key 4 points, the benefits can be categorised as follows-
1). Help in attracting and retaining top talent.
59% of HR professionals think that the next few years will bring a major battle to retain talented and top-performing candidates.
2). Engaging employees early on.
If you put every new hire through a thoughtful, educational, and fun program, you’ll go a long way towards fostering engagement and retaining it in the future.
3). Boosting business growth.
Engagement should be the objective of any onboarding program, not just because it builds culture and rapport, but because it also drives business growth.
4). Building trust and alignment.
Good welcome programs educate and inform new hires about organisational practices. Have new hires meet with senior management and hear from them directly about key organisational initiatives and goals.
What should onboarding include?
Theoretically speaking, onboarding has 5 stages:
- Pre-Arrival or Pre-Hire: The stage when an employee accepts the job offer which he or she has got.
- D-Day or the First Day: The first day on the job the employee witnesses is critical for building up and mixing with the work culture.
- Orientation Program: Before the training program, employees learn about the company and its key policies.
- Soft and Core Training: Employees are then set up for different training programs such as soft skill development, functional training and on-the-job training.
- Performance and Evaluation: As the employee now has served for a significant amount of time, employees now start making meaningful contributions and are evaluated upon the same.
A good onboarding program will create positive experiences at each stage to help new employees understand how to do their job while forging meaningful connections with their co-workers, their boss, and the company they’ve just joined.
How do you ensure employees are onboarded effectively and receive an unforgettable welcome?
Take a proactive approach to onboarding and cover all 4 C’s: Compliance, clarification, culture, and connection. According to SHRM, only about 20% of organizations achieve this level, so if you are taking an approach to onboarding employees effectively within your organization, you’re already 80% ahead of your peers!
Pro tip: Read Power of Moments by the health brothers and inspire yourselfyou’re your peers on how to create the most unforgettable welcome for a new hire.
Should you give swag before day one?
Timing for swag ultimately depends upon when the candidate signed the offer. Is this someone starting 3 weeks out? If so, consider mailing swag out to keep them engaged in the company before their start date. Or is it someone starting next week where the package might not make it in time? Adjust accordingly and the key is always to keep folks continually engaged once they sign to come and work for your great company.
If resources are limited, consider digital gifts to send! A welcome GIF can do wonders for welcoming a new hire as well as a thorough email welcoming them to the team, and outlining all they need for success in their new role.
How should you handle onboarding with multiple offices and no centralized HR?
Connect new hires both to their internal community and to their local community. Internally build connections through buddy programs, interest groups, and social events. Help new hires develop social ties to their specific work location as well.
Externally, connecting a new hire with local community service events and team offsites is a good place to start as well. However, this came up quite a bit in our webinar. How exactly do you tackle connection with multiple offices at play or a decentralized HR team? Technology can be your friend in this case. Research seamless onboarding platforms like sapling to help monitor your onboarding processes and ensure everyone is on the same page for day one success.
What should an ideal DAY ONE look like?
Some ideas to create a compelling day one for your new hire might include:
- Hosting a ramp camp
- Offering day 1 snacks & coffee runs
- Matching new hires with a buddy
- Delivering a starter project
- Ensuring they interview people across the organization
A lever, we believe in doing all of the above to set up new employees for success. See our day-one agenda and snapshot below for more guidance as you plan out your process to guide employees to success!
What is the best technology to integrate remote employees, hourly workers or workers in industries like manufacturing or food and beverage?
Sapling is onboarding and HRIS platform which is fully integrated with lever and enables remote teams like Invision, Zapier, and Digital Ocean to power consistent, automated, and red-carpet experiences for people teams and new hires. Other platforms like Slack and Zoom also make the goal of integrating new hires even easier.
What challenges have you faced while onboarding remote workers? How did you deal with that challenge?
The workplace is becoming more and more international and remote. Great onboarding specialist candidates will know why there need to be different processes for in-person and remote onboarding.
What would you recommend including in an onboarding package for new joiners?
An important task for an onboarding specialist is developing culture packs and welcome kits. They should have ideas about the important information to include in both such as culture outlines, the first week’s schedule, and an overview of the company history.
How would you measure the success of our onboarding program?
A great candidate will want to always be improving and reiterating the onboarding process, they should be concerned about feedback and understand that onboarding is a long process, not just the first few days.
In your opinion, what are some of the most important things to focus on during a new joiner’s first few days?
There’s no right or wrong answer to this one, it’s more about getting a better understanding of the candidate’s personality. They should also talk passionately about the important steps they take to make people feel welcome.
Sometimes an onboarding specialist will have to deal with conflicts. How would you handle a situation in which your new starter isn’t getting on within their team?
Communication is key, a good candidate will know how to navigate sensitive emotions between team members. They should talk about setting up action plans to make everyone feel more comfortable.
Let’s say you have a new starter joining this morning but you’re running late. What would your action plan be?
Onboarding specialists should take this situation seriously as they’ll know the company’s first impressions are at stake. They should be asking another team member to step in while they’re arriving at the office as well as making apologies to their new starter.
In your experience, what have you personally learned from being a new starter?
Demonstrates critical thinking and learning from experience as well as their ability for making other people feel comfortable.
How would you describe our company’s policies and values?
Explaining the brand and what your company stands for is one of the first things that new starters will encounter when they arrive. Your onboarding specialist should be able to communicate this effectively.
What software systems have you used in your previous positions?
The candidate doesn’t have to know the same systems that you’re already using, but the question should tell you how familiar they are with the most popular systems and how willing they are to learn new ones.
How do you stay motivated in a role that requires a lot of positive energy?
Your onboarding specialists will be welcoming new starters regularly, sometimes every few weeks if your company is growing fast. Keeping the same energy levels can be difficult so they should know how to stay upbeat.
Can you tell me about the day-to-day responsibilities you held in your past role?
You should get a good idea of their seniority level from this question, how experienced they are in different areas and what they’ll need to learn when joining your team.
Could you tell me about a time that you made a mistake at work? How did you handle that?
This should highlight their level of critical thinking and problem-solving skills, they should be able to own their mistakes and understand the importance of reacting fast to solve them as well as communicating these issues to team members.
How do you approach screening interviews for positions in which you have little experience?
Onboarding specialists will need to perform screening interviews across all departments, even though they will learn a lot about each department they will have some gaps in their knowledge. How they approach these interviews will give you a sense of their intuition and people skills.
What are the objectives of onboarding?
Help new employees learn the company’s mission, vision, strategic goals, and priorities. Help new employees understand performance expectations for a new job. Help new employees reach those performance expectations.
What should be included in onboarding?
Conduct a formal HR onboarding meeting, including details about benefits enrolment, company holidays and policies, company structure, and team culture and review your company’s vision, mission and values.
What is HR’s role in the onboarding process?
Human resources oversee or facilitate the completion of official and required documents related to pay and benefits, wellness, rules, and policies, as well as the completion of new hire paperwork. They may also manage new hire orientation programs and other resources in support of the onboarding process.
What makes a good onboarding experience?
Instead, a momentous, memorable, motivating onboarding should be a two-way experience where the company is learning about you as much as you are learning about the company. And like a great first date, it should be well-planned, dynamic, personal, social, and meaningful.
What is an onboarding specialist?
An onboarding specialist is an employee or third party overseeing onboarding in a company. This role can be specified as employee onboarding specialist and can refer to the person in a company overseeing the onboarding of new hires, or it could be customer onboarding referring to a person handling the onboarding of new customers.
How do you answer onboarding?
I feel welcomed by my team. I feel welcomed at [company name]. I feel like I fit in [company name] company culture. Overall, I am satisfied with the onboarding process.
