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HKThe 5 crucial ways to improve your onboarding...
You're about to invest in hiring some great talent, so ensuring they are set up for success early, will lead to higher retention rates and improved productivity.
We can all agree that the last few years have played havoc with our hiring practices and caused headaches for our Hiring Managers! If you, like most businesses now, have struggled even finding a suitable candidate for your role, then the last thing you want is for them to leave! Given that around 40% of new employees quit within 6 months, onboarding should be taken very seriously as a retention method.
Onboarding is more than just the basics
It is often assumed that onboarding simply means showing a new hire the office facilities and providing the IT equipment. But there is a hugely important part of welcoming a new team member that is often overlooked, it is this aspect of onboarding that can mean the difference between staying or going for the new hire. Yes, we need to give them their passwords and discuss KPIs, but the real way to improve your chances of the new hire staying is to make them feel like a valued and genuine member of the team.
Here are our best onboarding tips that you may not have heard before
- Have a morning tea on the first day your new hire starts, by creating a little gathering, it gives the opportunity for everyone to meet the new hire in an informal setting and, who doesn’t love a treat! It you are a virtual team, then a virtual tea is just as effective!
- Assign your new hire a mentor or a go-to buddy who has been in the organisation longer, they then will know where to go for questions, clarification or just a pick-me-up!
- Take them out to coffee, give them the local insider knowledge on where to get the best lunch deals, cupcakes, and coffees!
- Schedule get-to-know-you meetings between the new hire and key employees in advance. The meetings should cover off what your new hire is here to do, the stakeholder’s role and the interaction they can expect from each other on a day-to-day basis.
- A healthy work environment often has banter and camaraderie. Ensure your new hire is across all the “in-jokes” and acronyms so they can join in the fun. It’s great to have other teams helping the onboarding process to really establish more of those important informal networks!
Ensure the employee is taken on a journey of discovery about the company that includes facts, intangibles and stories from people regarding their work experience and tenure at the company. New employees should feel inspired for the future and ready to make an impact.
Onboarding is such a crucial part of your recruitment process
Every time we hire someone, it’s our chance for a better, more efficient, and happier team. It can be incredibly overwhelming for a new hire in their first week. One of the most important facets of onboarding is building connections between new hires and their managers, teams and the wider organisation. Done correctly, onboarding will help new employees feel comfortable in their roles and build connections with the rest of your team, and ultimately improve your staff retention.
