Employee onboarding procedures
“You should never choose the company you work in, but the leader you work for”, goes a very famous line in the corporate world because it is always a good leader that makes a good company and a good leader is one who helps in building a good employee.
The amount of stress that a person seeking a job undergoes while applying for companies, starting from updating the resume to shortlisting the best companies, from preparing for interviews to waiting for the results, is similar to the search in finding the right candidate what the HR’s and the employers face while recruiting a good candidate who would not only be a boon to the company but also help in maintaining and balancing the work culture and office environment.
There always are huge possibilities of the right candidate turning down the offer or backing out at the last minute and all the hard work of identifying, interviewing, and recruiting the right talent goes in vain and things are back to square once again.
The real quest despite the several talent crunches does not end after the right candidate is found, but it begins just after somebody is hired, the onboarding process!
What is employee onboarding?
Employee Onboarding
Employee onboarding varies from one organization to another, but what makes them unique are the tasks involved in it. An employee onboarding process is the systematic transformation of promising candidates into top-performing employees.
The release of the offer letter to the recruits and awaiting their joining date is what the layman understands from onboarding a new hire, but there is more to it than just simple paperwork that follows a chain of processes while onboarding a new employee, starting straight from the orientation program, the training strategy, performance metrics, and a feedback loop.
There is a lot that depends upon the employee onboarding process since a bad experience can lead to early departures while a good experience can bring in long-term happiness.
Therefore, streamlining a solid employee onboarding process is necessary-
to impress the new employees
to help them gel with the existing organization
to give them certain prejudiced notions about the company
to prevent employees from quitting early
to reduce a lot of load and work of the HR’s
Step-by-step onboarding process of employees
Onboarding is the base foundation of hiring success and it is a process that is very much overlooked and underrated. Therefore, a systematic step-by-step process is required to follow. And in an era when companies invest more in the acquisition and retention of talent, maintaining a checklist is necessary to ensure that nothing important is neglected from the beginning.
To bridge the gap between two strangers, a glance of a smile, a handshake, and a hello is what it requires, and onboarding is the extended version of a handshake and greeting with a hello which begins like the following:
Releasing the offer letter:
The release of the offer letter happens soon after the recruitment is done and the HR of the organization rolls out the offer letter to the selected candidate along with warm wishes and welcoming messages, attached in a mail along with other forms and documents.
Offer letter acceptance:
Offer letter acceptance is considered to be a very trivial step where the newly hired are introduced to the companies’ terms, culture, and environment, and keeping the new hires engaged will maximize the chances of accepting the offer in affirmation.
Waiting period:
There are still chances that the employees even after accepting the offer letter might not turn up on the day of joining. So, it becomes very crucial to build a good rapport with the new candidate just hired and let them know of the following things that have already begun in the background before his/her first day since nobody would want to let go of an expensive and good hire.
Preparing paperwork– There is a list of paperwork that needs to be done and completed before the new hire joins the company so that he/she can have an overview of the benefits and allowances, and everything that is required to know about a new company. Finishing them up before the employees join brushes off a lot of load from the shoulders and once done, could be communicated to the employee via mail. This will not only give a fast but also a very positive impression about the company and the process.
Discussing job roles, responsibilities, and project with supervisor- For the process to go well, a clear job description with roles and responsibilities is required to be discussed with a manager or a supervisor who will ensure that the new employee is oriented in the organization, facilities, policies, and more.
Assigning a buddy – A buddy is a go-to person where he partners with the new employee, especially during the initial few months of employment. He/she happens to be a colleague to help and get the new hire through the period of the training of being in a new position amidst a group of new people and a completely new environment. Assigning a buddy much before the employee joins, intrigues the new hire about the comfortable space of the organization.
Connecting with the team on LinkedIn – It becomes a very positive experience for the new employee to get connected with his/her team members on LinkedIn and get to know about them, have fairly decent knowledge and idea about their positions and responsibilities in the company through their work profile.
Preparing employee workstation – This is one surprising activity that can be done as a part of the onboarding process where the workstation or the cubicle of the new employee could be set up before his/her joining, ensuring comfort and health guidelines. Items like furniture, laptop, tablet phones, stationery, and other items could be set up with neatly arranged desks and a bunch of fresh flowers, as a gesture of goodwill and warm welcome.
4. Day of joining:
The day of joining for the new hire is special with a string of mixed feelings and emotions.
They are happy, excited, anxious, and contemplative about the new company, the new work culture, the new people, and the new roles and responsibilities. HR has a very important and primary role in not only making the new employee comfortable but also invoke in them a sense of belonging. To make the 1st day of joining a memorable one, companies can take up the following steps as inclusions of the onboarding process:
Welcoming to the team – For starters, a warm welcome and a team greeting are required for the new employee to feel at ease in the company on their first day. There might be chances that the new hire turns up in the office during the busy hours and introducing them to the team members can get difficult to manage and the new hire should never be left unattended or neglected on their first day. Therefore a clarity on the schedule should be given to the employee besides notifying the respective team members about the same.
Coordinating with other departments – Once the new employee has been introduced to the respective team members, coordination with other departments is also a part of a smooth onboarding process, especially for small-sized organizations where the strength of employees is less and there exists a close-knit circle. This would also help the new hire to open up easily and approach them without hesitation for any work.
Tour to the office – A tour to the office and letting them know of the important and common area places like the cafeteria/kitchen, reception, support desk, etc is required so that the employees can have an open door system which will encourage them to walk up to any department and visit for any queries.
Handing over ID-card and visiting card – When the detouring of the office and basic introduction to the office family is done, handing over the ID cards might look a little cheerful and a deck of visiting cards would take the new employee to another level of excitement to have received necessary things just on and much before time.
Creating accounts and required passwords – Besides the HR department, the tech team would contribute here in creating new accessible accounts for the new employee and provide the required passwords for Wifi, restricted and allotted pages, and so on.
Giving access to tools, company phones – A neat and organized table is something that everybody loves, especially when beautifully done on the very first day. Providing a phonebook with important dials and mail addresses is something that the new hire would need once he/she begins work and having access to company phones and other working tools would make it easier
5. Induction and much more:
Induction
The duration of the onboarding process varies from company to company and might continue up to a whole week or in some cases even a month. It is during this time that the new hires and the companies come close and get a chance to learn about each other.
Onboarding is not only a system but an experience that the employees collect and understand about the business, about the clients and vendors associated with the organization. It is also the time where they get a run-through about the company and they are acquainted with the core values along with the culture and the vision-mission of the place they work for.
Introducing the ‘vision and mission’ of the company – Every company is born with a ‘vision and mission’ that gets deep-rooted and inked inside every employee who dedicates himself/herself working for the growth of the organization. A small company can only flourish and become big and recognized with the right measurement of motivation once the visions and the road maps are instilled in the employees of how to grow and help grow. Google has an amazing vision where it states to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”The vision statements are important because not only does it serve as a sustainable strategic plan for success but also acts as a guide for employees facing challenges.
The core values – The workplace is considered to be the second home for many employees and we also come across many such people who find the best of friends and mentors from the office, especially for outstation employees. Have clear company values ensure that all the employees are on the same page and working towards the same goal. Often said that a company without core values isn’t really a business and thus it helps in shaping the culture of the company.
About the company culture – A company and its founders take years to build, hold on and maintain its culture throughout, without having to compromise with the employees coming and leaving the organization. The culture and the outlook of the people working for any company speaks a lot about how enjoyable work could be or how much job satisfaction one can achieve. Also, statistics show that if the organizational culture is positive, companies can happen to be 12% more productive than in general.
Liaisons – This part of the induction process is completely handled and covered by the HR team alone where the employees are explained in detail about the policies and norms of the company such as the office timing, the dress code, parking area allocation, and other small minute but important information.
6. Taking out for lunch:
Incorporate lunch with the corporate team members can be helpful for the new hire to gel well and it is best suggested to not speak about any work-related topic during the lunch, rather get to know more about the employee, their likes, dislikes, schooling, hobbies, passion, etc. This is a step towards building a closer team, letting them know of the accessible leaders, and attain the trust and confidence of the new hire, thereby maximizing the retention of the employees.
7. The first quarter:
This happens to be the most crucial part where the goals are set for the new employees and what exactly they should be focussing upon while working for the company. This phase progresses towards the development of the newly hired employee in becoming an integral part of the organization. It not only reviews the performance and the feedback but also checks with the employees whether they have any issues or concerns with the workforce or the environment of the organization followed by a series of other important inclusions like:
Setting expectations – Assigning tasks on the very first day should be avoided and gradually set up the employee expectation can reduce or eliminate confusion. Achieving the goals and targets become easy for the employees while enhancing the success of the entire organization once there is clarity of what to do and how to move forward with the tasks. An accurate job description also helps in laying a good foundation between the manager and the person reporting directly.
Explaining long-term goals – Besides setting realistic goals, team leaders and managers also should ensure that their newly hired team members are accountable for those goals. Setting long-term goals also mean setting a deadline so the employee knows exactly what is expected of them and when. Managing goals has been a mantra very effective, which mainly focuses primarily on becoming more productive and ensuring that they enjoy greater job satisfaction throughout their tenure.
Provide reading material for personal growth – If it is not a practice of the company to provide reading materials to employees, especially to the new hires, then it is something that companies should start and focus on because as Rakesh Chandrashekhar, the COO of SmartQ Technologies puts it, “Take care of your employees and your employees will take care of you” which in every sense is true as these small little practices not only win the employee confidence and trust in the organization but also inspires and retains them for a much-predicted longer duration.
Encouraging to socially interact with other team members – Social interactions play a very important and essential role in the well being which in turn has a positive impact on employee engagement. The way good food gives a good mood, a good mood gives good work results. Lunch breaks or tea breaks are a great time to socially interact with the team members as well as with the other departments and build strong connections. Interacting socially not only helps in personal growth but also provides better mental health, lightens the mood, and keeps the employee happier in the workplace. It also promotes a sense of safety, security, and belonging inside the office premises.
Team Building
8. Reviewing the onboarding process conducted:
The new employees who join an organization have the greatest impact on the recruiter or the manager who hired them and their success or failures become very personal to them because more than anyone else the one who hired the one hired understands the skills and effectiveness. Onboarding becomes one of the toughest job transitions because even the experienced professionals are unfamiliar and new to the business and might take time to adapt to the new culture.
Reviewing the onboarding process should be conducted without fail and any opinions and suggestions should be noted down and accepted with affirmation and positivity. This not only would help to understand the expectation level of the newly hired employees but also their overall experience with the company and its hiring and onboarding process because an effective onboarding helps the new hires feel more valued with a better understanding of the roles and responsibilities, ways to increase their productivity and performance, resulting in increased productivity and decreased exit of important and valuable hires from the organization.
And along with a good onboarding experience, it’s of the utmost importance that you have a list of the best employee welcome kit ideas with you for a successful onboarding process. An employee welcome kit, also referred to as employee welcome packages or employee onboarding kits is essentially a new hire welcome kit designed to make a company’s new hire feel like being a part of the team and appreciated.
Although it might seem non-essential, employee welcome kits are an essential part of the employee onboarding process. It hugely affects the new hires’ perception of your company.
A fantastic welcome kit says that you care about your employees and want them to have a good company experience. Additionally, new hires feel more comfortable, happy, and engaged from the first day itself. Thus, such displays are necessary for showcasing and advocating the company culture.
The whole process of procuring and arranging the employee welcome kit might seem like a tedious job at the beginning. But with the right partner, you can curate a perfect welcome kit in no time. And when it comes to the right partner, SmartQ is your perfect choice. You can now provide a welcome kit to your new hires while SmartQ being the single point of contact. It provides a varied list of welcome kit options that you can pick and choose from and additionally they help you to customize the kit according to your preferences. SmartQ takes care of the total ground operations and procurement and ensures delivery in a swift process.
So, what are you waiting for? Let your employees know that you care and value them by curating the best onboarding kit for your employees with SmartQ.