Good onboarding programmes enable new recruits to be productive quickly. Their medium and long-term success or failure can often be traced back to how well they’re trained early on in their tenure. So investing time and energy into planning effective onboarding programmes is time well spent.
Please read on for a summary of advice on the subject shared by members of Forbes Coaches Council on Forbes.com.
- Mirror the workplace model in the process
If your company works on a hybrid basis, for example, offer new recruits a combination of in-person and remote meetings to give them an accurate taster of how you work. This also provides the perfect opportunity for managers to clarify company policy and expectations in this regard.
- Assign a buddy
Assign a buddy to new recruits for the first three months. This buddy will be a longstanding member of the team who’s happy to show the ropes to new employees and be the go-to person for all their questions. They will have regular meetings to check how the new person is settling in and to address any training gaps identified. For details about buddy programmes, please see our recent article here.
- Write a personalised, three-month onboarding plan
Sharing a personalised three-month onboarding plan with clearly defined goals is extremely helpful. It provides reassurance to new recruits that they’re on track and flags up any budding problems so they can be addressed before they become an issue. It also helps the rest of the team to know how to approach training and support for their new hires. Include key people to meet and documents to be read in your programme.
- Create a standard welcome pack
Onboarding programmes need to be personalised by role and by team. This can be time-consuming. Creating a standard operating procedure for all the elements which remain constant across teams and roles is a good way to negate this. Common elements may include instructional videos, informational documents and checklists.
- Consider company culture
Consider carefully what resources and relationships are essential for new recruits’ understanding of the written and unwritten norms and values of your company, and ensure they’re covered during onboarding.
- Have all needed tools and resources at the ready
Ensure that all necessary technical tools and information resources are ready for your new recruits from Day One. There’s nothing more demotivating or frustrating than arriving at a company to find you’re not connected to the email network, or you haven’t got authorisation to access essential learning resources.
And that, as they say, is a wrap! Are there any onboarding tips that you think we’ve missed? It’d be great to hear your views and experiences on the subject. And if you’d like some help with the recruitment element of your HR challenge, please get in touch. ABL, your trusted recruitment partner, is as always here to help!
