Getting Employee Onboarding Right

Employee onboarding is where everything starts for a new hire. Even before their first day, you want to ensure a new starter is fully aware of their role and responsibilities and is comfortable integrating within your office/business culture. Lack of employee engagement is a major issue within the job market with a large portion of employees not being as driven in achieving the business’ goals and contributing their skills as some of their peers; amongst other things, an effective onboarding process elevates the level of employee engagement and ensures that all members of the team are pushing together in the right direction. Below we’ve compiled some of our top tips for getting employee onboarding right.

The Welcome Phase 

The first day at a new job is always exciting as well as a little daunting. New hires should be made to feel comfortable as soon as possible in order to allow them to easily integrate with and begin contributing to their team.

1.  Keep new hires engaged by keeping in contact with them even before they begin the job. This is a great way to provide new starters with information about the job and what’s expected of them as well as a chance to begin introducing them to team members or leadership figures.
2.  Get some of the more tedious tasks such as the signing of paperwork or collecting of documentation done ahead of the first day; this allows new hires to focus on their new role.
3.  Make sure that the new starter has access to all of the equipment required to begin their job. It’s not particularly productive to spend several hours on the first day clearing desk space and may contribute to a new hire feeling uncomfortable or out of place.

An applicant tracking system can be an incredibly beneficial tool during the stages of onboarding as it allows for automated contact with talent and new hires as well as the collection of any documentation that may be required ahead of the start date.

Bring onboarding online to:

• Improve engagement with new hires
• Increase your staff retention rates
• Collect compliance documentation
• Ensure policy acceptance
• Automate your reference collection
• Manage offer acceptance online
• Secure electronic document signing

Download the onboarding datasheet

The First Day 

A new hire’s first day is all about meeting a delicate balance – you want to provide them with all the required information to get them started as quickly as possible, but without making them feel overwhelmed. A great way that many businesses help in providing a smooth first day for starters is by allocating a coach or a buddy who will help to guide them and get them comfortable with their surroundings.

It’s key that those being onboarded are given the opportunity to ask any questions and fully process the information that is being provided. If the role requires a substantial amount of teamwork, you may also want to dedicate some time in which the new hire will get to know their co-workers in a professional and casual sense.

The Next Few Months 

A common mistake many businesses make is to assume that onboarding only takes place over the first couple of days of the new hire starting. In order for onboarding to be as successful as possible, new hires need to be monitored for roughly the first 90 days since starting the job. Regular meetings are a great way to do this and managers should be encouraged to have regular scheduled 1 to 1s within which the new hires have a safe space to raise any concerns with their progress within their role also being monitored and discussed. Keep in mind that this is also a great opportunity to ask for feedback on how effective your onboarding process is and ask for ideas on which parts of the process work well or could be further optimised.

Contact Eploy for Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) 

At Eploy, we offer highly configurable Applicant Tracking Systems designed to help you find the best candidates for each and every job opening. Get in touch with our specialist team at Eploy to find out how we can help you meet your recruitment goals.