You’ve found the perfect new employee for your company (likely by using some of these innovative ways to find and source talent) … now how can you keep them happy and avoid bad onboarding techniques?
Starting a new job is daunting. Perhaps there is no better proof of that than the study from Equifax Workforce Solutions that found that approximately 44% of employees who had left their jobs in the past year did so in less than six months of working there. Luckily, there is something that employers can do to help curb this turnover, and it’s called good onboarding. Failing to properly acclimate new employees to their jobs and workload could mean much more than a disgruntled workforce—it could mean starting over again and hiring completely new people when frustrated employees end up quitting.
The following are some strategies to put in place to stop bad onboarding from happening at your own company:
Don’t waste precious time with paperwork.
Of course all new employees likely have a ton of paperwork to fill out, but to the extent that it’s possible, make this a relatively easy task for your new employees so you can move on to the more important things. For example, rather than forcing them to sit in a poorly ventilated conference room or watch hours of HR videos, try to have any pertinent forms or videos easily accessible online, and give employees a generous deadline (within the first two weeks of work, say) to fill everything out and submit it online in their own time.
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Alert the staff.
It’s not likely that you’ve hired someone new to the company without others knowing, but consider preparing the team for your new employee’s start so that everyone knows exactly when this new person will be arriving, where she’s sitting and who exactly she’ll be reporting to. Your new employee shouldn’t be the only person with all the information about her new job—alerting the entire team about who should and shouldn’t be making demands on her is equally as important.
Set up their first week for them.
It’s a given that the first day of a new job can be tough, but really it’s the first few months that can be daunting. While it’s not realistic to hold a new employee’s hand through multiple weeks of work, you can do everything possible to ensure their first week is full of some fun stuff, not just company basics. (Although those company basics are important, too!)
Try setting up some lunches for new employees so they have an opportunity to meet new colleagues in a laid-back setting (avoid one-on-ones, though, which can be awkward for everyone involved), and invite them to join in on meetings without the pressure of participating during the first week, just so they can get a feel for how different types of meetings in your office are handled, how colleagues present information, etc.
Discuss monthly goals.
As we’ve already mentioned, the first few months of a new job can be stressful, so experts suggest helping new employees out by taking the time to outline any significant goals or projects that they should expect in the next 30, 60, and 90 days of work. Of course, it’s a given that you can’t plan for everything, but by giving your new hire even a skeletal outline of her first three months, you’ll be providing her with the tools she needs to have a successful initiation onto the team, and to hopefully continue that success in the future as well.
Check in regularly.
Again, don’t assume that once an employee has been around for a couple of weeks that she’s now good to go. Whether it’s a formal meeting that’s scheduled on your calendar, a quick email, or a desk pop-by, be sure to continue to check in with new employees for any questions they may have in the first couple months of their starting. Be candid at these meetings and ask how the job is stacking up to what they imagined it would be, what’s surprised them, and how they feel so far about their workload.
A few other things you might want to keep in mind when it comes to handling employees? How to professionally deliver bad news in a remote office, as well as eight ways to keep your employees from being bored at work.
Photo Credit: bigstockphoto.com
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