The first day at any new workplace feels like the first day of school: you’re the teacher welcoming a new (and probably very nervous) student into the classroom. Of course you want them to jump into their assignments as quickly as possible, but first you must provide them with the knowledge to succeed.
It’s not just important to make your students feel comfortable in your work environment, employees need to be well immersed into the company in order to do their best work.
Joining a new company can be daunting, which is why onboarding is an important step for companies to implement for their new employees. According to iCMS, onboarding is the initial process of assimilating new hires into an organization. There are many benefits of a great employee onboarding process for both managers and the new employees and for employees, the gains are quantifiable. An employee onboarding checklist can include:
Although there are many benefits, hiring a new employee also comes with costs that include the amount of money needed and the amount of time it will take to bring new hires up to full productivity. According to Christine Marino’s article 7 Need-to-Know Facts About Employee Onboarding, employees who participate in a structured employee onboarding program are 69% more likely to stay with an organization for 3 years. Failure to properly onboard new employees can cost a significant amount of time, money, and maybe even the employee themselves.
We’ve come up with an employee onboarding checklist of 3 steps you need to take to ensure that your new employees have a great onboarding experience:
Before the first day
You’ve made the offer for your new hire and in order for them to integrate into your company as seamlessly as possible, you’ll want to prep them with as much background information as they can digest before starting. Aside from the mandatory paperwork that needs to be done, equipping the new employee with documents about the company’s history and values would be helpful for them to get introduced to what the company stands for and begin to align with their goals.
On the first day
Welcome them to the team! Getting them acquainted with others in the company will ease their nervousness and connect with the people who they will be working with. A quick tour of the office and introductions to people will make the transition into the environment a lot smoother. After the initial look around the office, allow your new hire to settle into their area and check up on them every once in awhile to make sure all their questions are clarified. It doesn’t hurt to have a meeting as well to outline both yours and your new employee’s expectations of their role.
You might also need to set up a few more meetings in order to get them accustomed to the way things work around the office. Depending on their role, these could include:
Now that your employee has gone through the elementary processes of getting comfortable in the company, it is time for them to begin their duties. Although the employee onboarding checklist steps have been completed, learning is never over. It takes about 8-12 months for new employees to be as proficient as their tenured colleagues, which is why a proper onboarding program is important to speed up the process. Ongoing training is crucial to any company’s success as the company continues to grow and expand. Updates to products, changes in corporate hierarchy, or changes in policies need to be made known to all employees.
How Online LMS can play a role:
Worried about how much time the above steps would take to complete? Don’t be!
The option to take your onboarding to an online setting makes it possible for you to focus on what matters most: getting your employees up to date without the hassle of too many resources. Online onboarding has made it extremely easy for employees to quickly learn about the company without taking away time from other employees.
Learning Management Systems (LMS) are great for providing training and courses for employee onboarding in order to assimilate them into the company. The online community allows employees to interact with the content directly to provide them with a richer experience, and the managers are able to easily update and add training modules as the company grows. Using online training and eLearning modules also reduces frustration when coordinating times between different departments for employee onboarding, and ensures that no mistakes are made during presentations. It’s much easier to review and perfect content online in order to maintain a consistent message when onboarding employees at different times.
By Winnie Giang
Source: Business2Community
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