Last Updated on November 7, 2023 by Owen McGab Enaohwo
Featured Bonus Content: Download the Onboarding Checklists For Different Employee Roles at your Company! Click Here To Download It.
Introduction
Hey there,
congratulations on your new hire! But this is just the beginning. Now you have
to run through your onboarding checklist to get your new hire settled in.
But wait. Do
you have an onboarding checklist prepared for your new employee?
If the answer is NO, then you should read this guide.
What is an onboarding process?
Onboarding is
the process of welcoming your new employee into your organization and ensuring
they have all the necessary tools, resources, support and knowledge to become
successful and highly productive at your organization.
According to a study carried out by CAP, the cost for replacing an employee is about 16 percent of the annual salary of low-income earners and sometimes as much as 213 percent for executives. Therefore, if you do not get the onboarding process right, you will lose a lot of money to employee turnover.
If you do not have an onboarding process yet for your new hires, then you should develop one. This guide will walk you through the steps to develop an onboarding checklist to help integrate new employees as quickly as possible. It covers the A to Z of onboarding with checklists you can adapt for your organization; by the time you are done with reading, you will have a clear picture of how to develop a seamless onboarding process for your organization.
However, you
should not mistake onboarding for training. Organizations believe in training
new hires to acquaint them with the daily tasks they will be facing when they
begin work. The focus of training, however, is too narrow. Onboarding, on the
other hand, entails every single detail and aims to establish a smooth working
relationship between the new hire and other members of the team.
Most
organizations are always in a hurry to fill up vacancies and often get carried
away without giving the new hire the attention, tools, resources and knowledge
that will help them at their new job.
Why You Need Onboarding to Get Better Results From New Hires
The workplace
is a beehive of activities, and when a new hire joins your team, they will find
it difficult to blend into the stream of activities going on around them. We
don’t want an employee looking lost and feeling confused on their first day,
now do we?
I bet your
answer is “No.”
Put yourself in
their shoes and imagine coming into an organization for the first time to join
the team. How would you feel if on your first day of work, you were presented
with few details on what is expected? Or if nothing was prepared for you and
you have to just sit and watch everyone going about their activities as though
you didn’t matter?
Not good,
right?
In a survey carried out by the Allied Workforce Mobility, only 39 percent of companies took time to define the role of their new hire, and this has left new hires with the challenge of getting things right from day one.
New hires need
to feel wanted, and this should start even before they come onboard. Proper
onboarding reduces the chances of new hires developing second thoughts about
joining your organization and helps them give their best from day one.
So by now, I
hope you’ll agree that your organization definitely needs an onboarding process.
Still need more
proof? In the next chapter, we look at some onboarding facts and figures that
will amaze you.
10 Onboarding Facts and Figures You Need to Know Now!
The need for an
effective onboarding program for your organization cannot be overemphasized.
Here are some points worthy of mention about onboarding programs and their
effect on retention, turnover, performance and productivity.
New hires who go through a well-structured onboarding orientation process were 69 percent more likely to remain at the same company for up to three years. Poor onboarding programs leave a new employee in a state of confusion, alienation, and lack of confidence, which can eventually cause them to leave the organization (source).
About 35 percent of organizations indicated they do not have a budget for onboarding new employees. This means they are spending a lot to hire someone, but spending nothing, in addition, to keep them productive; this is a very bad move (source).
About 30 percent of organizations, who constantly update their onboarding process, are more like to respond better too new employee trends and industry indicators (source).
It costs an organization 16 to 20 percent of an employee’s annual salary to replace them (source).
The best companies or organizations will begin their onboarding process before day one 35 percent of the time (source).
About 22 percent of organizations do not have any formal onboarding program in place for their new hires. This sets the employee up for failure from day one (source).
Companies and organizations in the U.S. and U.K. are estimated to spend $37 billion annually for employees that are not productive because they do not understand their job (source).
Having a well-organized, onboarding process sets up an organization for up to 50 percent new employee productivity and performance (source).
An organization with a longer onboarding program produces employees who gain full proficiency 34 percent faster than others with shorter programs (source).
When employees pass through formal onboarding training, they boost their managers’ satisfaction by 20 percent and this, in turn, increases performance (source).
This infographic has all the most important onboarding facts and figures.
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This brings us
to the question: Of what benefit is a standard onboarding program to your
organization?
Want to know?
Read on as we
take a look at the key benefits of a standard onboarding program and how it can
help your organization.
Key Benefits of a Standard Onboarding Program for Organizational Transformation
The need for a
standard onboarding program cannot be over-emphasized as it can make or mar the
outcome of your new employee. After all, 90
percent of employees decide whether to stay or leave
their new jobs within the first six months. So the first six months is crucial,
and as an employer, you have the power to influence the decision of your new
employee via an excellent onboarding process that helps them settle in a timely
and comfortable manner.
In a survey of employees carried out by Office Team, more than half said they had experienced one form of mishap or another; this can be linked to a poor onboarding program. About 33 percent of employees said that technology was not properly set up, 22 percent said they didn’t receive the necessary supplies, 16 percent did not get an overview of the company and its policies, 15 percent said they were not introduced to their coworkers, and 14 percent reported that they were not given a tour of the office. All of the aforementioned points can hinder the performance of a new hire and should be avoided (source).
Image Source: SocialTalent
An effective
onboarding program has a domino-like effect. When an employee goes through a
proper one, they perform better. More productivity means better results, and
this moves an organization closer to its goals.
Key benefits of
a good onboarding program include the following:
A reduction in turnover: Proper employee onboarding helps with employee retention and saves your organization the time and money that would have been spent on another set of new hires.
A boost in business growth: An employee who goes through proper onboarding is better engaged and aligned with the goals of the organization from day one. According to Gallup, they also have a 147 percent increase in earnings per share than their competition.
Encourage open communication and trust: With a proper onboarding program, new hires understand the need for communication at every step, and they learn to trust the organization and put in their best effort too.
Onboarding is
an all-encompassing process and should be done properly. How should you go
about it? The formal or the informal way? Which is the best choice? Read on as
we look at the best way to set up your onboarding process to maximize your
employment efforts.
Formal vs. Informal Onboarding – Understanding the Best for Your Organization
The onboarding
process adopted by every organization is a function of its existing culture.
There is no single method for creating a general onboarding program. Each
organization has to create a unique onboarding process based on the goals they
want to achieve with their new hires.
The formal form
of onboarding involves taking actions at given timelines, and this yields
better result. Informal onboarding, on the other hand, has no hard and fast
rule; the process often makes new hires feel neglected. It does not involve
proper documentation or working with timelines, which makes it difficult to
track progress and feedback from new hires.
In 2008, First Horizon National in Tennessee suffered a large number of employee layoff and needed to restructure. Their HR was challenged engage the employees in new tasks as soon as possible and get them to fill the new void. There was a need to use an onboarding checklist. They went for the formal onboarding process. This allowed them to get started immediately and improve based on feedback as time went on.
Informal
onboarding leaves too many facts to chance, while formal onboarding mandates
employees to follow a pattern without making them feel overwhelmed. The result
proves that employees had a stress-free transition with their new roles. This
led to increased efficiency.
Generally, formal onboarding programs are better. To further help, the Society For Human Resources (SFHR) has come up with established components that should be included in your onboarding program:
Compliance: This covers the basics in your
organization with regard to policies and acceptable procedures. This forms the
lowest level of integration of new employees into your organization. They are
taken through the details on safety regulations, confidentiality needs, company
policies, departmental procedures, as well as harassment prevention.
Clarification: This process involves detailed
explanation of the duties and expectations of the new employee. They get to
know the organizational/team goals and their relevance to achieving these
goals. This sets them up for what lies ahead so they know what is expected of
them as well as the implications of not getting their job done.
Culture: Exposure to company culture
commences even before new hires start working at your organization. They learn
about your organizational culture from your websites or during interview
sessions. New hires should become familiar with your organization’s values,
mission and vision. They should also have a good knowledge of company history
and mode of communication in your organization.
Connection: New hires should be properly
integrated with team members and subgroups. There should be proper development
of interpersonal relationships and communication channels to help them settle
in nicely. Managers can also assign a guide or mentor to new hires; this will
help them scale through the first few months of joining your organization.
One final step
is feedback. Ensure that you get feedback from new hires and periodically check
back to see how they are coping with their new role.
Next up are the
common onboarding mistakes organizations make. Keep reading to find out if you
are guilty of any of them!
Top 8 Onboarding Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
It’s true that
the cost of employing a new hire is on the increase, so organizations should be
spending more time and money on determining how to achieve their goals for
business growth, instead of spending it on interviewing potential new hires.
Therefore, it’s
important to get your new employee onboarding process right the first time to
save your organization the trouble of dealing with increasing turnover. So what
can you do to establish creative employee onboarding process?
Let your
organization be like the wise man and use these proven onboarding checklists to
get it right the first time. These tips can help organizations avoid making
common mistakes with new hires and learn some unique onboarding ideas to adopt:
1) Starting Too Late
Do you plan to
commence onboarding of your new hire from the first day they start work?
Well, that’s
too late! Surprised? Don’t be.
The best time
to start onboarding your new hire is before their first day. Doing so helps
them prepare and familiarize themselves with what is expected. Moreover, they
also get the chance to pinpoint any gray areas where they might need further
clarification to be sorted out before they start.
2) Poor Prioritization of Information
Delivered
Have you
informed your new employee about the vacation policy or insurance options in
your organization? While it is necessary for new hire to know the former, you
should start with more vital information and details during the onboarding
process. Make sure to discuss goals and expectations of them. They should also
know who to report to in case of problems
3) Relying on a Paper System
Have you handed
over the updated employee handbook, benefits policy and employee paperwork to
your new employee? With the shift to digital formats, it would be a waste of
resources to send out bulk paperwork to new employees.
Don’t make this
mistake. Adopt digital forms and software to make the process easier and faster!
HR can email digital forms to new employees so they can fill out their
paperwork from wherever they are, instead of waiting for them to go through
papers and documents.
4) Letting Go Too Early
Does your new
employee seem comfortable within the first few days? Have you stopped checking
on them because they seem to be doing fine?
It is bad
onboarding practice to let new hire stand on their own too soon! Even if you
know that they have the experience to pull through, you should still follow up
and get feedback. This helps you catch any issues that might crop up and
ensures a smooth onboarding process.
5) No Warm Welcome
Do you lead
your new employee straight to their desk and expect them do dive in straight
away? Going straight to business is great, but remember that new hires are
human and would appreciate a warm welcome.
The truth is,
you never forget how nice you were treated on the first day at work, and this
can transform the attitude of a new employee.
One way to give
a warm welcome could be by placing a welcome sign and having their desk
completely stocked and ready. You can also go the extra mile and have a
co-worker take them out to lunch on the first day. I bet they will reciprocate
the kind gesture and put in their best at your organization.
6) No Grand Tour
Nothing is
worse than the feeling of being lost and not knowing how to find your way
around at a new job. This can be very uncomfortable and unpleasant. Therefore,
you should organize a tour for new hires so they can feel more comfortable and
relaxed in the office.
7) Not Getting Help
Onboarding new
employees can sometime be overwhelming. If your organization has its hands
full, then you should consider bringing in a third party to help you design a
process and onboard your new employees with programs that fit your company’s
goal. Failure to get help when necessary might cost you the loss of employees
with the possibility of increasing employee turnover.
8) Skipping One-on-One Intros
Introducing
your new employee to their team members or co-workers in a meeting or crowded
conference room is not ideal. New employees often feel overwhelmed and might
not remember everyone easily. However, a gradual one-on-one intro helps them
get to know team members and other co-workers better; this also makes it easier
for them to remember each person individually.
Employee
onboarding is an intensive and long program that should be taken seriously.
Knowing about common pitfalls gives you the chance to avoid them in your
onboarding process while embracing more friendly and creative ways to bring on
new hires.
Are you ready
to transform your new employee onboarding process and organization? Then, read
on to see how to develop an effective onboarding program.
The 5-Step Process to Developing an Effective Onboarding Program
Onboarding
programs are usually unique to each organization. This is because the culture
of organizations differs. Therefore, you have to develop an onboarding program
that helps you achieve your organization’s set goal. For instance, a new
employee might be used to working with minimal supervision and giving only
monthly report at a previous job.
If, however,
the new job requires submission of weekly reports and this is not defined, it
would appear as though the hire is not keeping up with what is needed. When you
help the new hire understand the culture in the new organization, they blend in
easily.
But you need to
develop an onboarding program to help you capture all the details. Then, then
you can adapt it further to suit the exact position of the new hire, and this
becomes your onboarding program template that you can use for several other new
employees with a bit of modification.
For example,
RehabCare wanted to improve the efficiency of new hires and opted to have a new
onboarding program developed. The new system developed adopted a lot of
automation and centralized systems. They reduced paperwork and made necessary
information available online for new hire to go through at their convenience
prior to starting their new job.
In the end, the
organization end up with a better program and reduced their bulky,
twenty-plus-page new employee packet to a one-page welcome and orientation
sheets to guide them through the process. Now, new hires would have a better
experience during the onboarding process, which leads to more efficiency.
Want to have
same results for your organization? How about developing a program that’ll work
for you? Here is a five-step process to follow:
1) Carry out an assessment
To develop an
effective onboarding program, you need to work backwards. What this means is
that you should project and imagine where you want your organization to be in
the next three to five years.
Then, assess
what you need to get there and identify the issues preventing you from
achieving this. These issues can be the required skill or tasks that need to
completed to get you to your goal. List and match them with an employee who can
handle it.
2) Decide on a suitable program design
Now that you
understand the requirements to achieve your goal through your new hire, then
you can list out duties and responsibilities.
Come up with a
structure that will help execute tasks to reach your goal. However, make sure
that this is realistic and achievable. Adapt it to reflect the current culture
in your organization, but do not make it complicated.
3) Organize your content
Decide what
should be done first, which tasks are urgent? Also, identify and procure the
tools and resources needed to ease the execution of these tasks.
For example, if you want your new hire to use software to execute a task, then you should have it ready and have their profile created with a brief training on how to use it.
You can send
these details ahead of time to ensure that they go through them before
reporting to work to ease the communication and delivery process.
4) Set up a feedback process
Figure out how
to get feedback from new employees. What period is best and how soon should
they get back to you? These details will help you track the progress of your
onboarding program so you can make adjustments before things go from “bad” to
“worse.” Do so weekly or twice a month, depending on the volume of work
available.
5) Evaluate and adjust
Besides a
feedback system, you also need one to evaluate employee progress. What are key
indicators of positive effects of your onboarding process? And if it is not
working, do you have a plan B?
Sometimes,
things might not turn out the way we planned. During evaluation, you should be
able to put things back in perspective to get everything back on track. Having
more than one option makes the adjustment a whole lot easier, and your new
employee can easily bounce back to their journey on achieving the set goal.
Follow our
five-step process to come up with a workable onboarding program. Next, adapt it
to reflect your targets and organizational goals! Let’s see how you can keep
things in check.
Adopting a Timeline Sequence to Keep Up With Your Onboarding
When it comes
to onboarding, there is no “one size fits all.” Therefore, every organization
needs to come up with a strategy suited to their needs.
The timeline should be something that works for both your new employee and business goals. It should feature a breakdown of what the new employee should be doing and when they should get it done. Additionally, the sequence should include office procedures, software training, team training sessions, as well as any other skill-building they need to be effective.
When you have
good timeline, it helps you develop an effective training program that fits in
line for better results. The sequence of your timeline can be as follows:
A pre-first day schedule
First day
First week
First month
First three months
First six months
First year
When you define
what you want to achieve during each period, then you can outline the tasks
that need to be carried out to help you reach this goal.
With the
timeline figured out, you may be thinking of activities to include at each
phase of your timeline. Well, we’ve got you covered. Stay tuned as we take a
look at what you should be doing at each stage of the onboarding process.
Pre-Orientation Before Day One for a Good Start
Image Credit: Julien Bachelet from Pexels
For your
onboarding program to be effective, you need to start early. This means
commencing the process even before the employee has their first day. Waiting
until the first day is not as effective as starting a day before.
Even big giants like Google start early and have adopted the use of onboarding checklists to help them. In fact, Google’s HR was able to accelerate employees’ time-to-productivity by 25 percent. The HR team simply sent out e-mails on Sunday before new hires started, reminding the managers to consider five tasks that Google has identified via data analysis to be very important for the success of the new hire. The managers then follow through and carry out these tasks without feeling pushed to get it done. This simple technique has made a major difference for Google.
Here is a
pre-orientation to-do list so you know what you need to do early on before day
one:
Send a welcome e-mail or letter. This should be personalized. You
may want to follow up with a phone call to brief them on dress code, company
policies and a run-down of their expected schedule on the first day.
Complete pre-employment physical checks.
Carry out a complete background check.
Determine the set-up of the employee’s desk as well as location
and type of furniture.
The IT department should handle access to phones, computer, and
profiles to ease the pressure on day one.
Create a nameplate, employee ID and business cards, if necessary.
Send out an email to concerned existing staff to announce the
arrival of the new employee.
Update relevant team lists and documents, such as staff schedule
lists, birthday lists and organizational charts.
Share this checklist
with team members who will be directly responsible for the tasks listed.
Provide Resources, Support and Follow Up
Once you have a to-do list, ensure the resources needed to execute every step is made available to team members directly involved in the process. For example, if a particular team needs to handle a project, then you should send out the details of the project way ahead of time so that they can digest it and be able to provide meaningful contributions when the need arises. Provide support along the way and put in corrective measures to ensure compliance.
This brings us
to how to simplify your onboarding process. Do you have an onboarding
checklist? If your answer is “No,” then stay with me as we cover the checklist
strategy for your onboarding program.
The Onboarding Checklist Strategy for a Hitch-Free Onboarding Program
The process of
onboarding a new hire can be burdensome, if not done properly. You must make
sure every step is carried out and no stone is left unturned.
To help you
with this, create an onboarding checklist that lists all the tasks that need to
be done and when. It is the most important tool to ensure a smooth onboarding
program.
Top 5 Benefits of Having a Checklist for Your
Onboarding Process
Great for duplication of processes. All new employees joining your
organization are treated equally.
Helps you keep track of your new employee and monitor their
progress.
Ensures you do not forget to pass on critical information to your
new employee.
Helps retain top talent and make the best use of their time.
Makes the first months of new hires run a smooth course as they
are gradually integrated into your organization.
One challenge
is that each employee job description differs and so does their onboarding
process. That’s why we discuss specific checklists to suit different employees
in the next section.
Custom Onboarding Checklists for Different Employees
An onboarding
checklist varies from one job position to another. For instance, a checklist
suitable for a manager might not be suitable for IT personnel. For this reason,
we have come up with several onboarding checklist templates that caters to
different employees.
You can download all the files for each template and adapt these templates to suit your needs and make the onboarding process seamless.
Do you want
more tools and resources? The next chapter covers what you need to keep up with
your onboarding program.
Top Onboarding Planning Tools for Best Results
When you have
the right templates, tools and resources for your onboarding process, you’ll
find it easy to adhere to it. Imagine having to start everything from scratch.
You waste time and resources that would have otherwise been used for other
projects. Templates are great to keep you a step ahead and get things done more
efficiently and effectively.
You should put
together the following onboarding planning tools and resources:
1) Job Offer e-mail template
This should be set up based on
the conditions of employment. It should cover details such as:
A Brief report on employee performance at the interview
Salary package to be offered
Details of benefits, e.g., vacation, insurance, 401k, etc.
Feedback helps you keep up with the onboarding process so you can easily identify areas that do not deliver any value. The feedback form is an orientation evaluation, which allows new hires express
themselves and tell you how the feel about the onboarding process.
Points to cover include:
The best part of their experience
The worst part of their experience
How they perceived the orientation process
Level of satisfaction with the process
Keep in mind
the feedback form is meant for both existing employees and the new employee.
Download and
customize these templates to use them for your onboarding program.
Although the
employee onboarding process might seem complex, it is a simple way of ensuring
your new hires get it right from day one. The long-term benefits are worth the
effort; it helps you retain and integrate your new hires without much hassle.
We have put
together all the templates discussed as well as the checklists in a
downloadable PDF format so you can use them to develop your onboarding process
without stressing out about the details.
Click the image below to download templates and here to download checklists
Have you been
using an employee onboarding process in your organization? Share your
experiences with us in the comments section!
Why put your text in light grey and some of it in light blue. Sure it looks good but very hard to read. I was planning to read through it, but moving on.
Do it with SweetProcess, click here to learn more
![Employee Onboarding Process: How to Onboard New Hires Efficiently [+ Checklist]](https://www.sweetprocess.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/employee-onboarding-150x150.png "Employee Onboarding Process: How to Onboard New Hires Efficiently [+ Checklist]")
Why put your text in light grey and some of it in light blue. Sure it looks good but very hard to read. I was planning to read through it, but moving on.
Thanks for your suggestion for improvement. We will make changes accordingly once we launch our new site redesign. keep watch!
trying to download the checklist..but it doesn’t go anywhere?
Hi Steve sorry about there here is the link to download the checklist:
https://www.sweetprocess.com/onboardingchecklistroles