One issue the human resource department often struggles with is spicing up the usually tedious and monotonous process of new hire onboarding. Getting new employees assimilated, prepared and engaged with their new company is one of the most important steps to having a successful hiring process. New hire onboarding often feels like a lot of paper work, explaining of procedures and added duties for HR. Although you can’t escape all of that, these are some recommendations for adding some life into your company’s new hire onboarding process.
Make New Hire Onboarding More Exciting with these Eight Tips:
Make New Hire Onboarding More Exciting with these Eight Tips:- Research. Find out what your current employees had wished they’d been aware of the first day that they walked in. You should try to get a wide array of opinions on the subject, from employees who have recently been hired to those who founded the company. Lots of things can seem like second nature when you’ve been at a company for a while but can be totally baffling to someone new. Investigate which things about your current employee onboarding program worked, and where there are areas to improve. Integrate all of your findings into your new program for employee onboarding.
- Share your culture. One key to understanding a new workplace environment is to understand how departments work with each other and what the company culture is like. Consider creating a representation of what a typical day is like at the company. This could be a text document or a video. You will want to show the fun sides of working at the company and show different people from various departments. Be sure to make it an accurate representation of what work is really like--you don’t want to lead with false expectations.
- Break it up. Trying to jam pack everything you need to learn into one day can be a knowledge overload. Employees are very unlikely to retain the information that they learn if it is all given to them at once. Break the onboarding process up across several days, and allow the new employee to start getting into their work and interacting with their coworkers, instead of cooping them up in meetings all day.
- Give them some goods. Greet your new hire with some company branded gifts. Whether it be branded clothing, mugs, pens or folders, receiving some company goodies can make new employees feel like they are really members of the team. Decking out the new employee’s desk with balloons and a card from management welcoming them to the team is another way to show the employee how excited you are for them to start.
- Get personal. Let your current employees get to know the new hire on a more personal level. Ask the new hire to provide you a photo and have them fill out a questionnaire about their personal interests and past experience. Circulate this information to your company before they start. This will give current employees an opportunity to recognize the new hire and strike up conversations that could lead to bonding.
- Introduce them. Set up a time for the new hire to meet the CEO, other C-levels or upper management. This can be a quick and casual interaction, but it offers the employee to hear from someone higher up why his or her hiring is crucial to the success and future of the company.
- Offer the keys to success. Equip your new hire with a company survival document to get them through the first few months. This document should cover where to find office supplies, who to contact with computer issues, business expense guidelines and even where to find the best lunch spots near the office. You can have some fun with this document as long as you cover the frequently asked questions employees have.
Although putting effort into setting up a fun and helpful new hire onboarding process can be time consuming, it is well worth the pay off. Employers who take the time to properly onboard see greater company commitment, higher performance and lower turnover from their employees.