Everyone knows that happy, engaged employee is a proactive employee, but a recruiter can’t go around and ask the employees how they feel. The more productive tactic is to plan an excellent employee onboarding process that will show new hires everything they need to know about the company and their duties.
The thing is that more than 30% of employees have left a position within six months of starting, usually because companies didn’t plan the onboarding process well. Does a new employee have a good relationship with their colleagues? Do they know what the company’s goals and values are? Is their work valued? These are just a few questions that a recruiter should deal with.
Why is the onboarding process so important?
HR professional society SHRM define onboarding as “a process of integrating a new employee with a company and its culture, as well as getting a new hire the tools and information needed to become a productive member of the team.” However, there are more benefits of a successful onboarding process:
A good onboarding process means a positive start
Yes, new hire accepted a job offer, but they are still not 100 percent sure that the job will be what they expect. The first impression will help them form an opinion about the company, so if this process is chaotic or unhelpful, you could scare them away.
Better job performance in the future
If the company is organized, an employee will be, too. They won’t waste their time on social media because they don’t know what to do and who they are supposed to ask simple questions. Their job performance can only go forward if the initial period goes well, so don’t leave new employees in the dark.
Keeping employees in the company
You don’t want them to leave the company after a few months. This would be a huge waste of time for everyone. Employees who go through a structured onboarding program are 58 percent more likely to stay with a company for three years or more.
Customers will keep coming
Customers see everything. So, if your employees are engaged and productive, customers will see that and keep coming. Everyone likes to work in a pleasant environment, so engage employees from the start in order to increase customer satisfaction.
There are many reasons why the employee onboarding process is a must for every company, but let’s focus on things IT recruiter agencies should do in order to build a strategy for the process. Let’s find out how you can make a remarkable first impression and convince new hire to stick to your brand.
Onboarding process begins before the first day
Yes, the first day of the work is very important, but it’s also important to prepare a new employee before that. They may know how to get into the building, but there is a number of other relevant information that recruiters can give them before they start. Let’s see what.
- Written plan in PDF – every company should have it in order to skip the usual questions. Take a time to collect all the necessary information and find out exactly what you want to include in the document. You can add some things in advance, but when you finish it, you can send it to every new employee. Remember, this document should be consistent and informative.
- Introduce the new employee to colleagues – tell them who is their new manager and introduce them to team members.
- Tell everyone in the company that there is a new colleague coming.
- Set up the employee’s workstation.
- Fill out paperwork before beginning.
Having this information will help the new employee focus on their first day of work. They will understand their new role and they will be able to assimilate into their new position better.
Introduce them to their buddies
Now that they have everything on the paper, it’s time for human contact. One way to help the new employee feel welcome is to pair them with a mentor, either a co-worker or a supervisor. However, don’t let just any of your employees step up for the onboarding process. Make sure that you’ve chosen a person who can present a company well, someone who understands the company’s values and who is trained in the basics. A mentor can take the new hire out to lunch that first day and see how things are going. They should check them from time to time and react if a new employee is struggling with any aspects of the job. This is a great tip because they will feel that the company is organized and that people value them as a new co-worker.
Present expectations and requirements
A new employee may have experience in a similar or identical position, but every company has different rules, culture, habits or priorities. It may be obvious for people who work there, but it’s important to explain how you do things to new hires. The manager should go over the specific expectations and requirements of the role to a new employee. Putting yourself in new employee shoes could be very helpful. Don’t just tell them what they should do, but why. It’s better if they understand the company’s mission and business values from the start. People are not machines. They want to see value in the things they do.
Encourage relationship building
You don’t have to go rafting to get to know people better. Simple team building activities such as bowling or even indoor games that encourage cooperation and collaboration can help the new employee get to know the group better. This may not be one of the first steps for employee onboarding but you should definitely use this tip in order to bring team closer, promote companies values and boost employees creativity and productivity.
However, many people see these activities as pointless and silly, so you have to find a way to make them interesting and memorable. You can’t force employees to like each other and to hang out, but you can organize random coffee date pairings for employees or bringing teams together for a joint happy hour or a fun activity as mentioned.
Schedule check-in frequently
Just because new hires survived the first day at work, it doesn’t mean that an IT recruiter job is finished. For some people, the onboarding process will be longer and it depends on the employee’s work experience, social skills and the particular challenges of the job. Whether you think that they are doing great or not, it’s always smart to schedule a few check-in meetings with the manager and HR.
They can review how an employee is doing, evaluate any progress made on goals, and get a sense for whether new hires are adjusting to the culture. Schedule check-in about a week after the employee starts, a month after and then you can do it every two or three months.
Ask recent hires for feedback in order to improve the employees onboarding process
Getting feedback from new employees can help you improve the onboarding process and make constructive changes in a company. Use check-in meetings to ask new hires about the onboarding process, or make the feedback anonymous rather than soliciting suggestions during one-on-one meetings with your team. This way they will feel more comfortable expressing negative experiences so you can use more honest answers to improve the process.
Did they feel welcomed and part of the team right away? Or did they felt alienated and unsure of their role? Getting feedback like that can help your company decide whether to switch to a different method or to stick to the existing one.
Emphasize company goals and visions
Even though new employees try to hide it under masks of smiles and enthusiasm, they are under pressure during the first week. So, it’s important that mentors/buddies constantly communicate the importance of their contributions to the growth of the business. At the end of the day, mentors should review employee performance, encourage them through any errors and emphasize company ideals. Simple tasks build confidence, so let them get used to the company and colleagues in order to handle more difficult jobs down the line.
Care about the details
As you can see, IT recruiter agencies have to plan the employee onboarding process in advance. This is not some random welcome gesture, but the comprehensive plan. Recruiters should prepare all necessary documentation, choose a person who will welcome new employees as soon as they arrive, take them on a tour of your company, show them their workspace and introduce them to their new colleagues.
Moreover, a recruiter should schedule the first-day orientation, surprise them with company branded gifts, but also make sure that their new colleagues take them out for lunch. It’s important that new hires feel comfortable in the new environment, that they feel free to ask questions, and more importantly – that they want to stay in the company.
If you don’t want to go through these steps over and over again every few months with new hires, it’s crucial to carry out onboarding process as well as possible. Remember, humans have feelings, so communication is the key to every problem.
