New hire onboarding has a lasting impact on employees but also affects a company's brand. You may be asking, "What do you mean by that?"
Do this quick activity: Go onto X (formerly Twitter) or LinkedIn and search worst onboarding. You can also google "Glassdoor worst onboarding"
You'll find many examples of people discussing their worst experiences when starting a new role at a company. You'll read how it impacted their engagement, motivation, and tenure. What you'll also notice is that they aren't necessarily referencing recent onboarding experiences, they remember these bad onboarding experiences from years ago. Employees remember the company and the specific people who made their entry into a new organization less than stellar.
This should matter to you.
If you're serious about your company's overall brand, the employee experience should factor into the brand strategy. The company with the best product, but a horrible reputation for training and onboarding is bound to have service and retention problems lurking beneath the surface.
What can I do to prevent this?
Establish a comprehensive onboarding program that hinges on thoughtful planning, collaboration, and smooth execution.
Here are a few things you can do to help establish or improve onboarding at your company:
Create a responsibilities chart that clearly lists the necessary tasks and the responsible party for each task. you can use a RACI matrix or a checklist to accomplish this.
Identify the training needs. Interview the hiring managers and leadership teams to understand the training needs of the role and departments. This will help to create a lean training approach that targets the must-have skills and competencies needed to be successful in the role.
Communicate often and early with your new hires. Send an email before day one that reviews what to expect during the first few days at your company. Send a day 1 welcome email. Conduct an orientation session on day 1.
Get lots of feedback. Reach out to key stakeholders for their feedback on the process. Also, reach out to the new hires to get their feedback on the onboarding experience. Use this information to improve the program for future iterations. This can be done through surveys or interviews.
This list isn't comprehensive but is a good place to start.
Remember, no onboarding program is going to be perfect. There will be hiccups, but commit to continuous improvement and you'll hopefully avoid having your company end up on the search results list for worst onboarding.
Are you looking to get in depth advise about how to improve the onboarding program at your company? Schedule a 90-minute strategy session with Gaitway Learning.
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