Onboarding is the most important phase in an employee’s life and often its importance gets forgotten by the employers. Many employers think that their job is over as soon as the new hire walks through the door and signs a contract.
But the impact of a proper onboarding process can be profound on the employee’s engagement and productivity. Implementing certain changes to your onboarding process and avoiding mistakes, can help you make simple and effective changes. This article will help you understand the common onboarding mistakes that are made and how you can avoid them.
The onboarding process includes a sequence of processes that are designed to fully incorporate the new employees into the organization and train them to become productive and remain engaged with the course material.
A poor onboarding process will force the new hires to fail in meeting the expectations of the employer. Many employers think that onboarding is just about informing the new hires about the payrolls and taxes, letting them know about the benefits, and handing them the employee handbooks. This part is also important as per law, but this is not the only thing that is supposed to be informed about in the onboarding process. Many software training companies take the help of LMS (Learning Management System) and their inbuilt onboarding tools to train employees.
The main aim of the onboarding process is to bring the new hires to the company and make them familiar with the company processes and also make them strong enough to take up their roles and responsibilities with assurance.
Here are common mistakes that employers should avoid to make their onboarding process successful.
1) Onboarding is not an administration process
This is true that onboarding requires too much administrative work as the new hires are required to sign many documents and their details are also collected. These are the steps that cannot be ignored or skipped. But, this does not mean that onboarding is only an administrative process, instead, it is a medium that helps in creating a bond between the new hire and the organization so that the new employees feel positive about their new roles and responsibilities. In the onboarding process, the new hires are introduced to the organization’s mission, culture, values, etc. There are many tools available that help in streamlining the essentials of onboarding.
2) Keep the workstations ready and clean for the New Hires
As we all know, the first impression is the last, do what you can do the best to create an ultimate first impression. For new hires, the first day is very sensitive, so make sure that the workstations or the training stations of the new hires are up to the mark, this will help them settle down easily. Ensure that you provide a functioning workstation with a proper system for the new hires.
3) Delaying Onboarding
The companies should never delay their onboarding process so that the new hires do not feel ignored and adrift as the company did not prioritize onboarding. To smoothen the process, you can start the onboarding process a day before the actual onboarding so that everything goes smoothly and the new hire feels like a valued member of the organization. You can inform the new hires days in advance about the dress code to be followed, where to park their vehicle, what documents they have to carry, etc. You can have an onboarding buddy who will accompany the new hires to the kitchen, restrooms, work areas, and other important places within the compound.
4) Don’t overload on day one and also don’t create a too-short onboarding process
Do not overload the new hires with information on day one, never try to accumulate every to-do list item on day one, this is humanly impossible for both the new hires and the human resources team too. Instead of this, you can break the tasks into days, weeks, and months. Moreover, the month-long onboarding process is more successful than the shorter programs. The onboarding process should never stop on the first day or in the first week itself, but it should vary from weeks to months depending on the roles and responsibilities of the new hires. A longer onboarding process lets the new hires settle into their new job more with poise.
One of the most important things to do is to gather your new hires’ feedback regularly on the onboarding process. This will help you in optimizing your program and improve the same continuously. There are multiple HR software available in the market, which will automate the paperwork process and other time-consuming activities. Always be welcoming and make your expectation clear from day one.
