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Having a solid onboarding process in place is crucial if you want to attract and keep the best employees at your company. By planning ahead of time, you can create an onboarding program that begins the minute you recruit a new team member and continues far beyond their first day.
But how do you go about developing such an onboarding process? In this post, we’ll examine how to design an effective onboarding program that will help your new hires quickly become productive members of your team.
Provide Them With the Right Instructions
Each position is accountable for a variety of tasks, and businesses vary considerably in how they’re carried out. Every job requires training and practice, whether it’s answering the phone as a receptionist, constructing a gadget in a factory, or recording medical data as a nurse. Expecting a recruit to have this knowledge on day one is a certain way to drive them crazy.
Make sure your recruit is getting the training they need to succeed in their position. The employee will feel that they were set up for failure if they do not get this training, and as a result, their performance will suffer.
Standard operating procedures (SOPs) may also be put in place to guarantee that everyone is on the same page and understands their roles and responsibilities. When you write an SOP, you include every stage of the process to maintain uniformity throughout your business processes. In light of this, new hires must get access to the company’s SOPs as soon as possible.
Introduce New Employees to Company Practices
A company’s culture is one of its defining characteristics. On the weekends, some workplaces have Xbox contests, while in others everyone goes out for pizza on Fridays. You should make an effort to include the new employee in whatever it is that makes your culture unique.
Don’t assume that your recruits are aware that they have been invited to these gatherings. Many new hires would want to join in, but they don’t know how to approach someone in the group without an invitation. The new hire will feel lonely and isolated without these explicit invites. If in doubt, extend a personal invitation.
Create Objectives for Performance
You and your new employee can both benefit from setting and working toward performance objectives. Your new employee needs a clear roadmap to success, and you need a method to monitor their development.
Avoid the potential for burnout by delaying the establishment of standards and measurements for at least a week or two after they have been announced. The first thing you should do after hiring a new employee is to sit down and discuss those expectations. Discuss not just what is expected of you in your present role, but also your future goals in terms of promotions and raises.
No matter how much money you’re currently paying an employee, they’ll always want more, and if they do a good job, you should pay them more. Assist them in doing that. As a result, they will be more driven, and your productivity in the workplace will increase.
Proactively Seek and Apply Feedback
Even though you may have developed an onboarding process, your new hires may provide invaluable feedback since they have gone through it. If you take the time to find out what they thought of the process and what more they needed to know, you can make your onboarding more effective.
By keeping tabs on responses and results over time, you can figure out what aspects of the onboarding process are working well and what may need some tweaking. By seeing onboarding as an ever-evolving process, you can make sure you’re continually improving and adapting to get the best potential outcomes.
Show Appreciation for Your Team Members’ Early Successes
Rewarding employees for their efforts throughout the onboarding process is a great way to show that your organization cares about their professional growth. In addition, it stimulates team members to take part in upcoming learning initiatives as 79% of workers claim that praise pushes them to work more.
Make it a point to reward the early efforts of your new employees. This could come in the form of praise from their manager after they finish a training course. Or, it may be the CEO giving the onboarding team a shout-out at an all-staff meeting for a job well done.
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Final Thoughts
Employees that have a positive onboarding process are more likely to feel invested in the company, work harder, and remain for the long haul. As positions and responsibilities change, so do the skills and knowledge required to fulfill them, laying the groundwork for ongoing training will help you keep your best employees. Doing so will guarantee present and future prosperity for your business.
