Onboarding is an essential part of long-term staff retention. Too many employees have experienced poor onboarding processes or ones that simply don't exist. New hires are bounced from one team to the other under the pretence of "learning how the company operates," but without structure, it quickly begins to feel like a pointless exercise in which little information is retained.
That's why it's crucial to plan your onboarding in advance and to have an onboarding checklist. Companies that have such a process in place generally see huge gains in both employee retention and productivity.
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Onboarding Checklist for New Employees
A well-defined onboarding process means not only a better experience for incoming new employees, but also less work for you, as an organization. Here’s a detailed onboarding checklist that will help to make sure you’re setting up new employees for success.
1. Start onboarding prior to the employee’s start date
Strong onboarding begins before your new hire has even set foot through the door - whether that's physically, or virtually, in the case of remote work. Once a candidate has accepted your offer, there can often be a wait of one month or longer, depending upon their existing notice period. During this time, you want to be psyching them up for their new role and company.
Branded gifts: It's becoming common for organizations to send new starters a pack containing several branded gifts that bear the company logo. This doesn't have to be an expensive exercise either; corporate clothing, stationery and journals, and other low-cost accessories are perfect for this.
Company equipment: New employees want to believe that they’ve secured a role within a company that knows what it’s doing. If you’re onboarding remote workers, nothing screams “disorganized” like sending out computer equipment that hasn’t been set up properly, or sending equipment late so that the employee isn’t prepared for their first day. Make sure they have everything they’ll need well in advance.
Company policies, procedures, and systems: You don’t need to waste an employee’s first day by having them fill out paperwork and register for business-critical systems. Access can be granted well in advance, allowing employees to submit their information ahead of time. This carries the benefit that they’re guaranteed not to miss the first pay cycle, which can impact on employee morale.
2. Officially welcome all new employees
On an employee's first day in the role, they should feel as if they're a valued new addition to the workforce. As such, you should make an effort to fully welcome them to the organization and integrate them into your existing staff.
Encourage introductions. Many organizations choose to send out a friendly, companywide email that introduces new staff. Similarly, new hires should be encouraged to make a short introduction that can be shared with the wider organization.
Arrange official orientations. Whether working physically in an office or remotely, new hires should have an official orientation. This typically sets out important HR, IT, and business policies, while providing the employee with important information on benefits, remuneration, and so on. It’s also a useful time to field any questions that they may have.
Set up a tour or virtual tour. It's important that employees are familiar with their working environment, their tools, and the various departments that they may interact with. A tour can be carried out physically or virtually, but it can help to provide important context to new employees.
Create a roadmap for new hires. Make sure that your new employees understand what they’ll be doing in the first few days and weeks ahead by creating an itinerary. As a new starter, it can be easy to find yourself lost, not understanding what you’re supposed to be doing at any given time. This could hurt productivity and morale, so be sure to clearly signpost their journey ahead.
3. Structure a busy first week that maximizes the available opportunities
Many employees are so engaged in training and paperwork in their first week that they can be left feeling as if they've achieved very little. Similarly, the first week of work shouldn't overwhelm new hires. This time is mostly about getting to know their new organization, the systems they'll be working with, and the job they've come to perform.
Register new employees with business-critical work-tracking or communication software. As a starting point, make sure your new employees are signed up for software such as JIRA, Teams, Slack, Trello, and so on, depending on which tools your company uses. It’s important that they’re connected to the wider team as soon as possible, meanwhile having access to work-tracking tools can help them quickly become familiar with ongoing work and projects to gain context.
Assign small and manageable tasks. Don’t inundate your new employee with all of the work that’s been building up. Instead, start with non-crucial activities or small tasks that are fairly simple and quickly achievable. This will help to instil confidence in your new employees while they get to grips with your organization and its ways of working.
Arrange regular catch-up sessions. Once your employee is moving, don't leave them entirely to their own devices. Instead, set up regular catch-up sessions to provide feedback and field any questions that arise.
4. Measure performance through KPIs
While it’s important to nurture new employees and give them a space to learn and become familiar with your organization, they are still being hired for a particular role, and there will be particular expectations attached to it.
Make sure the expectations of the role are clearly set out. Within any job description and company policy, it should be clear what's expected of employees. While you don’t want to inundate new starters with work or expect them to understand everything right from the offset, it’s expected that they’ll get up to speed and produce work in a timely manner.
To that end, define appropriate KPIs. Key performance indicators will help you to track an employee’s performance and progression in learning the role. They should be measurable and achievable.
Provide feedback. When your new employee complete objectives or meets their KPIs - or if they don't - be sure that you provide feedback. This will help to motivate them, or to show them where they need to learn and improve.
5. Integrate a DAP to streamline knowledge acquisition and training
Digital adoption platforms make the process of training and learning new software much simpler, aside from also being more enjoyable. Since DAP programs embed training directly into the existing systems that employees use on a day-to-day basis, they also do not impede work. Your employees will learn while performing their duties instead of being distracted by a lengthy and largely box-checking training exercise. Some of the benefits offered by DAP software include:
Integrated walkthroughs and tooltips: DAP software integrates with existing software solutions, providing embedded guidance to people who use the system. These tooltips, video walkthroughs, and other elements encourage learning on the job rather than relying on external, disconnected training systems.
Personalized, needs-focused training: Rarely do all employees need the same exact training, save for mandatory compliance or health and safety content. With DAP software, you can tailor solution training down to a role level, or even provide personalized training for each individual employee.
Automation of repetitive tasks: DAP software can even streamline employees’ roles by automating many of the mundane activities that are completely day-to-day. For example, generating a quote or inputting data into a system.
Why You Should Consider a Digital Adoption Platform
Digital adoption platforms (DAPs) can save you time in getting new employees up to speed, but it is, of course, an investment. Why should you use a DAP, and when is the right time to do so?
Your workforce is quickly increasing in number. As the size of your workforce grows, you'll have an ever-increasing number of new employees to track, welcome, and train. Keeping up with these obligations when you're already handling other deadlines is tough. A DAP can lighten that burden by offering support and training that's individualized to each employee and requires no manual input throughout the process.
You have problems with staff retention. This can be down to numerous factors, which can simply include the industry in which your organization operates. If you have a lot of new employees, your existing staff may feel pressured to take on the obligation of welcoming and training them, which can in turn lead to dissatisfaction and stress in the role. Again, a DAP reduces the load on other employees, reducing the risk that they’ll become overworked through onboarding.
You use a lot of contractors or freelancers. If you’re churning through temporary staff, you can waste a lot of time training these people without ever getting a return on investment that stretches beyond the end of the contract length. A DAP can bring such temporary workers up to speed on company policies and systems quickly, without leaving you feeling as if you’re wasting time training people who are bound to eventually leave.
Crucially, a DAP is invaluable in onboarding remote team members in a world where remote work is now here to stay. Thankfully, the checklist provided above can also be used as a remote onboarding checklist, and when combined with DAP software like Usetiful, you’ll likely see vast improvements in employee satisfaction and retention.