Employee onboarding is often overlooked, and it shouldn’t be!
Many businesses lack proper onboarding training programs, focusing rather on letting new hires rely on their wits and company values to get them started.
Employee onboarding is, in a sense, more significant than professional training that might come later because it decides whether employees will be happy with their work.
Poor engagement won’t benefit your business at all. You need to inspire new hires from day one, and onboarding training is the way to do that properly.
Here are some tips on how to make employee onboarding successful from the start.
How to Plan Onboarding Training
Proper onboarding training ensures that new hires will be successful in their job immediately.
What, exactly, does “proper” mean in this context?
Simply put, onboarding training must be efficient and targeted, which is to say you should set up a detailed plan and personalize the parts that need personalization.
Not every new hire needs the same approach or lacks the same type of knowledge. Instead of looking at onboarding training as a single program, think of it as a template.
To be able to nail a perfect onboarding training program, you need to know what to include. This checklist will help you get an idea:
- Detail job responsibilities, duties, schedules, and payment information to new hires to avoid negative experiences
- Submit a job requisition document to the managers in charge
- Gather all the forms new employees need to fill out
- Provide all devices and tools for new hires
- Set up all necessary accounts and logins for new hires
- Schedule orientation sessions early on
Take these as general guidelines. Add whichever point you see fit as each business is different and so is each employee’s role.
However, no matter the variations, you should make sure to define goals early on and communicate them clearly. The benefits of enterprise learning management are also quite popular these days because it helps your team take on a consistent culture of learning. New hires should know what is expected of them from the first day.
Customize Onboarding Training for Each New Hire
As mentioned above, onboarding training programs should be customizable. Fortunately, there are some must-have onboarding tools that will help you with this goal.
To accommodate different employee personalities, apply suitable approaches.
The simplest way to generate a template, complement organizational orientation training with a specific onboarding plan for each new hire. Different people have different personalities, expectations, career plans, and expertise after all, so it’s only fair that everyone gets an equal chance to shine.
Allow for the possibility that some new hires may be in need of additional training, especially when they need to familiarize themselves with complex processes.
Don’t rush onboarding training. Ensure that it is devised in a way that allows for sufficient time for each new hire.
Assign a Mentor to New Hires and Get Them to Mingle
Each new hire should be assigned a mentor. This person should be knowledgeable about the new hire’s expertise and has prior experience in assisting new colleagues.
Don’t skip this step even when you’re happy with the personalized onboarding training program. It is only natural that new hires will have some questions.
Pay particular attention to making your new hires comfortable. Get them to mingle with colleagues from other departments but, even before that, schedule meetings with key staff.
This step is significant in more ways than one. In addition to knowing where to go for answers, new hires will in this way integrate into the corporate culture seamlessly.
Stick to creative people development plans practices in your company when planning this crucial step.
Finally, don’t skip cross-cultural training especially if your business is adhering to a hybrid work model. Corporate cultures vary greatly even in local businesses. Firms employing people from different countries remotely need to go the extra mile to ensure everyone is comfortable with the company culture.
Provide New Tech
This tip is a no-brainer, right?
People rely on new technologies every day so much that it’s only natural for businesses to provide the latest tech to their employees.
While everyone always remembers Skype and Google Docs, some useful apps get overlooked way too easily, and they shouldn’t.
There are so many simple hacks to automating manual tasks that you should give them a go. One notable example is time-tracking software that can kill your employees’ stress levels in mere seconds. Look it up!
It’s always a good idea to keep an eye (and more than an eye!) on trends. The current ones include the use of the following tools:
- IoT for asset management
- Cloud-based software for remote work
- Artificial intelligence for business automation
- Inventory management software for supply chains
Key Takeaways
The importance of employee onboarding can hardly be exaggerated. Businesses simply have to find the time and means to customize training programs, assign mentors to each new hire, and schedule meetings with colleagues.
These things must be done properly if you want your employees to remain engaged and happy with their jobs.
