Today, hiring good people is a challenge in itself; keeping them is a whole different ball game.
When it comes to hiring and adding new people to your business, it’s imperative that they get off to not only a good start, but a GREAT start.
In the human resources world, bringing on a new employee is referred to as “onboarding”. A definition of onboarding is, “the action or process of integrating a new employee into an organization”.
A new employee should never show up to work on their first day and sit around for an hour trying to make themselves useful because the manager didn’t have a plan or wasn’t prepared.
Not only is a strong onboarding process key to the employee’s and the business’s success, but it can also determine how long that employee stays with the company.
An article by Process Street, an onboarding company, quoted a survey that stated “Employees who participate in a structured onboarding program are 69% more likely to stay with an organization for 3 years” and “15% of employees said the lack of an effective onboarding program aided in their decision to quit”.
Don’t confuse onboarding with orientation. Orientation is a one-time event. Onboarding is a series of formal, well-planned events that start the day they are hired and can last from one month up to a full year.
Everything from having their workstation ready and business cards printed on their first day to pre-planned weekly and monthly reviews is part of making sure employees feel welcomed, know what’s expected of them, and how they are doing every step of the way.
A good onboarding system only needs to be created one time, then it can be used over and over with only minor tweaks going forward.