Onboarding was once viewed as a day with HR filling out endless compliance documents, and watching videos. Today, onboarding is a chance to capture your new hire's excitement of a new job, co-workers, and growth opportunities which ultimately can lead to increased productivity. Onboarding done right will set expectations, provide direction, and lower the learning curve of your new hire. According to both the Boston Consulting Group and the Academy of Management Journal report, a strong onboarding program will increase new hire productivity by 50%. One of the most common complaints from hiring managers is new hires take too much time to train and be productive. This is why the onboarding stage of the employee lifecycle is crucial for the success of your new hire, and ultimately your company. When creating an onboarding program, approach it like you do for the customer journey and consider these 3 points.
Buyer's Remorse
Harvard Business Review highlights that new hires often experience a period of uncertainty and doubt soon after joining a new organization, especially if the role or company culture doesn't match their expectations. This can lead to feelings of "buyer's remorse." Factors contributing to this remorse include mismatched job descriptions, unmet expectations, a lack of proper onboarding, or poor initial experiences with colleagues and managers.
If you think of the employee lifecycle like the customer journey, the employee's first day is similar to your customer's first day with your product. Just like your customer they will have doubts if they purchased the right product, your new hire will question if they chose the right company to move their career forward. Your onboarding should always celebrate your culture, career opportunities, and mission. Reminding the new hire what your company has to offer and confirm you will provide what you promised energizes the new hire and solidifies they made the right choice.
Owner's Manual and Training
Have you ever purchased a product but you didn't exactly know how to use it or understand its full capabilities? You were frustrated, right? When a company doesn't provide a strong onboarding program that provides direction on expectations, where to find information, who does what, and how to communicate, a new hire will be very frustrated and certainly feel lost and alone. Make sure the new hire is armed with all information about how your company really works. It is also a good idea to have that information located on your company's intranet or dashboard for easy reference.
Check Ins
Regular check ins with the new hire are very important. Firstly, if they are not meeting expectations you can discuss and correct the issues before their probation time is over. Or if there was a clear mismatch with the hire, you both can terminate the relationship before there is any real disruption. Check ins with the new hire manager allow for a deeper understanding of expectations and goal setting. HR should check in with the new hire too. The goal for an HR check in is to learn what is and is not working with onboarding and training.
