Onboarding

What Do New Hires Want From Onboarding [INFOGRAPHIC]

You have done the hard work and successfully brought a candidate through the finish line. Now they are a new hire and it’s their first week in the office.

Guess what? Your job does not end here -- you should make sure that you speak with the hiring manager and come up with a successful onboarding strategy together. You want a hire who quickly ingrates in the team instead of quitting two months in because of poor process and onboarding failure.

Here is your shortcut to what makes a great onboarding process:

Onboarding checklist

 

Get your onboarding plan done. Just take the time, pay the price, and do it now. Your new hires need it. Your company needs it. You need it. At BambooHR, we try to follow onboarding expert George Bradt's three A's—and we highly recommend it:

  • Accommodate: Make new hires comfortable when they arrive. Show them around, introduce them to people, set them up with a readied workspace—don't make them wait for a computer and phone. Create a welcome package that includes little extras, like a company t-shirt, the employees’ favorite candy bar, and even an unused pad of paper or a box of pens. A lot of those items are simply office supplies they’d need anyway, but bundling them up together makes it feel like a useful welcome present and lets them know you’re excited they’re there.
  • Assimilate: Bring new hires onto the team and help them feel wanted and accepted. A good first step is doing a quick roundup with the team to introduce the new hires. Then be sure to assign them “care-takers” or mentors who can help these new employees feel they have a safe place to ask any questions. It’s recommended to pick a mentor who will interact with them, like a member of the department, but not a manager.
  • Accelerate: Your new hires want to become productive quickly. You may think that means to stuff new hires with as much information as you can, as quickly as possible, but you don’t want to overwhelm. It’s obviously more helpful and productive to give new hires what they need in a manageable, steady stream. And don’t forget early feedback. In our survey, 53 percent of respondents who quit jobs within the first six months said “review and feedback of early contributions” is one of the most important things a new employee needs to get up to speed and begin contributing quickly.

Onboarding isn’t something you try to throw together after your new hire is looking to you on day one. It’s something you need to think hard about. Don't simply give lip service to “your most important asset.” Invest in your new hires and give them an exceptional first experience, so you can both know they made the right choice.

Ben Peterson is founder and CEO of BambooHR, the leading online HR software for small and medium-sized businesses that have outgrown using spreadsheets to manage their employee information.

onboarding in a box templates

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