When a new team member walks through the door on their first day with a new company, they know they need to hit the ground running. With so much to learn, new hires expect that a robust onboarding experience is in place to introduce them to the business, their role, and what’s expected of them day-to-day.
But if an organisation’s onboarding experience has gaps, a candidate can be left scratching their head. You don’t want them wondering if they made the right choice signing the contract in the first place.
By thinking critically about your onboarding experience and its gaps, you’ll be able to smooth over small bumps that often make new hires question their place in an organisation, and ensure that your future talent feel fully equipped to perform well from their very first day.
A streamlined first day
It’s the little things that set the tone for what’s to come for a candidate. Have you ever entered a workplace on day one, and their team wasn’t ready for your arrival? It signals that the work and culture to come will be more reactive than proactive.
Small administrative tasks -like ensuring all IT and login information is correctly set up and allocated, or providing a starter kit with uniforms, payroll details, and access passes- can take the guesswork out of tasks that many existing employees take for granted.
Furthermore, when introducing your new hire to the team, try to strike a balance between giving them time to get to know their new colleagues and overwhelming them with too many new faces on day one. Consider integrating a simple “team culture” video into your onboarding experience. Current staff members can film themselves giving video confessionals about the perks of the company that they enjoy.
Or, if time and budget allows, enlist a videographer to shoot an introduction to your organisation, its perks, the team culture, and how you recognise and reward your staff (check out this employer branding video that Scout Talent, a SaaS company, uses on all of their job ads). This is great collateral for your employer brand and future job ads. You’ll also be able to use it to streamline the first day of all future hires.
Let them catch their breath
The transition from one job to another can be overwhelming, even for the best employee. Expecting excellence from day one can lead to burnout. Leaders should shoulder the bulk of the responsibility when easing their new hires into their roles.
A long lunch in their first days with your organisation is a great way for new employees to slowly acclimatise to the work ahead. It also has the added bonus of letting them find their tribe within your team dynamic in a non-office environment.
Also, slowly increasing their hours over the course of the first week will help them adjust to your organisation’s pace. Try starting with a half day on day one, followed by incremental increases throughout the rest of the week. This will help them learn their roles and responsibilities, while still giving them time to decompress.
Prioritise feedback
No one likes to underperformance, especially when stepping into a new role or a new organisation. Take the time to provide feedback and show support to all new hires. It will show that communication is important to the smooth running of your business, and that they can be forthcoming with any issues or hurdles they are experiencing.
Formalising this process in the form of regular 1-to-1 meetings gives structure to a review framework. Coming prepared to these meetings with feedback, whether good or bad, gives both you and your new hire the opportunity to discuss roadblocks, opportunities, and what the road ahead will look like.
Like the idea of feedback, but not the idea of defined structure? Schedule time for your new hire to air their concerns or roadblocks over a weekly coffee. If they have no roadblocks, it can be great for your organisational culture to celebrate their early wins! Positive feedback when things are going well is just as important as constructive feedback when things are going poorly.
Look out for passion projects
Our last point helps you identify growth areas for your new hire. Empowering staff to grow in areas that they are passionate about helps develop these potential growth areas into actionable goals.
If you’ve got a great learning and development program, make this clear from the beginning. Your organisation invests in its staff and wants to help them grow their knowledge base. If you don’t yet have a dedicated internal L&D resource, start the conversation with new staff to find out what skills they can bring to the role, and how these can add value to your organisation. People work harder when they care about the work they’re doing. If you don’t ask your staff what they care about, how can you know where they’re wanting to grow?
Whether your onboarding experience needs a slight tweak or a complete overhaul, there are always steps you can take to make the first days and weeks with your new hires seamless.
As RMM’s assistant editor and frequent contributor, Fraser has an impeccable eye for newsworthy content and emerging trends. After starting his career writing for national sporting organisations, he made the move to the talent acquisition space, where he explores recruitment marketing, employer branding, DE&I, and more.