Onboarding is the process of showing new employees around, providing detailed orientation and training, and making sure they have all the necessary information to start work successfully. Too many companies hire employees and give just an hour presentation to the new hire and then let them fend for themselves. This is not only damaging to the employee but to the rest of the company too.

By taking the time to onboard properly, everything runs more smoothly. A well-managed new hire onboarding process can provide many benefits to your company, including improved performance and retention rates. Learn more about the reasons why your business cannot afford to neglect new hire onboarding.

Retain Employees

Providing successful onboarding helps you retain employees from the get-go. New hires are more likely to quit their job after a bad day at work than employees who have been around for a while. It is essential that after all the time, energy and money spent in choosing a new hire, that you take the time to educate them on how your company works,  what their position entails and help them feel more comfortable. This will help keep employees on for the long term.

Avoid Mistakes Early On

Mistakes are often made by new employees because they don’t know any better. After all, new hires do not have your policies and procedures memorized and they have not completely assimilated within your corporate culture. While you should expect a rocky start by most new hires, there are many mistakes and larger disasters that can be avoided by not rolling out a proper onboarding process. Make sure new hires have considerable training with someone else watching everything they do, until the new employee feels comfortable. Get feedback from the trainer or mentor employee to make sure they feel confident that the new hire can do their job with minimal supervision.

Get New Hires and Current Employees Comfortable

It is not uncommon for new hires to not feel entirely comfortable in their surroundings immediately. This is especially true if your work facility is located in a large building with many floors or departments. On their first few days, you are given an opportunity to help new hires socialize with others, find their way around, and create a way for new hires to get along well with existing workers. This is going to make the transition much easier for everyone.

Reiterate Your Company’s Culture

Every company has a unique culture, so make sure your new hire understands just what that is. Share stories about the company, from its founding to interesting milestones reached over the years. Provide insight into the types of clients you work with and introduce new hires to key players in each department. Give employees a sense that they now belong to something greater. These are just additional methods of helping new hires fit in, feel comfortable and confident in their new position. If you don’t onboard new hires, you can expect negative issues to come up later on.

Set Immediate Goals

After outlining their position and providing training, make sure that all new hires are aware of their immediate performance goals. Provide a list of things for them to accomplish in the immediate future, as a way to get into their job role quickly. Continue setting short-term goals at first, followed by ongoing, long term goals. Review goals with each new hire on a weekly basis, addressing any problems or obstacles that may occur. Praise the new hire for good performance and offer incentives for staying onboard during the learning curve.

Multi-faceted Training

You should also have multi-faceted training with onboarding of new hires. Because people learn in different ways, they also need different delivery methods of training an education. By not neglecting this process, you allow new hires to learn about your company’s culture and policies, how to do their job effectively, conflict resolution and customer service in a consistent manner.

Onboarding doesn’t have to be an overly complex process, but it is one that is vital for a successful transition of new hires. Develop a written onboarding process so that all new hires have the guidance and support they need to become valuable members of your team.

If you are looking for employment agencies in Hammond IN, contact Davis today.