Employee Onboarding

 

What is employee onboarding?

Employee onboarding is the process in which new hires get familiar with the organization, the people, and the culture of the company they’ve just joined. It’s a key stage of the employee life cycle.

New hires are introduced to an organization and integrated into their new role and responsibilities. They are shown their workspace, given the equipment and resources they need, meet colleagues and managers, get to know work processes, and familiarize themselves with the company’s mission and values. By the end of the onboarding process, they’re able to do their job independently and effectively.

The purpose of an onboarding period is two-fold. On the one hand, the traditional goal of employee onboarding is to get new hires operational as quickly as possible. On the other hand, the more recent role of onboarding has been to shape the critical first impressions new employees have of the company.

After a successful onboarding, the employee:

• Is excited about their role and the company
• Has met their colleagues
• Has a relationship with their direct manager
• Has access to all the resources to do their work well
• Has received the necessary training
• Will understand their role and work and feel equipped to succeed
• Will feel at home in the organization
• Has made a couple of meaningful connections
• Has clear goals to work toward and has achieved these goals
• Clearly understands their appraisal criteria

In 89% of organizations, employee onboarding is short, lasting less than 3 months. However, truly effective onboarding is a continuous process that can take up to a year until an employee reaches their full performance potential.  (Verlinden, 2023)

What is the Importance of Employee Onboarding?

Companies hire employees easily. They welcome the new hires by answering their questions, so employees get excited to join the company. Have you ever thought about the importance of boarding and why it is so important?

1. Increases Teamwork

People's ideas are different in teamwork; unique and new ideas come when people start talking with each other. When the relationship between new hires and their colleagues strengthens, they indirectly promote their work environment.

2. Enhance Office Culture

Onboarding is the process that allows you to show your work culture that joins your staff. Culture is on the priority list of any employee.

3. Improve Productivity

After crossing everything in the employee's onboarding checklist, the new hires get all the rights in the company to work, which will increase the company's productivity.(Tanna, 2021)

Who Does Onboarding?

Onboarding is done by the employer, a member of the HR staff, or a supervisor. Sometimes all of these people will contribute to onboarding by introducing the new employee to different aspects of the company. 

It is common for the new hire to be assigned a peer mentor during the onboarding process. This can ease the learning process for new hires by providing them with a sense of comfort in their new work environment.

How Is Onboarding Different from Orientation?

Employers will generally provide their new hires with a few details about their position and the workplace during orientation.

However, the primary purpose of new hire orientation is to get the start date, necessary paperwork, and other routine tasks out of the way, such as assigning the new hire a desk. Orientation is typically over within a few hours or a few days at most.  

Employee Onboarding, on the other hand, is an extensive process that can last up to 12 months. During this time, new employees are provided with training, knowledge, and resources to succeed in their new position fostering better employee engagement, job satisfaction, and greater new hire retention.

(Technical, 2023)

The 5 Phases of Employee Onboarding

 In today’s job market, one in every three employees will leave a new job in the first three months. An effective onboarding program is crucial to retaining talent and setting employees up for long-term success in their roles.  The five phases of employee onboarding are as below. 

1. Pre-onboarding

2. Initial onboarding and orientation

3. Training

In the training phase, the employee should also learn more about their colleagues’ roles, how they work together, and who they can ask for support. Some companies use team-building exercises during the training phase to facilitate collaboration and relationship-building with new employees.

4. Growth, mentoring, and initial performance feedback

5. Ongoing employee development

At this point, the new employee is likely fulfilling their daily tasks, working towards performance goals, and integrating feedback from their mentors. As an employer, your employee onboarding effort doesn’t stop there. New hires still need ongoing support and development, which can last several months to a year or more. If you are dedicated to employee satisfaction and retention, you’ll probably invest in employee development opportunities as long as they work for you.

 (Jones, 2022 )

Example for Employee Onboarding

Apple is a multinational technology company based out of the United States of America specializing in software, consumer electronics, and various online services.

What Is Their Onboarding Strategy?

The standout of Apple's onboarding strategy is its I Buddy system. The goal here is to connect the new employees with people who are deeply aware of the company culture. When a new employee joins Apple, they are immediately paired with an existing employee (generally from a different team but of the same process). This paired acquaintance is called onboarding buddy or I Buddy. They will be tasked with bringing the new hire up-to-date and answering all questions of the new employee regarding the roles, responsibilities, and the company culture.

Employee onboarding best practices

Here are a few practical tips you can add to the onboarding process in your organization today:

1. Align the job description and the onboarding plan

This is why it’s essential to integrate HR practices, do a great vacancy intake, and align your job description with your job posting and 30-60-90-day plan.

2. Create effective onboarding workflows

It’s likely that your organization already has an onboarding workflow and different systems and processes applicable to your organization’s size. Implement new, suitable ways of working into those existing workflows. For example, what steps mentioned above in this article is your process missing? How can you bring them in?

3. Use onboarding checklists

Onboarding checklists help keep your employee onboarding process consistent. An HR professional or the employee’s manager can physically or digitally check the boxes as they onboard the new hires. It provides structure and ensures that necessary steps are completed methodically.

You can utilize various types of checklists for different aspects of onboarding:

• Onboarding checklist for HR
• Onboarding IT checklist
• Onboarding checklist for managers
• New hire training checklist

You can find all of these onboarding checklist templates in our free Excel document

4. Ensure consistency

Your checklist is only as good as you are. If your onboarding team or managers have a checklist but don’t use it, items will likely be forgotten or missed, and the onboarding process will lack structure and.

5. Communicate

Communicate clearly and frequently with employees throughout the onboarding process. This should start when they sign their acceptance letter and continue throughout their full first year of employment.

Set clear expectations from the start, conduct progress check-ins, and ensure there is a point of contact for every new hire to go to with any queries or concerns

6. Bring in organizational culture & values

As mentioned earlier in the example of Google, it’s important to weave your culture and values into the onboarding process and beyond. Provide your new hires with a strong understanding and examples of what these values mean at your organization so they can adopt them and strengthen your organizational culture. 

7. Evaluate

As you receive feedback from your new hires, you can improve and optimize your onboarding process and tailor it to convey your unique company culture, values, and mission. 

Use employee onboarding metrics such as new hire turnover, onboarding satisfaction, and training completion rate to track the effectiveness of your onboarding, uncover issues, and prevent unwanted turnover.  (Verlinden, 2023)

Conclusion

All new employees are onboarded but the quality of the onboarding makes a difference. Too often, onboarding consists of handing a new employee a pile of forms and having a supervisor or HR professional walk the employee around the premises, making introductions on an ad-hoc basis. When onboarding is done well, however, it lays a foundation for long-term success for the employee and the employer. It can improve productivity, build loyalty and engagement, and help employees become successful early in their careers with the new organization. (SHRM, 2017 - Present) Onboarding is a comprehensive process where new employees transition into new roles and become part of the organization. Good onboarding programs can last up to 12 months. The purpose of onboarding is to allow employees to build confidence in their new role during their first few weeks or months of employment. Onboarding may include a variety of elements, such as:

• One-on-one meetings
• Independent learning and development modules
• Team-building exercises
• Employee handbooks or task-specific guides

orientation and onboarding are two separate processes. A simple orientation is not enough in today’s competitive climate.

The purpose of onboarding is much more than policies and paperwork. It’s about acclimating and integrating new hires, so they feel prepared, supported, and connected within the organization. Commit to a positive onboarding experience that sets up new team members for long-term success. (SHRM, 2017 - Present),(PURCELL, AUG. 2, 2023),

References

Jones, R., 2022. The 5 Phases of Employee Onboarding. [Online]
Available at: https://www.trainingfolks.com/blog/the-5-phases-of-employee-onboarding
[Accessed 16 Oct 2023].

Jones, R., 2022 OCT 26. Training Folks. The 5 Phases of Employee Onboarding.

PURCELL, N., AUG. 2, 2023. Understanding the importance of a positive onboarding experience. [Online]
[Accessed 21 Oct 2023].

SHRM, 2017 - Present. Understanding Employee Onboarding.

Tanna, D., 2021. The Definitive Guide to Employee Onboarding Process. [Online]
Available at: https://www.ismartrecruit.com/blog-guide-employee-onboarding-plan
[Accessed 15 Oct 2023].

Technical, A., 2023. WHY ONBOARDING IS IMPORTANT AND A KEY TO SUCCESS (2023). 16 February.

Verlinden, N., 2023. AIHR. Employee Onboarding: All You Need To Know, pp. https://www.aihr.com/blog/employee-onboarding/.