Learn about the best way to onboard new employees and use a project template for it.
How to Onboard a New Employee the Right Way
Employee onboarding is one of the essential parts of the employment lifecycle. It is the process of integrating a new employee into a company and its culture, providing all the necessary information for him/her to become a productive member of the team. Onboarding spans from the minute the offer is made to the time the employee begins to be fully productive in a role.
Onboarding new hires should be a strategic process that might last even up to one year. HR and recruitment experts claim that employee's first few days and months experience is crucial to ensuring high retention.
Why is it essential?
First impressions matter – 28% of employees leave their job within the first three months of starting due to unsuccessful onboarding process and adaptation period. A solid onboarding process has a positive effect on the satisfaction, engagement, and performance of new employees. It leads to a faster integration of new employees. It has a positive impact on employer image as well – new employees will share their positive or negative impressions of the company within their direct network.
For managers, the gains of the proper employee onboarding process include:
Better job performance;
More significant commitment to the organization;
Reduced stress;
Higher job satisfaction;
Better retention (and associated cost savings).
Apart from the general information about the company, mandatory compliance training should include items like health and safety training and fire safety awareness. General company processes and procedures, business practices are considered essential to explain. They are often presented in an online reading form. Other onboarding focus areas are the technology and tools necessary for job duties.
The three crucial elements of successful onboarding
There is no one-size-fits-all process for successful onboarding. Onboarding programs may vary by organization, depending on size and culture. However, there are three main elements to be outlined, that are shared amongst the most successful onboarding processes:
Operational:
Make sure that new employees have the right materials and knowledge (such as clarity and business jargon) to do their job well.
Social:
Make new employees feel
welcome, build, and promote
valuable relationships with
colleagues and managers,
and feel part of the organization.
Strategic:
Ensure that newcomers know the organization (structure, vision, mission, goals, key developments, culture) and identify with it.
Before the first day
Hiring teams should be ready for the employee's first working day. The first part of the onboarding process is called transactional onboarding, and it is focused on completing all the necessary forms and documents, e.g., insurance forms, non-disclosure agreements. At this step, the orientation schedule should be ready. It is essential to coordinate with key stakeholders (co-workers and managers) and notify them of the new hire's start date.
The main tasks that have to be done before the first working day could be:
(workstation, email access)
(furniture, keys, access card, etc.)
First day
It is crucial to keep in mind that the first day is a massive challenge for any employee, even a more seasoned one. There is a lot of new information, papers to sign, new rules, people and an unknown environment. The main task for the HR team and direct managers is to try to decrease the employee's anxiety level.
There are a few key things that can be done to ensure the new hire's success:
Introduce the employee to the team
Take on the tour around the office
Assign training material
Induct into company culture
Assign a mentor
​
Take out to lunch
Probation period
Probation might be defined as a trial period, when the new employee is exempt from some contractual obligations. Usually, this period lasts up to three or six months, which is stated in the employment agreement. Probation periods most commonly end with a review meeting between a new employee and his/her manager. At such meeting, the manager will assess the new employee's work performance and decide whether he/she will continue the work in a team, or not. If the decision is favorable, then it is passed towards to HR department, and the new employee continues duties as a regular company employee.
In most companies, the end of the probation period equals the end of the onboarding procedure. In general, by the end of the probation period, an employee is ready to work independently and perform his/her primary job responsibilities.
If you want to design a smooth and enjoyable
new employee onboarding process –
try our Employee onboarding template.
It provides a good example of your process organization, which you can use as a basis for your project.
How to use this template?
Create a new project and choose the Employee onboarding template to start. All Infolio templates include some demo content. Feel free to remove it once you've familiarized yourself with the concept.
Create the task for each new employee and group them by their working departments, e.g., "Development", "Sales", "Management". Don't hesitate to remove the example and add your lists with just a few clicks.
​
Group tasks by Status to track the onboarding activity checklist (e.g., "Open", "Before day 1", "Day 1", "Week 1", "Month 1", "Probation passed"). In this view, you can easily add new statuses to your workflow or rearrange existing ones. Update the status of any task by dragging and dropping it to the corresponding column.
​
Switch to the Table view, to add any additional information and see it at a glance. Mark, when the hardware is issued, the security training has been passed, the documents signed, and many more. Use custom fields to include and data specific to your organization/company.
​
To see how responsibilities are distributed within your recruitment team, group the project by Assignee. In this view, you can reassign tasks quickly by dragging and dropping them between columns.
If you need any further help or if you have suggestions about how to improve
this template, don't hesitate to let us know!
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