5 Things to Consider When Onboarding Your New Employees

It can be tempting to skip the whole onboarding experience. After all, the new people you hired are smart, capable individuals, right? Wrong! Sure, they may be the most qualified employees to do the job but it is an absolute must that you orient them to the job, the work culture, etc.

Don’t know where to start? Here are the five basic steps you can do to properly onboard your new hires.

1. Create a draft

You can’t just assign your new employee a desk, hand them files, and expect them to do the job right. Go ahead and write a draft of what you want them to know. What do you expect from them? Is there a system you should be following? Who do they report to? What happens if they make mistakes? And what degree of error are they allowed to make?

Each company has a different onboarding process. How yours is will depend on what matters most to your organization. Maybe you want to spend 3 hours discussing company ethics, and then a couple of weeks training for the job. Or you want them to spend a day following a tenured employee to know what it’s like. An office tour maybe required especially if their job requires reporting to different people. Discuss benefits like health insurance, workers compensation, etc.

You want to take your time on this one because it’s very important. Then, you can learn along the way and refine your onboarding process further.

2. Set attainable goals

At the beginning, you want to delegate manageable tasks to your new employee. Again, this leaves little room for error and will make them feel good to be a part of your team. When they become used to these tasks, you can move on to assigning them bigger, more challenging tasks.

Also, don’t forget to provide feedback along the way. This keeps them in touch with what they’re doing and prevents them from making mistakes. Set aside a few minutes to give feedback and it will make a very big difference in their performance.

3. Create a FAQ list

This is not your first rodeo when it comes to new hires so you probably already have come across recurring questions they ask you during their first few days. What are those questions? Write them down as well and compile them in a document that you can hand out during the onboarding process.

This’ll save you a lot of time and allows you to discuss matters employees care the most about. It also encourages your new hires to look for answers themselves without having to ask for your help as much.

4. Introduce them to the team

You want your new employees to feel comfortable in their new work environment so go ahead and introduce them to your existing team members. Make this bit a little fun because it’ll make them feel easy. Also, you have to remember. We’re humans and we thrive on connection. The more your employees feel connected with each other, the more collaborative they will be –which will ultimately lead to your organization’s success.

5. Provide context

During the onboarding process, you want to let your new hire know their role in the company. They are eager to get started so as much as possible, you want them to feel inspired about their position. Help them understand how their individual contribution helps achieve the company’s goals.

You hired this person out of many candidates so you want to instill confidence in them that they’ll do their job right. We all want to feel good about our job and if your new employee believes that they deserve the role you hired them for, they’re much more likely to be successful in doing it.