New employee onboarding is the first opportunity for a newly hired individual to see how things really work behind the scenes. It’s initiating the beginning of your working relationship for both HR roles and new team members as you both collaborate for the first time. If it’s been more than six months since you’ve evaluated your onboarding process, here are a few tips from IDR to get you started.
The paperwork process of hiring a new team member is extensive on both sides of the hiring coin. Do as much as you can to streamline this boring and meticulous onboarding phase. Look into digitizing as much data collection as possible, from signature collection to interactive forms, and ensure the new hire can access all documents as early as possible to get a head start.
The earliest days of employment are the most ripe for cultivating buy-in from new team members. From a thoughtful welcome package to the first team meeting, each is an opportunity to capitalize on their first real-life encounter with the company culture. Talk about values, mission, and environment, and don’t be afraid to discuss how your organization handles toxicity. Recruit a buddy to be their point of contact for any non-role-related questions or concerns.
One of the most impactful resources you can give a new team member is not necessarily an employee handbook but access to where and how they can find any answers they may need later. Rather than walking them through a detailed process manually, create a centralized hub for all the tools, assets, resources, tutorials, policies, SOPs, etc., they will ever need. This hub should be regularly reviewed and updated for accuracy and relevance.
Schedule an on-ramp for their first week, month, or quarter with your company that gives the new employee face time with various layers of leadership and management. For example, they should connect with team leads, department heads, division managers, directors, and as high up as they can go. This creates stronger relationships with new additions to the team and helps them feel more confident and connected to the bigger picture.
Offering the highest quality professionals and best-in-class staffing solutions, IDR’s net promoter score is 82% (vs. the industry average of 28%). Reach out today, and we’ll help you source, hire, and retain top IT talent.