Eye-opening Onboarding Tips: Best Practices to Welcome Your New Hires

After you followed the 3 essential steps for successful recruitment and your ideal candidate has accepted the job offer, can you now pat yourself on the back because your work is done? Not exactly. A new hire’s experience during their first week of employment acts as a first impression, so onboarding has become one of the most important steps of the entire recruitment process. You’ve invested a lot of time and money thus far, so you don’t want to slack off at the onboarding stage and return to square one of recruiting the position again, do you?

Making the first day memorable

Everyone has a first day on the job, so reflect on what your own experience was like. Were you excited? Were there knots in your stomach from nerves? Did you find yourself questioning if you made the right decision?  Whatever your new hire may feel, they should leave their first day feeling welcomed!

Let the new employee know how excited the company is to have them be part of the team. Have coworkers write welcome messages for the new hire. The first day can be filled with paperwork, but try to incorporate time away from this. Give them a tour of the facility. Have them shadow co-workers they’ll be working with. Think outside the box for ways to include them and give them a personalized experience.

Be ready and prepared

Nothing can be more awkward than not being ready for a new hire on their first day. Their paperwork isn’t together, co-workers aren’t aware they were starting, their desk is empty; what a disaster! Prepare a checklist to make sure everything is in order before their first day of work. Check that all your training materials and paperwork is accessible and printed. Make sure their desk is ready; have their phone, computer, printer, etc. ready to go!

A new hire is sure to have questions along the way of becoming acclimated to the company. Consider assigning them a mentor/buddy. This person can check in with your new hire to see how they are adjusting to the culture and show them the ropes of the company.

 
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Reconnect through milestones

Since it takes a year for an employee to reach productivity levels expected in their role, it’s important to continue their onboarding throughout their first year through progress checks.  What goals should your new hire strive to achieve in their first 30, 60, and 90 days?  Setting up these milestone goals is a great opportunity to reconnect with your new hire on a frequent basis and provide solid feedback.
If you were to repeat your first day, what would you have liked to see done differently to welcome you?

 
About the author Robin Throckmorton and her company: 
strategic HR, inc. is an outsourced human resources (HR) management firm assisting business worldwide by providing the HR expertise and resources for success.

More Blog-Artikels by Robin Throckmorton:

• 3 Essential Steps for Successful Recruitment You Can’t Afford to Skip
• Are Your Job Postings Really Working?

 
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