You’ve devoted endless hours and invested heavily in finding the right person for the job. But what then? You still need to onboard them and, if you fail to have an onboarding plan in place, you may leave them less than impressed.
According to a Gallup study, new hires impressed by their onboarding are 2.6 times more likely to be happy in their job and far more likely to remain with the company. That’s because a quality onboarding plan can help the employee grasp team dynamics, build relationships, and feel like a part of the team.
Onboarding a new employee can be a challenge. But there are ways you can give your new hire a positive experience to set them up for success. So don’t be afraid to invest time in preparing your onboarding plan. After all, each step you include will affect employee performance, learning, and retention.
💡 Top tip
Are you hiring your first employee? We’ve pulled together a handy overview of the main steps you’ll be going through during your hiring process in our guide to employing someone for the first time.
The employee onboarding process
The employee onboarding process begins when the recruitment phase ends. Here’s how to create a smooth onboard experience, from the first contact with your new hire right through to their first day.
Step 1: Preboarding
Preboarding is the time between your future employee accepting the job offer and their first day.
Once you’ve selected your employee, your HR manager should send them a welcome email that includes essential onboarding documents, such as the offer letter, policy documents, and links to any forms that require their digital signature. You can also go over any self-serve onboarding procedures you may have set up.
By getting this done as soon as possible, you can ensure you have everything you need to get them started - and enough time to secure any outstanding paperwork if you don’t.
Once the employee has formally accepted the offer, you should schedule a call to review the onboarding documents, policies, and benefits.
By continuing to engage them, you’ll increase their confidence that they made the right decision and strengthen the bond between them and you. You should also briefly go into what they should expect during their orientation.
Step 2: Orientation
Orientation will typically start on day one. By arranging for the new hire to take part in orientation sessions, they can get an overview of your company’s culture and goals. This will enable them to learn about the various teams, such as finance and payroll, and how they operate within your company structure.
A well-structured orientation will make your new employee feel comfortable and welcome, giving them everything they need to be productive as early as possible.
Step 3: Training
Many new hires require training. This could simply be to pick up knowledge specific to your company, such as how to use your custom-built CMS, or role-specific. You’ll want to schedule this training so they can learn the ropes quickly - typically training takes place within the first three months.
But what about other skills? With a skills assessment, you can quickly get to know their abilities and knowledge. You can then build a tailored training plan specific to their role and in line with their current skill set.
Step 4: Integration
Your onboarding plan doesn’t end when the new hire shows up on day one. This final phase of onboarding is important. A new hire can feel a mix of emotions and they may feel happy and excited, but also nervous and anxious.
The HR manager should do what they can to make them feel as comfortable and as welcome as possible. By helping them fit in with the company culture and the team around them, you’ll also help them feel more focused and committed to their work.
Managers should also set up regular check-ins, provide continuous feedback and set up introductions with wider members of the team.
Another way to help the employee feel more confident that their first day will go smoothly is to assign them a mentor. This person can handle any queries or issues the new hire may have and just generally be there for them.
Another way to make their first day go smoothly would be to use a new hire checklist. This will help your HR manager ensure that nothing has been missed and avoid anything going wrong.
What is an employee onboarding plan?
An employee onboarding plan is how you introduce and integrate a new hire into their day-to-day duties. It includes an onboarding checklist, involving HR and payroll teams to help set up the new employee. Now let’s look at what the plan and checklist entail.
What does an employee onboarding plan include?
While a new employee orientation checklist would include the finer details, there are some more general things your overall plan should include:
What the new hire should know about your company and its culture for them to feel like a part of the team
How they can ask for help from the HR and payroll teams
Who’s who in the new hires immediate department and any other relevant departments
The kinds of goals and targets they’ll be expected to meet
How you’ll assess their performance over time
Creating an onboarding checklist
Your onboarding plan is a critical component of your company’s success. Not only can it help you impress your new hire, but it can also boost staff engagement and reduce turnover rates and hiring costs.
We’ve already mentioned that an onboarding checklist should be a part of your plan - it can make your HR manager’s job easier and impress the new employee.
Here’s an example of what your onboarding checklist could look like
Pre-onboarding
Offer letter/email sent
Contract signed
Job advert taken down
Review passport for the right to work checks
Order hardware: Order laptop and monitor
Order hardware: Purchase keyboard/mouse/trackpad (ask for preference)
Set up software: Create email@company.com
Set up software: Arrange access to internal software (Microsoft Office, Google Workspace, Slack etc)
Share new starter reading list/company handbook
First few days
Introduce to the team
Schedule weekly check-ins
Assign an onboarding buddy
Tour the office
Assign mandatory and team training
First few months
Schedule time for onboarding feedback
Probation review
Set up regular reviews
Onboarding plan software and tools
HR software can help you speed up the onboarding process of getting your new hire fully on board. The software establishes a central location for all your employee data, ensuring quicker and smoother access to the most updated data records.
HR software makes life easier for your HR team. It will also take care of various needs that extend beyond onboarding. Here are just some of the things that HR software can do for your company.
Integrations
HR software includes various integrations that allow you to take advantage of a number of powerful applications. These include collaboration apps like Slack and Google Calendar, and pension apps, such as Aviva and The People's Pension.
Payroll
Not all HR software includes payroll features. However, all-in-one HR and payroll platforms automate key tasks for your HR and finance teams. Along with onboarding and other HR functions, all-in-one software can run payroll, provide automated tax code updates, and much more.
💡 Top tip
Automate your tax calculations for fast, accurate payouts to you and your team with HMRC-compliant software like Tide Payroll. It's easy to set up and will have you running payroll in minutes, saving you valuable time on admin.
Analytics
HR software can also provide insights and reporting that come with both pre-built reports and the ability to customise your own. These can help your HR and finance teams make decisions based on actual numbers and track how things are going within your company.
Wrapping up
Onboarding isn’t just about introducing a new hire to the company; it’s about making them feel like a valuable part of the team from the very start. By investing time and effort into a structured onboarding plan, you’re setting your new employees up for success and significantly boosting their engagement and retention.
A thoughtful and well-executed onboarding process, supported by the right tools and software, can make the difference between a new hire who simply shows up and one who thrives and grows with your business for years to come.
Image from Unsplash, published by amyhirschi
