Make Your New Employees Feel Welcomed – Onboarding Tips for 2020
It took you a while to find the perfect talent, and you’re excited about the new employee working their magic at your organization. Your fresh hire feels the same- except you may be overlooking some roadblocks that come in way of fresh recruits feeling welcomed at the new workplace.
The good news is that successful employee integration is a goal you can definitely achieve! All it takes is a bit of planning, the right technology, and of course commitment to making the best first impression on your new employees.
Wondering where to get started?
Ensuring that your company has the foundations of a well planned onboarding experience can be readily streamlined, here’s our top tips to get started:
1) Let your enthusiasm show:
The last thing you want to do is have your new employee show up for their first day at work, and have them step into a disorderly environment. Prove to your resource that you’ve been looking forward to their arrival by confirming that their workstation is set up, their access passwords arranged, and have your tech team walk them through all necessary SOPs.
Your new joiner’s morale can be easily fired up (or diminished) based on how you choose to celebrate their arrival. Go the organized route to deliver an experience where the company is proudly rooting for their success- that itself will help them start their journey on a very high note.
2) Let them mentally warm up with smaller tasks:
If you’re thinking of welcoming your new employee with a laundry lists of tasks, reports and emails to respond to- you might want to stop, pronto! It’s time to put on your thinking hat- does it make more sense to let your employees get used to the workflow with smaller, focused tasks or a daunting project they probably don’t have the knowledge to tackle yet?
The essence of well planned staff onboarding lies in giving new hires the chance to ease into their job roles by using small tasks. This not only helps boost their confidence, but builds a sense of security that they are able to find their footing in an environment that does not completely feel like home yet. Once they are able to execute small tasks with ease, that’s a sure shot sign for you to increase the difficulty level of tasks, and help hone their skills to match the company’s needs.
3) Designate a buddy:
It’s only natural that your new employees will have questions and curiosities, and they won’t be comfortable expressing all of them. Maybe 
they’re shy, or just hesitant to voice their concerns- but that doesn’t mean that these questions can go unaddressed. A great way to help your fresh recruits seek information without feeling intimidated is by assigning them a “buddy“. The buddy is an existing employee, preferably from the same department or team, that can provide mentorship and help your junior resources get up to speed on projects, initiatives, events, etc.
Providing a safe space, and allowing your new hires to find a voice, this onboarding strategy is terrific at breaking the ice so all your employees can feel connected effortlessly. In fact, studies have also found an estimated 7 times higher engagement at work when a buddy system is effectively implemented.
4) Invest in an onboarding software:
Automation is everywhere, and employee onboarding is no exception. Delivering a delightful experience for new hires, the right software such as Afterhire offers flexibility and customizations so you can streamline your onboarding process. Helping staff reach peak productivity without time-intensive efforts, there are significant cost savings waiting to be unlocked by bidding farewell to employee retention issues and bottlenecks.
Centralizing all paperwork, approvals, team introductions and even on-the-job learning, effective onboarding becomes a breeze. This way, you can continue focusing on the bigger picture, meanwhile the smaller operational aspects basically run on auto-pilot. It’s no wonder that new employees who attended a well-structured onboarding orientation program are 69% more likely to remain at a company for upto 3 years.
5) Always ask for feedback:
Building a healthy relationship with fresh hires is a two way street, you can’t be on the delivering end of communication at all times. To involve your new employees and make their input feel valued, do ask for feedback regarding the onboarding process. Giving you insights coming straight from the source that is best able to identify areas of weakness, why not use this opportunity to show commitment to continuous onboarding process improvements?
Ask for ways that the new employee experience could be enhanced further, or recommendations to make the first impression even better. Ensuring that you’re laying down a foundation that encourages open dialogue and tweaking of processes itself delivers a welcoming vibe that’s open to constructive criticism (we’d be pretty impressed for sure).
