Employee onboarding is defined as the process of initiating new employees on their journey with the organization by enabling the acquisition of the knowledge, skills, and behaviors that are necessary to adapt to the inner working of the organization. It is an interesting juncture in the recruitment cycle – it marks the transformation of a candidate into an employee. Being such an early stage in the employee-organization relationship, employee onboarding is at the heart of the perception that a new employee forms of the organization. Having a checklist for employee onboarding can enable you to carry out a structured and engaging process to elevate the employee experience.
Table of Contents
- What Is Employee Onboarding?
- 10 Employee Onboarding Checklist Items You Can’t Afford to Miss
- Getting Onboard the Onboarding Bandwagon
Â
What Is Employee Onboarding?
Employee onboardingOpens a new window is the process of initiating new employees on their journey with the organization by enabling the acquisition of the knowledge, skills, and behaviors that are necessary to adapt to the inner working of the organization.
This process is thus also referred to as organizational socialization – the mechanism of helping a candidate become an insider and an active contributor to the fabric of the organization.
Employee onboarding processesOpens a new window differ widely across the board. For example, some organizations have a clearly chalked out 30–60–90-day onboarding plan, dedicated onboarding platforms to make the process smoother, and an HR team that is involved in the employees’ journey. At the other end of the spectrum are organizations that have an onboarding plan comprising only the basic (and often long-drawn) joining formalities. These organizations expect their new recruits to hit the road running and just adapt.
Studies prove that the onboarding period is the most crucial time in the employee-organization relationship since it helps in forming reciprocal perceptions and even determines how the employee will behave and perform in the future. The onboarding process is thus crucial, being the first hands-on interaction the new employee has with the organization.
Learn More:Â 10 Best Onboarding Experience Strategies for Your 2020 HiresOpens a new window
10 Employee Onboarding Checklist Items You Can’t Afford to MissÂ
In a rating-driven, socially hyperconnected world, an employee onboarding process gone wrong can make your employer brand suffer a ruthless dip. So, how do you deliver a flawless, engaging onboarding experienceOpens a new window every time? Standardization is an effective tool that helps you structure the process by limiting the impact of extraneous variables like the time of day, the basic structure of the onboarding plan or the environment in which joining formalities are conducted.
Let’s look at the process of onboarding as a four-part system – pre-first day, the first day, the first week, and the first 3–6 months. Here’s a checklist of ten items spanning the entire onboarding duration that you absolutely cannot afford to miss while planning and executing your employee onboarding mechanism:
Pre-first day
You want your new employee to look forward to the first day. Most individuals are quite excited and anxious about it, and it should be easy to play into this excitement to prepare for creating a unique experience for the new employee.
1. Pre-engage the employee: Have an open line of communication with the new employee, since this is the first opportunity for employee engagement. How involved recruits feel during onboarding depends on how frequently and effectively they are engaged.
New employees must be informed in advance what the onboarding process will entail. Better still, all necessary paperwork can be completed before the date of joining. This will not only expedite the onboarding but also ensure that the new employee does not feel lost or like they are drowning under a pile of dockets. DocuSign, for example, is easy to use the platform to get all signatures in place before the employee arrives on the first day.
The time from the acceptance of the offer to the day of joining is when the employee can become really eager to start off or completely disengaged. Starbucks and Amazon, with their coffee-CD packages and book bombs respectively, have come up with meaningful ways for pre-first day prep.
Learn More:Â What is Candidate Experience? Definition, Key Components, and StrategiesOpens a new window
2. Inform the employee’s team: It is not the best experience to come in on the first day into an organization where your team is utterly clueless about who you are and why you are there. If you would not like sitting around while your team has to figure out what to do with you, why put new recruits through that either? It is important to ensure that the new employee’s immediate team and managers know well in advance about them and their new role in the organization. This only ensures a warmer welcome and a plan for the employee to get started.
3. Have work systems ready to go: How many stories have you heard of the new employee waiting in the lounge or in one corner of a cubicle that someone was kind enough to share all because their desk and system (work computer) was not arranged for? Assuming that you would not want to make the employee feel rudderless and with no place to sit at, tick the third item off the checklist at least a day in advance – make sure they would have a designated place to work out of, a system in place with all relevant login details, equipment, and supplies.
Learn More:Â Top 3 Innovative Corporate Recruitment Strategies for 2019Opens a new window
First day
This is the real first glimpse that the new employee gets into the organization, and there is a lot riding on the first day. One thing to remember is that no matter what seniority level an employee joins into, their years of experience, or their educational background, everyone is at least a little (if not a lot) nervous and uncomfortable on their first day. After all, it is a completely new reality with mostly strangers. The first day should thus be all about making the person feel comfortable and welcome in an environment that is empathetic, encouraging, and human.
4. Offer a welcome package with a walkabout: An office tour, as opposed to mountains of paperwork, is a great way to begin the first day at work. This not only acquaints employees with the building and where everything is but also helps them to see and at last briefly connect with the people around. Most organizations do provide a welcome package, but it is a worthwhile investment to think beyond the notebook-pen-folder trio. The welcome package could also be paperless and include a video (or maybe even virtual reality-based) introduction to the organization and its structures and processes.
5. Plan a welcome from the leaders: Meeting and interacting with organizational leaders and relevant managers goes a long way in boosting morale. It makes sense that CEOs and MDs may not have their schedule free enough to welcome every employee individually, but usually, a group of employees join on the same day, and a short session with the leaders would be a great idea to get the new employees charged on day one. Lunch with the leaders is also a great way to add a touch of casual comfort to a process that could otherwise be rigid and lecture-like.
Learn More:Â
Top 10 Employee Onboarding Software for 2020Opens a new window
First week
The first week is for the new employees to find a basic routine and rhythm that works for them. This is the time they can form social cliques, get to know more about the organization without being too burdened with work, and prepare better for their role. The more informative the first week, the quicker the employee can hit the ground running.
6. Ensure manager support: The one person (there could be more than one in a matrix organization) that the new employee needs to adapt and adjust to quickly is their immediate manager(s). The first week should allow enough scope and opportunity for the manager to spend time with their new teammate. This would help both of them to not only come up with a sustainable and realistic roadmap for the path ahead but also help the manager answer any questions that the new employee may have.
7. Provide a mentor to count on: Having a mentor at work can make a huge difference not only from the point of view of job performance but also in making the employee feel that they have a trusted guide for their journey in the organization. The mentor and mentee should connect over the first week to chart out performance and developmental goals that they wish to focus on in the coming months.
8. Appoint a dedicated work peer: Who does not want a friend at work? While it is great to allow natural cliques to form, having a dedicated peer (either a volunteer or a randomly assigned employee) for the first week at least makes life a lot easier and work a lot more enjoyable for the new employee. It always helps to have a familiar face in the team who can help you out with basic confusion you might have. It is best to have the peer assigned and well prepared in their role so that they can offer maximum help during the first week.
Learn More:Â How to become a smart recruitment specialist in 2020Opens a new window
First three to six months
Most onboarding processes occur between the first and the sixth month. There are two crucial points in this broader plan that you cannot ignore in your employee onboarding checklist:
9. Plan a sustainable check-in calendar: Whether you are looking at an informal onboarding plan or a relatively stringent 30–60–90-day structure, it is important to pre-schedule regular check-ins that new employees would benefit from with their manager, immediate team, the broader functional team, and with business leaders. Not all these check-ins need to be in the work setting. Some could be planned as networking events, team outings, or even catch-ups over coffee.
10. Get continuous feedback throughout the onboarding period: At various points throughout the onboarding process, it is important to ensure that the new recruit is heard and their feedback on the onboarding mechanism is noted. This not only makes the employee feel like they have valid contributions to make and suggestions to add but also helps in tweaking the process for the next batch of recruits.
Learn More:Â 4 Signs Your Employee Onboarding Process Needs RethinkingOpens a new window
Getting Onboard the Onboarding Bandwagon
The best way to ensure that you have followed the employee onboarding checklist is to have an engaged, motivated, and empathetic onboarding team in place. The onus of this process does not lie solely upon the HR manager, the functional head, or the new recruit. Rather, the success of an employee onboarding program rests on their individual contributions. It is thus necessary to make sure that they are all on board when it comes to the onboarding process.
What do you think are the most important points in the employee onboarding checklist? Tell us all about it on FacebookOpens a new window , LinkedInOpens a new window , or TwitterOpens a new window . We’re always listening.