Staff Onboarding Process: The Complete Guide

The role of an effective staff onboarding process in a company’s growth cannot be over-emphasised. A growing business will require a growing workforce. And happy and engaged employees lay at the foundation of any well-perfoming business.

As an employee you need to build a strong connection with your new workplace. Achieving this could be easier with a proper onboarding process in your early days at work, based on an employee journey map.

What is the Staff Onboarding Process?

A staff onboarding process is the sum of all sub-processes, actions or steps taken in order to integrate a new hire into a company. Thus, the process of staff onboarding has a clear objective: ensuring that new employee becomes fully productive. To achieve this, many companies use an onboarding app and also send a welcome email to new staff.

Benefits of Going Through a Staff Onboarding Process:

• The new employees gain a mastery of the role and of the company’s core activities and values.
• The new hires settle in cultural integration, understanding both the formal and informal culture of a new workplace.
  
• A staff onboarding process empowers you with the confidence and competence you need to settle down into your new role.
• An onboarding process is thereby assisting you to perform successfully in your role.

But there is a lot more at stake when it comes to a good or poor process. So let’s review why is a staff onboarding process important for you as a new hire.

Why Does the Staff Onboarding Process Matter?

The quality of the onboarding you experience as a new hire will impact and set the tone for your work relationship. In fact, a staff onboarding process can provide the blueprints for a long and successful employee lifecycle. In the following sections we will review the reasons why the staff onboarding process matters so much for you as a new hire.

The Challenges of Having New Staff Onboard

We have identified the most important challenges of having new staff onboard:

• Crafting a complete staff onboarding processes

There could be cases where a deficient staff onboarding process hinders a new hire’s ability to deliver as expected. In some other cases, a staff onboarding process might even be completely absent.

• Facing the Lack of support and motivation

Unfortunately, the reality of most new employees at their job start is a poor staff onboarding process which does not provide support and motivation.

• Working on the fight for talent

According to a Digitate 2021 report, workers who experienced a negative staff onboarding process are twice as likely to seek other career opportunities elsewhere in the future. Additionally, the same report highlighted that 1 out of 5 new workers is unlikely to recommend an employer. Specially, if they perceive their staff onboarding process as unsatisfactory.

• Creating an effective staff onboarding process

The lack of an effective staff onboarding process could be fatal for any organisation as it recruits new workers workers frequently. Thus, the task of retaining good workers becomes even more daunting, as loosing employees at the early stages of their employee lifecycles results in poor productivity, and a high cost per hire coupled to a high turnover cost.

• Preparing a virtual employee onboarding process

This is even more relevant in the case of remote workers. If you want to gain more insights into what is a virtual employee onboarding process, we invite you to read the dedicated article on our blog HR. We also have remote onboarding process guideline to help you out with this challenge.

6 Things to Avoid in Your Staff Onboarding Process

There is a lot at stake when onboarding employees. Engagement, developing trust, ensuring performance, all of these are key strategic objectives. An effective onboarding of new staff entails avoiding the following mistakes.

Bombarding New Staff Members with Information on Day 1

Being bombarded with too much information on your first day at work could be overwhelming and frustrating. However, there are multiple staff onboarding solutions that help automate paperwork for your company, rather than utilising a manual documentation process, which could be prone to errors. Smart onboarding documentation can offer immediate empowerment.

Lack of Role Clarity

Another staff onboarding pitfall is the lack of clarity on job roles and responsibilities. You are always in a dilemma when you are not aware of your roles, responsibilities, and expectations. This can make you feel unnecessary stress and anxiety, preventing you from reaching your true potential in the role.

Ensuring role clarity is must be a key goal of your new job orientation. Thus, activities targeting this objective have to be in motion from the very first days on the job, and even before, during Preboarding.

Lack of a Complete Training Programme

Employing great talents and providing them with the necessary skills is not enough to guarantee excellent performance. What you need to stay relevant in your role for long is a complete new employee training. And it is the duty of your employer to acknowledge this and act on it.

Lack of Tailored Onboarding Content to the Job Roles

Not having the proper onboarding flows tailored to your specific job roles is a huge strategic mistake. You need information that is relevant for your specific role and for your specific team. It is relevant to become familiarised with the work or other teams and departments.

Lack of Equipment

Not having your equipment ready from the first day is a great red flag. How are you supposed to do any work at all if you don’t have a computer to work on? A structured IT Onboarding process will address all your equipment and work tools needs. A Task Manager function will help your company in having everything ready for your first day on the job.

Lack of Easy-to-use Software

Working with an employee onboarding software presents a clear advantage: an ease of use feature. This cannot be replicated with more “analog” techniques such as a slide presentation.

Such methods could be frustrating for you, and hinder your productivity. In addition, your employer would be responsible for training you in person on how to use the software tools you will be working with. By contrast, an employee onboarding software could present to you a learning module with video guides and tutorials for various tools. You could consult these materials at any point during and even after your staff onboarding process is complete.

The Staff Onboarding Process & The First Impressions

A staff onboarding process helps create the right impression in the hearts of the new hires. In addition, you feel engaged quickly with your team and new position when you know the activities of your first day at work or onboarding day.

The Staff Onboarding Process & Cultural Acclimation

The staff onboarding process assists in enriching the company’s Culture. Your decision to work for a company means you have agreed to emulate its cultural and ethical practices.

But this does not mean that you already obtained the full picture of your new employer’s organisational culture. The staff onboarding process will aid you in understanding the company’s culture and values. When you know the value system of your employer, you will feel more connected.

Emerging research reveals that the new generations of workers may turn to their careers to provide social connection and a sense of higher purpose. So, you need to find your higher purpose right at the start of your new employment.

The Staff Onboarding Process & Relationship Building

The staff onboarding process helps build the right connection between you and other co-workers. We know that establishing trust and connections are extremely important for you when starting a new job. You can discover more social benefits of a good onboarding programme in a dedicated article.

The Staff Onboarding Process & Future Success

The staff onboarding process empowers the newly employed workers. No doubt, starting a new role in a new workplace could be overwhelming. However, HR onboarding will help ease any unnecessary pressure by equipping you with vital information.

Also, it ensures optimum productivity and engagement that aid you in getting up-to-speed with your new role quickly.

Your staff onboarding plan can inspire excitement and motivation, thereby ensuring that you succeed in your roles. At the end of a successful staff onboarding plan, you become a vital part of the company. With this, you will not be apprehensive about your future because you see a future in that new company.

Thus, when you experience a great HR onboarding, you are likely to stay with your employer for a long period. Thus, a strategic staff onboarding will target increased engagement levels, decreased time to proficiency, and reduced turnover rates.

6 Steps for a Staff Onboarding Process

No doubt, staff onboarding checklists and plans aim to assist you in acclimatising to your role and responsibilities and have a better understanding of your work expectations. A great staff onboarding plan will promote better job performance, increased efficiency, and higher employee satisfaction.

The following steps will help you in experiencing a great staff onboarding process:

Step 1: Having your Workstation Set-up

Having your workstation already set up entails you being assigned your working equipment, a clients contact list, as well as access to all the tools necessary for performing your duties (for example data analysis tools if you work with data mining and analysis).

Step 2: New Staff Orientation

New Staff Orientation, usually carried out on the very first days of your employment, requires you to be put through the production procedures and getting to know the existing communication channels between different departments in the company. Also, you are supposed to be offered a tour of the workplace during your first days at work (being shown the restrooms, break rooms, conference rooms etc).

Step 3: Participate in a Workplace Tour with Your Onboarding Buddy

The workplace tour provided by your onboarding buddy at work allows you to meet the personnel in each department. Also, you can be provided with a map of the neighbourhood to enhance your comfort when you are in the vicinity of the workplace. You need to have the right information concerning transportation options, parking facilities, lunch options etc.

Step 4: Schedule Time for Feedback

It is important to schedule time for feedback on your staff onboarding exercise and be honest about your experiences. Kindly inform your employer about what you think could improve the staff onboarding process. You will have an opportunity to do this during your onboarding survey(s).

Providing honest feedback can not only help yourself, by addressing any lacks of information or shortcomings for the staff onboarding process. It can also serve as a guide for future new hires. So, you can start making a difference for your company for the very first stages of your employment.

Step 5: Set Goals and Measure Their Progress

You can expect your onboarding plan to contain some key goals. You will aim to achieve different objectives over a specific period such as 90 days, 6 months, or 1 year. This will keep you on your toes and spur you to strive to accomplish these goals. Measuring the progress of your onboarding journey will be possible with employee onboarding metrics.

5 Steps for a Executive Onboarding Programme

In any organisation, the executives are responsible for steering the company in a certain direction. They are responsible, among others, for formulating the ideas that can drive its growth. Additionally, they make key decisions about resource planning and consumption, strategising and setting goals. There could be a need to add new managing executives to an organisation’s management team. This means that they might require some special attention for a proper onboarding. 

The onboarding process when you are a managing executive has to help you understand the core activities of the organisation you are joining. A new manager onboarding is designed to make you feel comfortable right from the first day at work and allow you to build and implement your strategy.

Onboarding for the managers should be done properly because you are responsible for making essential decisions for the future of the team, department or even company as a whole. Hence, there is a dire need to provide you with the right tools.

The following steps will help you in maximising your executive onboarding programme.

Step 1: Reach out & Build a Connection in Advance

An executive onboarding process is enhanced when you are sent the management guidelines and company handbook in advance. This allows you to have a good idea of the firm’s operations.

Step 2: Communicate the Required Expectations and Goals

There is a need to develop and align goals that will help you deliver the desired results from your role. Never assume you know what to do automatically. Together with your direct superior, you will set the goals and objectives you aim to achieve over a specified period, like 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months.

Step 3: Introduction to the Team

Team onboarding is achieved by involving everyone in the company in the employee onboarding process. Offering new managers lunch sessions with the other team members promotes team bonding between them. This will help you get know your team members.

Knowing relevant background information about the strengths and weaknesses of the members and other interpersonal dynamics will help you design the proper strategy.

Step 4: Participate in People Management Training

New manager training is vital for onboarding executives. This is because you are responsible for managing human resources. Being exposed to people management and leadership training will enhance your capacity to manage the team members effectively. New manager training also ensures that you will fully act in accordance to the organisational ethos.

Step 5: Provision of Useful Technology

The use of software tools will make the process enjoyable and enhance your ability to settle into your new role quickly. You can read more about onboarding automation in the following section.

Team Onboarding: How to be Onboarded to the Team

So, you have secured a new role and have gone through the process of Preboarding… But what now? Fear not, here is everything you need to know about the new team member onboarding process. Having a consistent and organized onboarding process, thanks to HR onboarding software, allows better connections to be formed. 

New team member onboarding is all about helping ensure that new hires are adjusting to the social and performance aspects of their new roles quickly and smoothly. According to research by Glassdoor, great employee onboarding can improve employee retention by 82%. A high employee retention is integral to boosting teamwork and morale as coworkers get to know each other and grow comfortable working alongside each other. While that is the case, Gallup found that only 12% of employees strongly agree that they were effectively onboarded to their team by their organization. 

4 Step to Improve the Team Onboarding Process

What steps should be taken in order to improve the team onboarding process?

Step 1

The first step in the process of onboarding for managers is making sure that new employees truly understand their new positions and are given the knowledge and infrastructure in order to meet their job’s requirements.

By automating the process with HR onboarding software, companies can give new hires a flying start by making them feel connected, prepared and safe thanks to a seamless new team member onboarding process.  

Step 2

It is in your employer’s best interest to have patience with new employees and put themselves in your shoes. A way to relieve the stress of entering a new working environment is by staying organised. Both human resources departments and those onboarded to the team should be made aware of what onboarding steps that they will be taking.  

Step 3

Simple steps will already boost the overall onboarding experience and provide those onboarded to the team with the confidence needed to start tackling the job at hand. 

Step 4

Once the main onboarding process has taken place, it is time to focus on your individual team. We have all experienced the odd case of back-to-school or, in this case, back-to-work jitters over the years. However, it is essential to get to know every colleague.

Think Team and Not Individual

Once you have explored your new surroundings, it is time to get to work as a new onboard to the team. It is also time to consider teamwork onboarding. Onboarding is not only for new hires. Teams should work together throughout the onboarding process. Communication is key for teamwork onboarding.

Onboarding should not stop at knowing where the watercooler and bathrooms are located. Teamwork onboarding is essential when onboarding individuals. Teams should come together (e.g. over lunch, a coffee break or a scheduled meeting) in order to introduce themselves properly and get to know their new colleague. Although team building exercises may feel rather cringeworthy there are many ways of getting to know each other in a modern and welcoming way.

Onboard Team: What Can You Do as a New Hire?

Here are some top tips for those onboarded to the team to take in order to promote team onboarding:

1.  Friendliness is always reciprocated. Be approachable and actively make an effort with your new employees. It may feel unnatural and a bit like your first day at school, however coming in with a big smile and some confidence will make a big difference.
2. As a new hire you can try and schedule a team meeting as part of your onboarding process. This could either be a way of simply introducing each other. Also, you can get to know everyone’s roles, or as a means of feeding back your onboarding experience to your team. Moreover, you can use this opportunity to get to know your colleagues better and solidify your working relationships.  
3. You could also arrange a one-on-one meeting with your manager to reflect upon your onboarding process. By having open communication with your manager you can help your team improve their new member onboarding for future hires.

According to Harvard Business Review, it generally takes around eight months for a new hire employee to reach full productivity and feel comfortable in their new roles. However, a successful team onboarding process should make you feel like an integral and productive member of the team in no time. 

Staff Onboarding Software: Automate Your Staff Onboarding Process

A staff onboarding software is a tool that enhances employee orientation and staff onboarding of new employees. It will create a fast, streamlined, and valuable experience that will be pleasant to any new hire. A staff onboarding software builds the background for your smooth and effective onboarding experience.

The use of staff onboarding software will aid in winning your loyalty as a new staff member. This means that the use of staff onboarding software enhances your ability to stay committed to your company for a long time. It helps employers and new employees alike do away with the inefficiencies associated with the traditional onboarding process.

Advantages of using a staff onboarding software

Let’s closely investigate some more practical advantages of using a staff onboarding software.

Having All Information in One Place

Without any doubt, having the data you need in a secure and centralized location allows you access everything you might need in an instant. Be it your staff onboarding process timeline, your milestones, or any available checklists, everything is available on your onboarding software. You will even be able to check everything directly from your phone.

A More Consistent Experience

A staff onbaording software will ensure a standard onboarding process with increased compliance. This will save a lot of time for the HR department of your company. Additionally, a software solution for managing your onboarding process ensures that you get the same worthwhile experience as your fellow employees.

Increased Productivity from the Early Days of Your Employment

A staff onboarding software will ensure that you settle into a new role in a short time and attain your full productivity with ease. This is due to the fact that there are specific modules targeting role awareness, a clear feedback mechanism in place. Additionally, you will find a predefined journey that is mapped out according to your specific role, team and department specifics.

If you want to read more about onboarding automation, we have drafted a more in-depth article. You will find a more in detail discussion of what is onboarding automation.

An example of staff onboarding software is introdus. It is a software solution that makes your process of onboarding easy, fun, and engaging. The onboarding platform is embedded with a streamlined onboarding programme template. Additionally, it offers you an engaging learning experience with different multimedia content that will boost your capacity to hit the ground running at your new workplace.

Staff Onboarding Process: Concluding Remarks

Without mincing words, your capacity to work for an organisation for a long period is centred on a great staff onboarding process.

What you experience at the beginning of your work relationship is a great indicator for the success of the employer-employee relationship. After all, organisations with a structured and effective processes experience a better new hire retention.

With the right staff onboarding process, you are on course for a great and interesting career path with your employer.

introdus supports all new hires regardless of the role or the size of the company. As part of this mission, we create numerous tools that can inspire companies to create and structure the new hire journey. The various checklists we created are as example, like our sample onboarding plan for new employees.