148. The 5 Secrets To Great Onboarding, Part 1

Do you know what would be great? If we could just blink our eyes and - POOF! - any food we wanted would magically appear, the moment we want it. It would be ready to eat in its most yummable form without us even getting off the couch.

Most importantly, instead of causing us to gain weight, eating the food would magically make us more toned and muscular.

Seriously, how great would that be?!

Another thing that would be great is if we could hire a new employee and magically have them working happily and productively on their own the moment they arrived on day one, without direction or effort.

I’m kinda too busy to waste multiple weeks teaching new employees what to do. They just need to learn it all themselves and do it well without my help.

Onboarding: A Radial Analogy

Unfortunately, neither of the above scenarios is ever going to happen no matter how much we blink our eyes or wiggle our noses. It takes time and effort to do proper on-boarding of new employees. There’s no way around that.

The thing is, proper onboarding is not only important for the employee, it is critical for the success and evolution of an organization.

Think of it as buying a new tire for your car.

Let’s say you get the new tire and you’re super excited about it because the car hasn’t been working effectively with only the three good tires and a spare.

The day you finally get the new tire on is so exciting! You look at it and smile. You can finally exhale and not have to worry about the damage to the car and the other tires.

But wait, you’re already late for your day of back-to-back meetings. You’ve gotta run.

There’s no time to pump up the tire with enough air and you’re just too busy to secure all the lug nuts holding it in place. Everything will be fine. You jump in the car and drive away, hoping the tire is on straight and that it will work effectively. You make a mental note to check on it later today. Or tomorrow. Or whenever you have time. These darn meetings always get in the way.

We all know what happens.

The tire’s lack of air will cause the car to drive inefficiently. The lug nuts will continue to loosen, bringing the entire car out of alignment.

The car will suffer, the other tires will suffer, and eventually, the new tire will fall off. Odds are pretty good that you’ve done some irreparable damage to the car or the other tires.

If you only had spent the time to properly inflate, balance, and align the tire, then the vehicle would’ve run more smoothly.

The tire, you see, is the new employee. The car is your company. Spend time getting the employee in a good spot and the entire company benefits.

Ya get it?

The Risks Of Bad Onboarding

Losing quality employees begins with a bad onboarding experience.

Nearly one-third of all new hires quit their jobs within the first six months.

A bad onboarding process may result in an emotional hit to a new employee on their first day on the job. Instead of them being excited and confident with their new job, it could leave them disappointed and questioning their decision.

It’s just a matter of time before they find a better culture and hightail it outta there.

On the other hand,?69% of employees?who experience great onboarding are more likely to stay with a company for at least three years.

What are the risks of a poor onboarding process? Try these on for size:

• Lack of understanding of their job responsibilities
• No goals to determine success
• Lack of knowledge about the company and best ways to be productive
• No mentorship or guidance
• No understanding of company culture
• No sense of community

This all could lead to feelings of disillusionment, loneliness, anxiety, and confusion.

The Responsibility Is Yours

If you’re thinking “I wish our HR team was better at onboarding,” please stop that thinking.

Every person in a company has a role to play in the onvboarding process, most of which don’t require HR involvement

There are five key areas for all great onboarding processes. Those will be discussed in the next article.

In the meantime, what is the onboarding process like at your company? What role do you play in it?

Do you think it’s going well? Can it be done better?

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QUOTE

“The only thing worse than training your employees and losing them, is not training them and keeping them."

- Zig Ziglar

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Tidbits

• Interwebs. Here’s the Internet explained by a Google search (how it works)
• Gnew Music. Spotify? Pandora? Check this out. (Gnoosic)
• Drench.?I have this game on my phone, it’s addictive (color drench)
• Another Useless Website.??It’s not just fun sounds, you can get a seizure in the process (play)