6 Common Onboarding Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Many factors contribute to employee retention: a competitive salary, a good work-life balance, a positive work environment — the list goes on.?

However, an important factor that is often overlooked is the onboarding experience.

Time and time again, research has shown that a good onboarding experience has long-term positive effects on employees across the board. And, by extension, it has a positive effect on your company’s bottom line!

Sadly, many employers still overlook this part of the employee experience and end up making many common mistakes.?

So, if you want to learn more about common onboarding pitfalls and how to avoid them, read on.

*This article is the abridged, adapted version of the blog post originally published on the Plaky blog: https://plaky.com/blog/how-bad-onboarding-hurts-your-projects/?

#1: Poor pre-boarding

Pre-boarding is a part of the onboarding process that takes place before an employee’s first day. So, for all intents and purposes, it is the prep stage where you make sure everything is ready for the new team member’s first day.

This includes things like:

• Signing all the paperwork,
• Sharing important documentation,
• Setting up the tools,
• Scheduling introductory meetings,
• Preparing a welcome package, and more.

Taking care of these things in advance means the new employee will have time to prepare and have a much more stress-free first day.?

After all, nobody likes juggling meetings and troubleshooting their PC while they try to tackle their first task — which brings us to our next point.

#2: Throwing new hires straight into the workflow

Joining a new company is always intimidating, no matter how much experience you have. There’s always something new to learn and new processes to get accustomed to.?

As such, you should avoid throwing new hires straight into the action from their first day. Instead, allow for an acclimation period — which can be as long as 3 months, depending on the circumstances.?

If you want to make your employee’s introductory period productive and stress-free, here are some of the things you can do:

• Start them off with low-priority tasks,
• Have them shadow other team members,
• Set lower performance expectations initially,
• Organize appropriate training, and
• Have regular feedback sessions to identify pain points.

#3: Burying people in too much information

As mentioned, pre-boarding exists for a reason, and one of those reasons is to avoid day #1 information overload.?

Nobody likes the sight of a huge stack of papers on their desk or an email chock-full of PDF attachments — especially on their first day. So, delivering important documentation before the first day gives the new hire time to go over it all at their own pace.

It’s also a good idea to keep new information coming on a slow drip and focus on things that are important to the employee’s day-to-day work. In addition to helping them avoid being overwhelmed, it also helps with information retention.

#4: Unclear performance expectations

Something else that can contribute to a feeling of disorientation for new employees is not knowing what to expect in their day-to-day — or in the long run. Without a frame of reference, it’s easy for new people to misjudge their own performance and what’s expected of them.

To avoid this, it’s important to clearly communicate to new hires what they’re expected to achieve by the end of the onboarding process:?

• Overall productivity,?
• Milestones they’re supposed to hit, and?
• Goals they should achieve.

This gives employees something palpable to work towards. Even better — it helps them form a good sense of how they’re faring in their new role.

#5: Poor or misleading job description

Most of us know how frustrating it can be to start a new job, only to find it’s different from the job description.?

Even if the difference is relatively small, it can undermine an employee’s confidence in the company. Or worse, in some extreme cases, it can even make the employee believe they were deliberately misled!

You definitely want to avoid such situations, so keep a few things in mind here:

• Make sure the job ad is comprehensive and covers all responsibilities and benefits.
• Don’t overstate — or understate — the job scope.
• Maintain open communication with the recruitment team.
• Keep the job description updated as time goes on.

#6: Using the wrong tools

Finally, remember that the digital workplace has changed for the better, and businesses now have access to plenty of refined tools that can increase their productivity.?

So, by investing in these tools, you’re not just making your employees’ lives easier — you’re also showing them you’re willing to make quality investments.

For example, many workplaces still use spreadsheets for project management, which has proven to be a bad idea for a host of reasons. They have lots of moving parts, rely too heavily on manual processes, and have limited collaboration features.?

All this opens the door for human error, and even a minor mistake can cost you a lot of money.

Specialized apps such as Plaky are an antidote to these problems. Plaky is highly user-friendly and has a number of features many spreadsheets lack, such as:

• Easy in-app communication,
• Seamless file sharing,
• Automated notifications,
• Integrations with other productivity apps, and more.

Think it’s time to improve your onboarding and productivity? Sign up for a free Plaky account today!