Does Your Onboarding Program Add Value?

You should have heard the saying "The most important asset of a company is its people". But with your experience, do you believe that companies and its owners, management and of course HR team were able to make you feel as the "most important asset"?

If the answer is yes, great! keep working for that company. Of course you need challenging work as well to continue ;)

What if the answer is no? From the day one are you wondering why you joined? Are you coming to work with enthusiasm or just because you need a job? These two words 'First Day' plays a major role on deciding your answer to be a Yes or a No.

Different companies adopt their own ways of onboarding their new employees. But it's quite important to evaluate whether the end goal of the defined onboarding program really makes an impact.

I have been working with my team in SL and also with my global HR team on how to make our onboarding program a remarkable one which will add value to each and every new comer who joins. Of course the 'First Day' is where we could create an everlasting first impression.

Before that, while many of us focus on creating a remarkable first day, we forget to take the use of the period between candidate signing the contract and joining date. This is the most important period to prepare new employees to settle themselves mentally for the new begining. We call it "Pre boarding".

Preboarding

Preboarding is where new employees don't work for the company yet, but still get to know about it and prepare themselves to join. This process starts from the day they sign the contract. There are 3 objectives of Preboarding.

1. Creating an emotional enthusiasm to join the new workplace.
2. Get familiar with basic information about the company and its people.
3. Get ready for Onboarding Program.

#1 Creating an Emotional Enthusiasm to Join the New Workplace

Other than working conditions, salary package, benefits, position, duties & responsibilities, there are more human factors that pop up when an individual is hired. Like, does the company culture suit me? How will my manager, my team and other colleagues treat me? I was so comfortable/not comfortable at all in my previous place so is this the new place I really wanted?

Having all these questions in head will create a certain uneasiness about the new journey the individual about to start. To eliminate this, following initiatives are positively impactful.

1. Send a customized welcome gift (flowers, cake etc.) with a welcome card to their home. This will create a good first impression where the message is passed that we care and we are waiting to welcome him/her to our family. This really makes an impact!
2. Select a 'Buddy' from the team as the companion of the new employee up to 3-6 months until he/she is settled. Buddy will be the first contact point to share know-how about company culture. So selecting someone who really like to play this role is compulsory. Once the buddy is selected HR shares his/her details with new employee, allowing them to mingle. Allocating a budget for them to meet and have a quality time would be nice. HR also guides the selected buddy and set the expectation clearly. With this, most of the questions new employee has, are cleared and makes him/her part of company culture even before.
3. Select a 'Mentor' from the team who will be closely working with the new employee. This person is the one who makes it easier in terms of the job new employee going to take up. Mentor will be there to settle down new employee with assigned work, introduce processes, tools, share knowledge and provide guidance. Mentor also evaluate the performance of the new employee in performance review cycle within the probation and keep sharing inputs on it with team manager and HR. The details of the Mentor is also shared with the new employee to keep in touch before hand to discuss, familiarize and clear doubts in terms of work.
4. Don't forget to invite new employees to company parties, trips, team outings even before he/she joins! This really help the new employee to explore company culture closely and allows to make new friends. Of course 'buddy' has quite a responsibility on making it an easy and enjoyable moment for the new employees during these special events.

#2 Get Familiar with Basic Information About the Company and Its People

Every new comer indeed does a background research about the company before accepting the offer. They go through company website, social media, reach friends of the company or reach friends in the same industry. Also once they get to know their buddy and mentor they raise questions to them for more clarification. Still there could be questions like;

• What do they really do? Do they have a vision, mission? How my contribution would be making an impact?
• Who is managing the company locally and globally?
• Do they have flexible working hours? Any conditions applicable on it?
• How does my leaves work?
• What kind of additional benefits they offer?

Also very practical questions like;

• What should I wear?
• Do they provide lunch?
• Where can I park my vehicle?

Having all these questions and starting on 'first day' would make it quite intense. So with 'Preboarding' all these questions are cleared and mentally prepare new comers to join the new adventure confidently. Share a well prepared 'New Comer eBook' with new employee answering all these questions. The flow of the eBook matters as it should allow the reader to find information easily and interesting to read. Don't forget to add a few nice images of his/her team, manager, special moments of the company culture. Also HR, buddy and recruiters needs to be available for further clarifications if they require.

#3 Ready for the Onboarding Program - First 03 Days

Along with the 'New Comer eBook', HR shares another eGuide on how Onboarding Program is made of. Companies allocate different time durations for the onboarding program based on company requirements. However first 3 days are key to create the expected positive impression. Sharing a clear and full detail about first 3 days with time slots, whom they are going to meet, what they are going to learn are available in this eGuide.

After preboarding, the most important day the 'First Day' arrives.

Onboarding

Imagine you are the new employee and you are ready for the first day!

You wait at the door but don't see anyone at the reception. An employee comes and open the door for you and you get in and sit on the couch in the reception. After a little while a person nervously appears and take you in to a meeting room and ask you to wait. No welcome and no clue on what's going on.

You wait for nearly half an hour and a person introducing himself as team manager comes and take you to meet the team. You feel a bit hungry as you couldn't have breakfast as you were rushing through traffic to be there on time. Manager introduces you to team with a common note and they say hi and you sit at your work location. The table is empty and manager says that things need to be arranged but there is a late on getting the stuff. Your team wears very casual outfits and comparatively you look over dressed. You start to feel uncomfortable and wonder what to do. No one joins you for lunch and you quickly finish it to escape from lunch room. Day 01 just passes and finally you go home with a heavy heart expecting a better second day. But this goes on for next couple of days. You finally decide whether you should stay or leave the job and find a company that really matches the culture you are looking for!

Above story or part of it could be an experience you might have faced or heard. It could be a well known company who offers good pay packages which attracts candidates. but the first impression they create lose good employees or create employees who are neither loyal nor dedicated and lack of interest to be a part of company culture, a bunch of people who work only to get their pay package.

A well designed onboarding program followed with a well designed pre boarding will only add value to a company culture to foster better employees who become their best selves and taking the company beyond the expected goals. So spending time and resources to design a proper onboarding program and allowing it to add value would be never a bad investment!

How Onboarding Program Works

Indeed the onboarding program should be designed considering the business and industry that company is in to, how culture is build so far, availability of the resources, how much time need to be spent, impact from international time differences and selecting what are the most important information to be shared with new employees etc.

While considering all above its a must to keep in mind that final outcome of onboarding program is allowing the new employees to settle down within a short time with a clear picture, more focus and of course enthusiasm to be at work daily and believing that they are a part of company mission.

A Onboarding Program Model

This model provides an outline for first 3 days and some do's and don'ts to follow when designing. I tried my best to be descriptive as much as possible to capture slightest tips which could be helpful to enrich the program.

Remember!

1. Make the program more interactive, enjoyable and less boring. Do not expect them to digest all the information shared in 3 days. Make sure to design the sessions in an interactive manner.
2. Allow them to ask questions.
3. Try a few fun games in between the sessions to keep the enthusiasm.
4. Discuss with resource people who are going to present at the program regarding content. Pick only the most relevant and important information.
5. Keep the resource people informed beforehand with new employee details, date, time and venue of the program. So they have enough time to prepare.

First Day : "Get to know your company and business"

On the first day keep the focus on introducing all about the company. New employee already knows information shared at preboarding stage. But don't expect them to remember everything and act upon.

1. Make sure to give a warm welcome! This could be either by HR, buddy and manager. New employee should feel that his/her arrival is not a surprise! (Tip: Use the TV screens/dashboards if available to show a flyer of the employee with a welcome note, a small souvenir to welcome them at the entrance)
2. Take new employee for a office round introducing the team and other employees. (Tip: With dashboards or keeping colleagues aware about arrival of new employee will help everyone to give a warm welcome)
3. Invite them to enjoy some morning refreshments and mingle with buddy and other new employees if available any. By this time new employee starts to mentally settle down.
4. Take a nice pic of new employee and ask them to paste it on 'Family Tree' wall marking their arrival to new family! (Family tree wall is a tree painting having pics of all members of company and this gives them a warm welcome) Similar kind small initiatives will create a huge impact and a great bond!
5. Show around the office and where to find lunch room, wash room, play area, exit doors, how to use the elevator, check on whether the parking was fine, security measures etc.
6. Work station: This is a fundamental that motivates new employee to start work. Availability of laptop and other hardware, a pack of company branded t shirt, cap, note book, pen, pencil, pen drive etc. (Decide the items that's suitable and make it presentable on the table). Also keep a welcome board including employee name would be nice to add!
7. Keep a time for documentation if any legal requirements are there, enroll them to door access and explain how it works and other related requirements.

Once the program begins explain how it works and its importance in their day to day job. Include following for the first day outline;

1. Company Introduction - This is the key presentation. Explaining how company started, its growth, vision, mission, goals, organizational hierarchy (local and global), communication platforms, highlight how new employee is going to contribute for overall objectives. Ideal person to do this would be an officer from top management. A warm welcome from top management will always make new employee feel important and confident to do the best. Objective: How they are going to contribute for overall goals and its impact
2. Culture and Core Values - Introducing how company culture is made of, talk about people interaction, culture differences when working with other global office colleagues, tips to follow, introduce core values, what is expected from new employee on living up to the core values & invite them to be a part of the culture. Make this session more interactive while elaborating examples from company history. Objective: Creating a psychological bond towards the company and its people.
3. Creating Employee Experience - A session about basic HR practices would refresh what they already learned during preboarding. Explain on working hours, leaves, benefits, practices, learning and development, performance reviews, tools used for those and also make it a time allowing new employees to ask questions. Make sure to keep these information short, clear and transparent and explain how they can reach HR anytime when they need help. (Tip: Don't make this session a lengthy one as it could overload them with too much of information. E.g. Introducing how performance review mechanism and its related tools, introducing HRIS could be done in a separate session) Objective: Familiarizing with basic information required in day to today work.
4. Be Your Best Self - Ending first day with some motivation would be ideal as it boosts their enthusiasm to join the second day of onboarding program. Be your best self session prepares new employees to contribute their best for the overall objectives. Explain the expectations on working smart while being themselves and opportunities available for them to do it.

Tips:

• Try to keep the program agenda short on first day so new employee can leave bit early. This will allow them to regain more energy and come back for next day program
• Make arrangements for new employee to go for lunch with buddy to mingle.
• It's always good to have 5-10 minutes fun games, breaks in between the sessions to keep the focus and enthusiasm and some evening refreshment would be nice to go with!

Second Day : "Get to know your operations"

Second day focus is on learning about operations that new employees going to be in. They will find this day more important as they are curious to know about their involvement in terms of work.

Remember!

For some companies these sessions might need more than one day. But this shouldn't be a deep learning about their specific work but an overall learning about the operation they are going to be in. So trying to share only the important facts would make it easy for new employee to grasp it easily.

1. Design the sessions of the second day together with relevant team heads. It could be all new employees joining same session or may be they need separate ones based on their work.
2. Explain how operations works, its history, projects, achievements, KPIs, fundamentals, different roles team mates have to play to achieve targets etc.
3. Combine a small fun assessment to check what they learned and allow a Q&A session for more clarification.
4. A virtual meeting with global office representatives (if available) would make the day complete!

Tips:

• A lunch with the team of new employee would be ideal for the second day to mingle!
• All other tips just like first day could be added. The breaks, fun games etc.

Third Day : "Learning Essentials on e-platforms"

If the company possess a Learning Management System (LMS), it can be used in many ways during onboarding program to allow new employees to explore new knowledge. Having a LMS allows to create any learning comes in handy.

An elearning designed with rich content, easy to understand and followed with a quick assessment at the end to check what they learned will encourage self learning and also allow new comers to refer the content later whenever necessary.

These elearnings could be arranged at employee workstation and keep their calendars booked with instructions on how to do them. This is a good way to share knowledge!

Journey continues..

• From fourth day up to 10-15 days new comers will be taken through on the job training together with mentor and manager of the team. A specific training schedule to learn assigned duties and responsibilities will be used.
• The responsibility of buddy and mentor will continue up to 3 - 6 months until new comer is fully settled down.
• HR does frequent follow ups with new comer, buddy and mentor regarding progress and provide support where necessary.
• Train the key speakers of onboarding program, train buddy and mentors on expected role they need to play. Keep employees aware of importance of a good onboarding program and why they need to support it.
• At the end of the onboarding program (on day 3, day 15) feedback will be collected from every new comer about the experience they had and use the inputs for further improvement of the program.

Make your onboarding program an engaging, effective and structured one and it can help to build a strong foundation to create a great place to work and use that to attract and retain best talent!