Effective Employee Onboarding Programs + 5 Ways to make Improvements

New hire onboarding is a crucial part of the hiring process but is often an overlooked aspect. Creating a wonderful new hire experience continues long after they’ve signed on the dotted line and just giving them a desk and sending a welcome email isn’t enough. New hires who have a bad experience or poor first impressions during their onboarding are unlikely to feel they have made the right decision to accept the role. When the organisation is unprepared for their arrival it makes them feel unwelcome. Effectively integrating a new employee within the company requires a great onboarding experience; research by Glassdoor indicates that companies with strong onboarding improved new hire retention by 82% and productivity by over 70%. So it makes for a good business case too. A great onboarding program ensures your new hire has the right tools, information and connections they need to become a productive team member within an efficient time-frame. It creates great first impressions that ensures they are excited to stay.

Orientation vs Onboarding

One major confusion that comes up is regarding the difference between orientation and onboarding. It’s highly important to understand these differences in order to prepare a successful program because onboarding should go further beyond orientation. Orientation is a one-time session usually on the first day of employment where new hires are introduced to the company mission, vision and values. Mandatory employee paperwork is completed. An office tour is arranged, a review of key administrative procedures takes place and any tech setup is done. Some parts of orientation could be done online prior to the start date as well. Orientation is basically the administrative aspects of starting a new position.

Whereas, onboarding is a series of events that includes the orientation session and should be strategic. Having a formal onboarding plan is ideal. This comprises of time for things such as key personnel introductions, team introduction meetings, one-on-ones with their manager to set expectations and milestone one-on-ones such as 30, 60, 90 and 120 days on the job.

5 Ways to Improve New Hire Onboarding Experiences

I’ve put together 5 ways to improve the overall experience and are also perfect to include when creating an exceptional onboarding program:

• Go digital - with access to more affordable technology and the push for paperless transactions it’s great to take advantage of this and offer an online onboarding portal. Straight after signing an offer they could get started on reviewing such things as your employee handbook, policies, orientation training details, welcome messages and job description. Employee paperwork could also be done digitally to save time and trees!
• Set expectations ahead of time - nothing is worse than starting a new position and not knowing where to park, what time to start, who you’ll be meeting with first up or what your first week will look like. Giving this information to your new hire in advance allows them to feel fully prepared for their first day and week so they can focus on more important items like building relationships.
• Be fully prepared for their arrival - make sure their workspace is fully set up and equipped with everything BEFORE they arrive. Nothing says “you’re welcome and we’re excited to have you” than being prepared for their arrival.
• Don’t overwhelm new hires - yes, there's lots of new information when someone starts but sharing everything on the first day is overwhelming and not necessary. Having an online onboarding portal is the best option so that they have access to important information on demand. Handing them a stack of papers to read with every single company policy and expecting it to be read on the first day is very overwhelming for anyone. But do make sure to highlight in your onboarding plan what items are expected to be completed and when.
• Train hiring managers on the onboarding process - Hiring managers need to understand the onboarding process or at least who to refer the employee to if they have questions. Managers are usually the main person a new hire turns to for guidance on what is expected. If they don’t know the process or even who to refer the employee to then it can create confusion when the incorrect information is given. Ensure all your new hires receive a consistent experience by providing training to your hiring managers on your onboarding program.

As a Learning and Development Professional with extensive onboarding experience, I understand the importance of first impressions. If you are in a position of providing onboarding training, you are one of the first people to demonstrate that the company culture isn’t all just talk. You set the tone for how the employee views their new workplace from the get-go. The best thing to remember is that the quicker your new hire feels a part of the company and is prepared for their position, the quicker they can contribute successfully.

I’d be interested to hear your amazing or less-than-great onboarding experiences in the comments below!

Further Information:

Fast Company - Why companies make bad hires

Forbes - How to build an effective employee onboarding system

Insperity - Employee onboarding vs orientation

SHRM - Don't underestimate the importance of effective onboarding

SHRM - New employee onboarding guide