Onboarding

In business today, onboarding is the process of integrating new members on a team or new employees into a company. Onboarding includes making introductions between the team members, introductions with other staff that the new team member will be interacting with, explanations of company policies and bureaucracy, showing the newcomer the physical layout of the facility, and of course, training the new team member so that they can properly carry out their job.

The focus in most businesses is to train the new employee in their function, and that part of the training process normally has manuals, videos, and normally a trainer or someone to supervise. You need to learn how to do your job! And even if it's a function that exists in other organizations and the employee has outside experience, there's no such thing as a cookie-cutter job. I may have invoiced customers in another organization, but the procedures and responsibilities aren't always going to be the same.

Imagine becoming a chef in a restaurant and being told, "Make lunch!" with a clap on the back. Where are the supplies that the new employee is going to use located? Is there a requisition procedure? Are there special handling requirements? Who will the new employee be dealing with internally? Do I need to know anything special about IT to get someone to fix my machine? Or if I am IT, are there any other team members that are going to need routine help?

All organizations should create an onboarding process. Frequently when new employees join a team, they aren't aware of some basic things that seasoned employees take for granted. Security procedures and human resources processes can vary quite a bit from organization to organization. The new team member often needs a mentor from within the organization that can answer all of those questions that are floating around in their head and which they might feel awkward about. I had a colleague tell me that he had worked in the same office for a few months before he learned the housekeeping guy's name even though they had coffee during breaks all of the time. Nobody thought to introduce them and after a while, he'd gotten too embarrassed to ask. Worse, my father told me of a young employee in a factory who'd nearly had a terrible accident because he couldn't find the rest room in a factory.

In most organizations, the new team member meets so many people at the very beginning that names start to swim around in their heads. Preparing a contact sheet (with photos if possible!) can really help to alleviate a lot of that stress. If your organization doesn't have a mentoring system, it's a good idea to think about for onboarding purposes. 

For the person coming to a new job, there are some basic things to keep in mind. Don't be afraid to ask questions! Talk to your teammates. People are almost always willing to help. Who do I need to talk to in HR? Who's my go-to guy in IT? Where can I get a new mouse? Find out the names of the support people, not just your team members. Find out where the best coffee machine is. And please, find out where the bathroom is!

Have you ever had an interesting onboarding experience? If you work in the area, do you have any tips? Comment below!

Cliff Nickerson

SEMINAL Inglês para Profissionais