Onboarding New Hires Without a Formal Program? Don't Miss These 4 Steps ??

It's a scenario you might be familiar with: You’ve hired a new team member, sent them all their paperwork, and given them checklists of tasks to get started. Then, boom – 45 days later they quit. Now you’re left wondering what went wrong as you call it a “bad fit”. Yet the truth is they probably felt disconnected, overwhelmed, or unsupported without proper onboarding.

I was stunned when I heard that around 35% of companies invest $0 on their employees’ onboarding. While some might be smaller companies that don’t have a dedicated training team, others just don’t allocate the budget to training. Sure, onboarding costs a pretty penny, but skipping it could lead to even bigger problems down the road when the costly cycle of rehiring starts all over again, wiping out all that effort invested into your team member.

Onboarding vs. Winging It

Let’s face it – people want to feel welcomed in their new job. They're looking for some reassurance from you that they made the right choice. They want to hear “We do amazing things here, and we’re thrilled you’re here to be part of it.”

While, yes, some managers do a great job of taking a new hire under their wing and acclimating them, the problem is this: Without a structured program in place, your new hires get an inconsistent experience that varies by manager.

But, don’t fret if this is you. The great news is that, even if you have no formal onboarding program, you probably already have the right information to set your new hires up right from the start.

A 4-Part Recipe

These four components allow you to focus on what really matters to your new folks, so you can avoid overcomplicating the onboarding process and overwhelming yourself.

Part 1: Connecting (Be clear about what makes the company special ??)

The first part is to establish a connection between your new hires and the company they’ve just joined. You might be thinking "But I already do this!". However, you're probably looking at it from an expert lens, which makes it easy to skip over what might be fascinating to someone new. Then, 6 months later your new hire still doesn't fully grasp what the company does.

Connecting should be at the forefront of every onboarding, so make it happen before any other training. You could talk about:

• Your company's story and what makes it special
• What the company used to be like and how it's changed
• Who's who in the company
• Changes happening in your industry

This sets the tone for every other step of onboarding AND their employment. Don’t just send an internal business article and call it a day.

Part 2: Promoting (Treat new team members like brand ambassadors ??)

At the very core of having employees, you want your people to be excited about being part of the brand. Even if they’re not your target consumer, and even if they're not in sales. Your employees should see the bigger picture they’re contributing to and feel connected to their work. It’s a win-win! Start by giving your team members:

• The product or service 'elevator pitch' (everyone should know it!)
• Behind the scenes peek at how the product is made
• The competitive landscape and where you fit
• Your best-selling product or service's USP (unique selling proposition)

Make it your mission for your employees to not only know what their company does, but to talk about it authentically. The great news? This doubles as a valid response to the dreaded cocktail party question ‘What do you do?’.

Part 3: Educating (Plant the seeds for what they'll learn ????)

How do you get the right balance between getting your new hires into the role quickly while also spending time making them proficient? This is where most people get hung up.

If you throw everything but the kitchen sink at your new team members, guess what? They're less likely to grasp the job. They might quit before they have a chance to get acclimated. That's why it’s really important to keep this simple for now. Focus on the "need to know" information to successfully do the job. You can unveil more and cover the "nice to know" as they get comfortable. Since this is just the beginning, boil it down to these core pillars:

1. The Role: the job duties and how they fit into the organization
2. The Product: the company's products/services that the work contributes to
3. The Systems: the tools they'll need to know to carry out their work
4. The Skills: how they'll carry out the work and any SOPs they'll need

If you’re a smaller company or this content doesn't exist in written form yet, open a Google Doc and share the top 3-5 things to know for each pillar, followed by some action items they can start picking up. As always, you can build upon it later. Training should be iterative as you’re learning what works.

Part 4: Entertaining (Don’t be afraid of fun ????)

Why are we so resistant to fun? It’s almost always excluded from onboarding, yet it can be such a memorable connection point for your team members. And in today’s digitally connected workplace, it’s so simple with gifs, memes, short videos and explainers.

A great rule of thumb is to think of how you communicate and consume information outside of work. Then, use that method instead of defaulting to what’s been done before.

Always ask yourself: “If I were learning this topic for the first time, would I be interested?” If the answer is no, think of some ways to present it with a little more flavor. Something as quick as talking about a subject on a short Loom video and sending it over to your team makes a huge impact. Go ahead and include your seasoned hires in these, too – they might need the refresher, anyway!

The Bottom Line ??

Remember: You likely already have all the tools and resources needed to get your onboarding off the ground. Let it be an iterative process, so you don’t get hung up about getting it perfect on the first go-around. Think of training as the investment that it is, and focus on what a new hire needs the most:

• Connection: Make the company's special attributes clear and compelling
• Promotion: Get excited about what you do and invite your newbies to be part of it
• Education: Teach what's needed now, add the nice-to-knows later
• Entertainment: Keep it light-hearted!

If "Learning should be fun" is your style, too, subscribe to The Modern Learning Guide and share it with someone else who'd be interested. And if you'd like any specific topics to be covered in an upcoming article, leave a comment. ????