Quick Guide to Onboarding & Inductions
Want your new team members to hit the ground running and be productive from their very first week? Then you need to get your onboarding and induction process right for every new employee.
When our clients mention that their new team member is not ‘getting it’, they aren’t filling the gap as quickly as anticipated, or even that people keep leaving – often one of the underlying issues is a poor or non-existent onboarding and induction process.
Picture this: you start a new job and from the first day, everything is done on the fly. You’re not introduced to other team members, shown around, taught how things happen around here, shown the different systems or how to use them, who to ask for help, where to park, what day the weekly team meeting happens, or when/how you can take a lunch break… let alone any of the other information you need to do your job.
Some people would be completely bamboozled. Other people would be frustrated by the lack of planning and processes. Either way, this is not a good first impression and is not the way to set people up for success. Unfortunately, you would be surprised how many new employees have experiences like this.
Studies have shown that having a consistent, structured onboarding and induction process results in employees settling in and being successful in their roles and committed to the business in the long run.
Our Quick Guide to Onboarding and Inductions provides guidance on how to get it right to improve your employee retention and culture, and help your team hit the ground running.
1. WHAT IS ONBOARDING?
Onboarding is the complete process from being a new employee to becoming a fully trained and productive member of the team. It starts before the employment commences, with providing contracts, position descriptions and policies, to having document returned and a payroll profile setup. It continues through the first couple of months of employment as the employee learns:
Throughout the process, they may even be assigned a buddy to help them.
2. WHAT IS INDUCTION?
It’s the process new employees should experience over their first days and weeks, to be equipped with the knowledge, tools and resources they need to become an effective and productive team member. It also familiarises the new employee with the organisation’s policies, procedures and culture.
While onboarding and induction happen simultaneously, induction is more specific and task-focused than onboarding.
3. PREPARATION BEFORE THE EMPLOYEE COMMENCES
Before a new employee commences, there are a few steps that can be taken care of ahead of time. Here’s a few of our top suggestions:
4. ONCE THE NEW EMPLOYEE COMMENCES - What should you cover?
Some businesses will have a general company induction that covers some of the points we discuss in this Quick Guide. If this is the case, generally we would recommend that you have a separate process or checklist that covers the information specific to the new employee, their role and their team.
a) Introductions & Tour
On the employees’ first day, make the time to give them a full guided tour of the workplace, including introducing them to their new work colleagues. Your guided tour should include things like where they will be sitting/working, the location of the lunchroom, toilets, lockers and where they can park.
It is also a good idea to set some time aside on their first day to have a one-on-one to provide the new employee with dedicated time to hear about the company, their personal responsibilities, ask any questions they may have and allow them to get to know their new Supervisor or Manager. ?
For more senior or management positions, the introduction process may also involve one-on-one meetings with other managers, their team and other relevant colleagues, clients and suppliers they will be working closely with. You may also need to arrange visits to other sites/work locations.
b) Employment Conditions
The new employee should be informed about their employment conditions. This is something that should be done on an employee’s first or second day. Here’s what we suggest covering: ?
c) Position Description & Daily Operations
It takes time to settle into a new role, but to set the new employee up for success, you must be clear about what is expected from them from day one. We recommend going through the employee’s position description and discussing the responsibilities and requirements of the role, along with any current projects and deadlines that they need to be aware of.
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You should also take the time to discuss expectations around the employee accessing systems, confidentiality, housekeeping, mobile phone/IT use, dress standards and expectations around providing customer service, where applicable.
Involvement in daily operations will vary between employees, so ensure that you discuss what will be relevant to your new employee and include any additional daily operations that need to be discussed.
EXAMPLE: For a new Truck Driver, some of the additional daily operations you might discuss include chain of responsibility, fueling requirements, legislated rest break requirements, resting in the vehicle, no smoking in the cab and cab cleanliness.
It may help to write a list of all the daily duties the new employee will be required to complete before they commence, that way you will be confident you have covered everything applicable to that employee in their first day/week.
d) Employee Handbook, Policies and Procedures
If your business has an Employee Handbook and/or written Policies and Procedures in place, be sure the employee is:
We recommend that employees sign off on each Handbook and Policy to confirm that they have read, understood and agreed to comply with them. ?
These documents should be easily accessible for all employees, for example, kept in a folder the lunchroom or on a shared drive for those with computer access. ?
e) Workplace Health and Safety
New employees will need to complete any workplace health and safety processes and procedures during the onboarding process if not already covered in a company induction. This might include:
5. ONBOARDING CHECKLISTS ARE A TRAINING RECORD
Once the induction process has been completed, we recommend the document is signed off by the new employee and their manager, then kept on the employee’s personnel file. The This then becomes a training record that shows that the employee has been provided all the required training to be safe and productive in their role.
If ever needed in future, this training record can also be used as evidence to manage issues or prove that an employee has been appropriately trained. ?
6. DON'T FORGET TO CHECK IN WITH THE NEW EMPLOYEE AFTER COMMENCE
Regardless of how you structure your onboarding and induction process, always check in with the new employee after a few weeks from their commencement date.
Generally, we recommend checking in with new employees by setting up a meeting for 1,3 and 5 months from their commencement date. You use these check-ins to talk about their progress and also as an opportunity to allow for questions, feedback about how they found the recruitment, onboarding and induction process, and whether there is any room for improvement.
If you choose to make this a formal process, be sure to inform the employee ahead of time so they are aware of what to expect, and can prepare if necessary.
In summary, a good onboarding process should give new employees the right knowledge and resources to help them hit the ground running. The first few weeks are the most influential to new employees, so ensure you take the time to give them a positive introduction to your business.
7. WHERE CAN I GET HELP?
The team at Edwards HR can help prepare the documents we have mentioned throughout this Quick Guide – your employment contracts, position descriptions, onboarding plans and checklists, policies, check-in forms etc – let us help you get the right the first time so you can get back to what you do best.
The team at Edwards HR regularly runs workshops on Onboarding & Induction, Employment Contracts, Employment Relations Foundations, IR Reforms and many other HR topics – you can check out our training calendar here.
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If you would like to understand how we can support your compliance and risk mitigation efforts, Edwards HR are more than happy to help – please contact our team here or on 07 3568 0866.
Team Leader - Body Corporate Relationship Manager at Oxygen Strata Ltd Senior Strata Community Manager Award Winner 2024/2025
10 个月Very informative