What to put in your new team member's onboarding plan

As your new team member's first day draws closer, it's important that you set-up a thorough onboarding plan for them. This will help them get to know the company, get to know the team, and become familiar with their role and responsibilities.

By taking the time to think this plan through, you will be enabling your new team member to get up and running which, in turn, will assist them to add value to the team from the get go.

The onboarding plan could run anywhere from 1 month to 3 months, depending on the complexity of the role. But, what should you include in an onboarding plan? Here is my recommendation.

Meet the Team

Before anything else, your new team member needs to feel welcomed into the team and meet the people they will be working with on a regular basis.

I suggest avoiding a "walk around the office" where people are introduced back-to-back. The intention is positive - you want the new team member to meet their colleagues, but this approach causes challenges. Often people you want them to meet are not at their desk, rushing off to a meeting, or generally not keen to chat. And then from the perspective of the new person, it is quite challenging to remember people introduced in a line-up.

Instead, on your team member's first day, start the day with a team meeting. In this meeting, set aside the first 30 minutes as a coffee chat - get to know you time for your team and the new team member. I like to play a round robin question ice breaker to get everyone talking and learning about each other. The repetition within the meeting of each team member speaking, and the protected, settled timeframe, gives your new team member space to absorb these introductions well.

From there, set-up one on one meetings between your new team member and the team members that they need to engage with. In small teams, I suggest setting up this time for them with every team member; whereas in bigger organisations I suggest only setting these up for the core connects at first.

Make sure you set these up for your team member in advance, so that when they open their calendar on Day 1, they can see these bookings in the diary. Yes, they could make the bookings themselves; but it adds a layer of administration that is simply not necessary on top of everything else your new team member is navigating.

Get to know the company

Your team member has learnt a bit about your company during the hiring process, but once they are with you it's important to give them a proper introduction to your company.

At a minimum they should understand the vision, mission and values of the company; as well as the strategic goals for the year ahead. They should understand where they fit into this bigger picture.

Share the HR policies and procedures with them, giving them time to review these and ask questions. Though this may feel very procedural, it is an essential step in clarifying the ways of working in your organisation.

Give them an overview of how your systems work. This includes things like where you save documents, how you share documents, how the team communicates with each other, how you manage active projects and track progress, reporting requirements and any system rules that need to be shared.

Understand their role

Your onboarding plan should include thorough preparation for the role and the responsibilities that come with it. My recommendation is that you identify every deliverable associated with the role; and then break this down into the various tasks that need to be implemented to achieve each deliverable.

From there, set aside an appropriate time period in the onboarding plan to cover each deliverable. For example, if a marketing role in your team has three key deliverables to achieve; then you may decide to allocate two weeks for each deliverable's training.

When facilitating this step of the process, I would encourage you to make sure that you first explain to the team member WHY this deliverable is important, and the consequences for the business if it is not achieved.

You then need to SHOW them how to achieve this deliverable. Don't overthink this - you do not necessarily need written out processes and training videos prepared. You could simply set up a virtual call with them, walk them through the process you follow and record the meeting. They can then reference the meeting recording if they need to refresh any steps afterwards.

It will then be time for you to give your new team member an exercise to help them PRACTICE the tasks that they have been trained on. Make sure you give them tasks that are closely linked to the real world tasks, and be sure to give them detailed feedback on their outputs. If you feel they have not met the requirement, then you may decide to give them further practice tasks until you are comfortable to sign them off.

Once you have established that the new team member is able to achieve the deliverables in a simulated environment, you can now allocate them 'real work' in this particular topic stream. Training may be continuing for other streams, but in the interim they can begin implementing what they have been signed off to do.

Now, you may be wondering whether all of this is necessary if you have hired an experienced person. And, the answer is, yes it is. You want to ensure that the person understands your specific requirements for the tasks, which may well differ from how they have done things before.

Establish a feedback loop

As the Line Manager, you need to be around for your new team member. On their first day, you should definitely set aside time to facilitate their team introduction meeting.

Additionally I suggest asking your new team member to send you a note at the end of every day where they briefly share one success and one challenge from their day; as well as ask any questions that may have come up for them.

Reply to these emails and stay in conversation with your new team member. You'll find this feedback loop will help you to pick up challenges early on and ensure that your team member feels properly supported.

I would also suggest meeting with new team members at least twice per week for the first few weeks; and then weekly for the remainder of the onboarding period. This maintains a space where you can connect with your new team member about how they are settling in and performing in their role.

Be sure to do a formal month-end review at the end of Month 1, 2 and 3 to measure whether your team member is achieving the requirements of their onboarding plan. Identify and document any areas of development, and their associated action plans. Make sure to do these meetings whether your new team member is performing or not; as this is important documentation to assist you to manage performance in your team.

Remember: You only get one shot at this

I don't want to scare you, but this is the reality. You only get one chance to make a first impression with your new team member and set them up for success.

If you leave out any of these steps your team member may be left feeling overwhelmed, confused and even, lonely. These feelings are not going to support positive performance or their retention.

So, instead, take the time to set-up an onboarding plan that covers these key elements. The result will be a team member that feels at home in their new company and on top of the deliverables of their new role.

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