When you talk about onboarding, people usually point to top US employer brands like Google, Facebook, and Zappos. These brands have discovered the high value of a well-designed onboarding program in terms of turning a new hire into a dedicated employee.
However, apart from these usual suspects, onboarding in many organisations leaves a lot to be desired.
Onboarding is so much more than induction
Onboarding is the process by which new hires acquire the knowledge, skills, and behaviour to become effective and productive employees.
And to ensure your new hires ease smoothly into your company, onboarding needs to start well before their first day. While it includes the initial orientation and induction process, this is just one step. Onboarding involves everything from:
- Ensuring their compliant employment contract is signed before they start
- Making sure your new hire’s desk or work area is ready
- Enabling technology, security passes and tools for them
- Setting up formal meetings with co-workers
- Making sure your new hire has access to all the information they need to succeed in their position
- Scheduling appropriate training, mentoring and regular check-ups, and,
- Providing easy access to the company’s HR and WHS policies, practices and expectations.
Poor onboarding leads to high turnover
Yet, too many people experience a profound sense of disappointment in their first days and weeks in a new job.
Where’s the boss to welcome them on their first day? Where’s the scheduled meetings with their manager, direct reports and co-workers? Where’s the planned training and mentoring sessions to help them understand their new role and acquire the knowledge and skills to contribute effectively?
An onboarding process that is all just basic HR forms and other paperwork ultimately results in high turnover.
Generational changes
These days, with Gen Ys accounting for an ever greater percentage of the workforce, you have to adapt how you operate to reflect Millennials’ values.
In terms of onboarding this may mean reworking your mentoring and training programs to become more like peer-to-peer collaboration, and include more frequent check-ins and assessments.
Plugin digital natives to your onboarding process
According to various research studies including one report from Bersin by Deloitte, 79% of business leaders say successful onboarding is now both an urgent and important priority. To cater for digital natives, onboarding has to become increasingly digital with audio, video, mobile and interactive processes occurring across multiple channels.
As organisations like Google, Facebook and Zappos can attest, when you get onboarding right, it pays big benefits. This includes improved productivity, reduced voluntary turnover, higher customer satisfaction, and, in the long run, increased profitability.
Please join us:
Sydney 20/10/2015 Venue – Cliftons Level 13, 60 Margaret Street
Parramatta 28/10/2015 Venue – Novotel Parramatta, 350 Church Street
Melbourne 12/11/2015 Venue – Cliftons Level 1, 440 Collins Street
Webinar 12/11/2015 Venue – Online
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