Three Improvements for Your Onboarding Process
As the world of work changes and organizations are more eager than ever to bring on new talent, onboarding new employees is a critical (but often overlooked) process. What kinds of messages does your onboarding process send to new hires? Is it rushed? Casual? Intensive? Abridged? Relationship-focused? Outdated? Do those impressions match what you want them to experience as a long-term employee?
Productivity lost due to ineffective training can rack up costs that compound over time as more senior members of the team must pick up slack or correct for mistakes.
Any onboarding program sends a message to its new hires, who are eager to listen to those messages as they assess their fit with the organization. Once a recruit accepts an employment offer, there is a lot of excitement to bring them on board as quickly as possible. It is tempting to throw them into the work and trust that their experience and skills will carry them over the learning curve. In some cases, they will succeed! However, in most cases they may struggle through the transition, which can negatively impact them and the organization. Productivity lost due to ineffective training can rack up costs that compound over time as more senior members of the team must pick up slack or correct for mistakes. In addition, the risk of turnover due to a new hire feeling disconnected from their team can result in sunk hiring costs while adding to the frustration of team members who helped onboard them. To avoid these risks, it is important for organizations to listen and respond directly to new hires’ requests and commit to learning from their experiences and retention.
C1C recently reviewed its onboarding process as we hired three new employees last year! Below we outline some of the parts of our onboarding program that we believe make it successful for our new hires and organization.
Document and discuss the most important procedural tasks. Documenting regular or complex procedural tasks can save time and heartache for new hires and the most-tenured employees. Of course, documentation is not appropriate or necessary for every task – or documentation could become a full-time job! When prioritizing what to document, think carefully about what detailed steps, technology processes, or specific go-to contacts would benefit any team members. Keep in mind that documentation alone is not enough to effectively train a new hire and you must build time into your onboarding process to review, shadow, and discuss the how, when, and why of each procedure. At C1C, we allow new hires to review some documentation independently while others that need more contextual discussion are reviewed collaboratively. Time for follow-up questions and discussion is set aside after a new hire’s first week to ensure they are set up for success.
Focus on relationships, not just tasks. Helping new hires feel welcomed and that they are an important part of the team is just as important as training them on the job. Provide new hires with ample time to socialize with and ask questions of the people in their organizational network without close supervision. Organizational environments are more interdependent and collaborative than ever. Being in-sync with both internal and external contacts requires giving new hires some foundational opportunities to get to know the people they work closely with – to discuss work styles and preferences, as well as logistic considerations of the relationship. Further, sometimes peers are better equipped to inform a new hire about procedures and policies than managers because they are the ones closest to the work. At C1C, we set aside time for new hires to have informal one-on-ones with team members as well as time to get to know the team through lunches and happy hours. We also assign each new hire a “buddy” who can offer advice, answer questions, and just be a friendly face.
Embrace vulnerability. Any new hire will experience feelings of vulnerability as they start to try out and own their new tasks and job responsibilities. While being vulnerable may be seen as negative, it actually requires having the courage to try and to be seen despite uncertain outcomes. Embracing vulnerability allows people to learn and grow from their experiences rather than discouraged by their failures. If a new hire does not feel their work environment is safe for them to say when they need support, when they are feeling overwhelmed, or admit when they have made a mistake, it sets both the newcomer and the organization up for long-term struggles and unmet expectations. At C1C we strive to help new hires embrace a learning mindset, understand that they are not alone on their journey, and believe that they will not be judged harshly for mistakes. We have found this makes the onboarding process much more productive, comfortable, and inclusive for everyone.
Small organizations in particular may not have someone in human resources whose responsibility it is to monitor and deliver onboarding. And even when they do, onboarding largely falls to managers. We hope that this post illustrates just a few ways to reimagine your onboarding process from the newcomer’s perspective. Integrating a new team member is exciting as managers imagine the possibilities of what a new team member can contribute to their team. Having a balanced approach focused on tasks and relationships while supporting new hires with documented workflows and a little grace will go a long way towards easing the burden of the new hire’s learning curve.
To continue discussing how your organization can infuse more best practices into your culture through onboarding, feel free to reach out!