Onboarding a new employee can be a challenge to plan, and can easily be overlooked. Research from Deloitte shows that, “4% of new employees leave a job after a disastrous first day and 22% of staff turnovers occur in the first 45 days of employment.” Ignoring these statistics could cost your company thousands of dollars. The cost of a bad hire is quite substantial. To avoid the pitfalls of improper onboarding I’ve compiled a list of six easy to follow steps that have proven successful with engaging and exciting new employees:
• Welcome them to the team. Starting a new position can leave some people anxious and nervous about their new venture. Send your team the new employee’s contact information and ask everyone to reach out to them prior to their start date. Whoever hired the person should send first day instructions three to five days in advance of them starting. Give them an idea of the dress code, where to park, and an overview of what they can expect in their first few days on the job. This is a great way to make the new employee feel more comfortable and excited about joining the team.
• Engage your team. Don’t just have one person be responsible for all of the training. Many people can be involved in onboarding. If you do assign multiple people to different training areas, it’s crucial that you give them an outline on things you would like them to cover. That way you aren’t assuming they are covering certain things and it serves as a guide for them on what needs to be covered. Have different employees go over the company value and vision, give the office tour, and walk them through the technology they’ll be using.
• Set the tone. Give your new employee a detailed agenda of what their first three weeks are going to look like. We recommend creating a schedule that breaks out each day. Not every hour needs to be accounted for, but during those free times you will need to have projects for the employee so they aren’t without anything to do. Examples of special projects can be things like researching current and past clients, reading through company content, navigating company specific technology, or reading articles on industry related trends.
• 30/60/90. Giving your new employee goals for their first 90 days is a great way to provide clarity and set expectations. To do this, I recommend breaking it down into segments. Typically the first 30 days will be simply learning, recognizing, and understanding the company’s vision, value, story and, brand attributes. Day 30 – 60 should be when job specific movement starts. This may include more specific training, or shadowing other colleagues. Once the 60-day mark arrives, the employee should be accountable for a project or starting to contribute to production.
• Create a tracker. Planning for a new employee is a lot of work. Create a document that you can duplicate for future employees. Think of this as a checklist of everything that needs to be done prior to the employee starting and things they needed to be trained on once they start like job specific training, HR training and, an overview on technology.
• Prepare! You don’t want a new employee to come to an empty desk. On the tracker that you create make sure you list out everything the employee is going to need in advance like: IT equipment, business cards, a parking pass, company content, and office supplies.
eQ specializes in onboarding processes. If you are interested in learning more about how to make an onboarding experience that will have your new employees bragging to their friends (who could then turn into referrals or leads), reach out to our team. eQ takes pride in our internal onboarding and what we have been able to do for our clients.
