How To Onboard New Employees Efficiently & Effectively

Onboarding is necessary for setting a new hire up for success. Unfortunately, the first days in a new position are often chaotic, causing important information to fall through the cracks.

How do we ensure new employees are onboarded effectively, while still remaining efficient? Check out these five tips from experts:

Incorporate Company Culture Into Onboarding

Immersing your recent hires in the company culture during training is an easy way to increase the effectiveness of onboarding. Making onboarding a chance for new employees to get to know everything about the company, not just job-related information. Instead of giving them a guidebook and time to read through, pair them with an employee who can guide them through materials and answer the necessary questions.

— Nathan Parcells, InternMatch

Send All Paperwork Before Day One

Send all paperwork via file attachment or link to site to do so before start date; nothing kills the excitement of starting a new job than sitting down on hour one and filling out paperwork in front of HR staff. Day starts with direct manager meeting and introducing to team followed by a job orientation that addresses the new employee’s role, how it fits in with others, and how the work quality and performance affect co-workers, customers, and the company. Meet with HR in the afternoon after lunch to go over completed paperwork and the I-9 document authentication process.

— Christopher Schrader, President, Schrader and Associates

Explain The Unwritten Rules

While onboarding, explain the policies and employee handbook; a lot of the way business gets done is a result of unwritten rules, so transparency is key. For example, we have a client where the culture expectation is that every single meeting has PowerPoint presentations. If a new person hasn’t been alerted to that, they would appear unprepared.

— Shirley Engelmeier, CEO, InclusionINC

Prepare Your Supervisors

Assist your supervisors with making the necessary preparations for their new hire. Getting your supervisors organized and prepared to bring a new employee onboard is key. A checklist for supervisors that includes tasks such as cleaning out a desk drawer or providing a contact roster to the new employee is very helpful.

— Brandis Davis, Management Analyst, City of San Antonio

Use Video Presentations to Deliver a Compelling & Consistent Message

Companies should utilize video presentations in their onboarding process to better capture the attention of the new employees – many of whom are a part of the “YouTube” generation. Along with bringing employees up to speed sooner, they also ensure that a consistent message is delivered no matter where employees are located.

— Jason Pinto, Director of Marketing, CBG Benefits

What do you think? What other aspects of onboarding are important?