When you bring a new employee into your enterprise, you need them to be able to hit the ground running as soon as possible, so that you’re enjoying the boost they offer your company as quickly as you can. A new hire is an investment in the future productivity of your business, and your new member of staff needs to quickly learn the ropes in order to be able to fulfil their promise and impress their managers with their work rate. In this article, we’ll take a quick walk through the four elements that’ll make your onboarding process perfect for new employees.
Build HR Understanding
You’ll have an onboarding process at the moment, which is run through your HR team. This step is about making that process better, through analysis and thoughtful reflection. For instance, you’ll be able to talk to your five most recent hires, whether they’ve been with you for a month or for six months, to ask them how they found their onboarding. Concentrate especially on asking them what they think could be improved, or what they struggled with in their first weeks, in order to understand how you can improve your onboarding process for future hires.
HR Systems
Onboarding processes come in all different shapes and sizes. Some involve slapping your new hire with a 100-page booklet of information, which can be quite a test for new employees who just want to get stuck into the practical elements of the job. Others require new hires to take tests. Whatever your process, you should use an HR software solution, like that provided by XCD, to host your onboarding process. On these systems, you can introduce your new hires to new software, to your company ethos, and to the kinds of jobs they’ll be performing. Arrange them into modules so that you know how your new hires are progressing during their onboarding process.
Digital Skills
Most companies currently operate with a number of different software solutions bolted on to their main server. This can be confusing for a new hire, especially if they’re expected to interact with a large portion of this IT infrastructure. In order for them to feel comfortable with your digital system, have an IT specialist introduce them to how all of your digital infrastructure works – this’ll help new hires onboard into the digital systems they’ll be using.
Socializing
New staff members may be ready to hit the ground running when it comes to hard work and grit, but they may be less effective if they’re not able to feel comfortable in the office. It’s in this sense that an important part of the new hire onboarding process is to get them surrounded by the people they’ll be working with from day to day, and have them get increasingly comfortable in their new team. Whether this means inviting new employees to work drinks, or creating away days at which they’ll feel at home, you can choose how to help your new hire settle in as they’re onboarding.
Onboard with panache by following the four steps outlined above, helping new employees hit the ground running this year.