The Great Resignation has had an impact on many organisations, meaning there is a lot of hiring new staff and onboarding happening now. But are organisations prepared to give their new staff members the best possible onboarding experience?
The first few days, weeks and months of an employee’s time in an organisation can set the tone for the rest of their work journey with that employer. This time can determine how they think and feel about the organisation, if this early stage isn’t handled well the employee could dislike their new place of work straight off the bat, and these feelings may then stay with them moving forward.
In fact research shows us that 20% of new starters are given such a poor onboarding experience, that they are unlikely to recommend their new organisation to family and friends.
On the other hand if the introduction to their new work place is handled well, an employee is more likely to think highly of their organisation, making them happy to be there, and as a result more likely to give the role their all to prove themselves a good addition to the team.
But what’s the difference between a good onboarding process and a bad one?
Many people will have experienced a bad onboarding at some point during their career. When the first few days or weeks at a new organisation leaves you stressed out, unmotivated and feeling like you’ve made a huge mistake accepting this job offer.
This could be due to a number of things, such as lack of introductions, not having the right equipment ready, managers not putting time aside to set work and check in on progress, too much or not enough work.
Hopefully most people have also experienced a good onboarding. One in which they were introduced to everybody in their new team and what they do as soon as possible, had everything in place to get up and running as soon as they started, and had a good manager to guide them through their first few days and weeks, setting them the right amount of work so they weren’t bored, but they weren’t stressed either.
This can be achieved through great performance management. If HR and Managers are actively involved in the onboarding process it will go much smoother.
It is important to ensure all new employees have one on one time with their manager on their first day. This will give the employee a chance to get to know their manager, and for the manager to lay out what will be expected of the employee, both in the next few days / weeks, and in the long term.
HR should ensure that all new employees have the right tools and support they need from day one to get up and running quickly, this could be equipment, software or a person to train them.
They will also need to be introduced to company policies, this covers safety procedures, cyber security etc.
They also need to know who they can talk to, and how to get in touch with them, if they encounter a blocker, this could be their manager, or a member of their team.
Finally managers should ensure that their new team member is confident they can do the job that has been laid out for them, all too often new employees are given a task and left too it, but if it hasn’t been explained well enough to them they could struggle in silence, not confident enough yet to ask for help.
That’s why managers need to have frequent conversations with new starters until they are fully settled and confident in their role. Managers can also set short term goals related to getting to know the organisation, policies, team members and their role better, and track progress on these in their conversations.
We’ll be delving further into the subject of onboarding over the coming weeks, sign up here to receive all our content on the subject, or talk to a member of our team — +44 (0)20 3637 4489.