Hiring new employees is costly. In addition to the actual recruitment process, new employees have high attrition rates. Roughly 20% of new employees will leave an employer within 45 days. And nearly one-third will leave within 6 months.
A key to hiring and retaining employees is to have a better onboarding program. But while most managers recognize the need for a robust onboarding program, many onboarding programs fail to impress employees. That’s partially because employees are usually hired at the wrong time- exactly when things are hectic, and new employees are needed. If positions didn’t need to be filled, it wouldn’t be as crazy!
But, even in a crazy workplace, there are several things that managers and teams can do to improve the onboarding process and impress new employees from day one.
Over Schedule Your New Employee’s Calendar for the First Month
Too often, when employees start, they experience a lot of dead time at the beginning. Don’t make your new hire feel like they are unimportant while they wait on managers and teams to finish their “real work” to help them.
Instead, schedule their first week. Have all their training materials, logins, and training materials ready before their first day. Schedule time during the first two weeks for new hires to have a chance to meet other teams.
Provide them with tasks to be done. This can include items like sending out an introductory email to the company and providing 3 facts and a photo of themselves. New hires should have company history and culture documents and scheduled time to review them.
Schedule luncheons with executives, time for them to sit in on team training, events, and brainstorming. Even if they aren’t assigned to all the teams, these sessions will help them build bridges across the company and acclimate to the corporate culture.
Have New Hires Start Work on a Friday
It’s common to have a new employee start on a Monday. Instead, consider starting new hires on a Friday. Fridays are great days for new hires to start because they can have a more laid-back first day. Fridays are also usually more casual for all employees so it can give new hires more of an opportunity to chat and get to know team members.
If your team has a potluck, Friday luncheon, or takes off early for a team activity, then starting new employees on Friday has even more perks. It sets the right tone and creates positive feelings from the get-go.
Then, when they return on Monday, the employee already has a sense of knowing others and some familiarity. They can dive into training without feeling as isolated.
Involve Them In Peer Recognition From Day 1
Recognition should start on Day One. Recognize your new hires for their progress through training, for picking up new assignments, and for the energy and positivity they bring to the team. Watch for specific skills, the very ones you hired them for, and recognize them as they demonstrate those skills.
New hires must feel recognized, valued, and important from the beginning. Before a new employee starts, challenge their team to look for ways to recognize them. As the team welcomes and recognizes new hires for their early contributions, it engages existing and new employees and builds bonds between them.
But, don’t let new hires be just on the receiving end. In the first couple of days, introduce new hires into the company culture around recognition. Show them ways that colleagues recognize each other. (If you don’t have a peer recognition program, start one NOW).
Demonstrate how they use the recognition software, help them download the recognition app on their phone, and give them a program tour.
Then, award them points that they can only use to recognize someone. Set a time frame, such as the first week or 2 weeks, for them to recognize a peer or lose the points. By getting new employees involved in peer recognition on Day One, you’ll reap many benefits:
- New hires will be more engaged
- Increased bonding between new hires and existing employees
- Increased autonomy: New hires feel a sense of control when they get to decide and award recognition prizes
- Increased positivity: New hires are looking for ways their team helps them, instead of taking it for granted.
- Increased endorphins
- Builds a better company culture at the beginning
Assign an OnBoarding Buddy
Help new employees feel welcome and have an automatic friend by assigning them an onboarding buddy. When new hires have someone besides their direct manager or HR that they can ask questions, they adjust quickly and learn easier.
An onboarding buddy is different from a mentor in that it’s a more casual relationship. It’s also usually a shorter relationship. Although, providing a mentor at the time of new hire is also a best practice.
Onboarding buddies can show a new employee how things are done, give tips, and explain team culture. They can make the transition smoother for the new hire by explaining the things that aren’t found in training materials or official publications.
Immerse New Employees In Company Culture and History
Too often, new employees make it through onboarding and still have major gaps in knowledge about the company history, culture, and values. Make corporate culture a priority introduction to new hires.
Take advantage of new hire’s enthusiasm by giving them the history of the company. Share how the organization started and what its goals were. Share the growth, changes, and challenges they have faced. Share inside jokes, pivotal moments, and other aspects of the corporate culture.
Don’t forget to spell out how the company helps the community and the difference it makes. Connect the dots from the employee’s job responsibilities to the final product and the overall impact of the company. Too many employees don’t feel like their job makes a positive difference in society.
Onboarding is a great time to tell customer stories, which helps to create a personalized vision of corporate values and goals.
Conclusion
While onboarding can be a complicated process, making a few changes and preparing for a positive experience can help to ensure that fewer employees need onboarding. Demonstrate that the new employee is important enough that onboarding is a priority, not an after-though.
About Thanks
Thanks is a leading provider of a recognition-based platform that increases communication, builds teamwork, and makes recognition a part of company culture. Fast, easy and simple Thanks makes it easy to bring data-driven employee recognition to your entire organization. O.C. Tanner purchased the Thanks platform in 2019 to fulfill the recognition needs of smaller businesses.
Thanks customers benefit from the same decades of research in employee motivation and company culture that O.C. Tanner enterprise clients enjoy, but in a product that is geared for fast, easy and simple deployment. Whether you’re starting a recognition program or improving and expanding on what you already have, Thanks has everything you need to engage your people with effective, scalable recognition.