3. How to onboard new hires?
‘How to onboard new hires’ is the third chapter of Hire, the fourth book of The Hiring Playbooks, 5 ebooks that will turn all your hires into wins. Created by the Homerun team.
This chapter will help you improve retention, foster better team culture, maintain a strong company culture, get new people up-to-speed
faster with less stress and ensure success for new hires.
Onboarding is often skipped as it takes a lot of time and effort on
behalf of the whole team — but you’re not going to make that mistake.
Onboarding a new hire is the key to an excellent employee experience,
and a great employee experience is the key to employee engagement.
Which, in turn, massively increases performance.
So when designing your onboarding process, treat it with as much care
as you would customer experience, because both are equally important
to your company’s success — and in this case, the new hire’s success in
fitting into your team.
- Create a structured, yet flexible process
As with every part of your hiring process, implementing a strong
structure will future-proof the way you onboard by making it repeatable,
measurable, and easier to scale as your company grows. (Does this all
sound familiar? It’s because these three values always work.)
A few must-haves for a structured onboarding process are:
• An onboarding checklist
• A roadmap & timeline
• Measurable benchmarks and goals
• Check-ins
Don’t forget that not every employee is the same. Stay flexible so that
you can take account of each new hire’s different drivers, learning style,
and pace.
2. Get started before your new hire does
Onboarding starts with you, not your new hire. Get in touch with them
before they start to ask what they need, and make sure you also
include any necessary paperwork and information about your company.
Whether it’s legal documents or directions to the office, it’s better to
send it early rather than too late.
Before their first day
• Ask your new hire what they need to do their job (computer, tools,
apps) and make sure it’s waiting for them on their first day.
• Send them a copy of your company’s mission statement, values,
and any other information they might need about your company
and culture.
• Provide the contact info for everyone they’ll be working with in
the team (include full names and job titles).
• Likewise, share the new hire’s contact information, full name, and
contact info with the team that they’re about to join.
Getting all of this stuff out of the way early will free you up to focus on
getting your new hire familiar with the team, the office, and their new
role on their first day.
3. Get them familiar with the team
Walking into a party when you don’t know anybody sucks. It’s exactly
the same, if not worse, when you walk into a new office for the first
time.
Help your new hire get to know their team beforehand by having an
employee profile gallery on your career site. This majorly reduces any
stress about remembering names.
Follow this up by making introductions a top-priority on the new hire’s
first day.To make things even more cosy, ask their buddy to sit with them at
lunch so the new hire won’t feel awkward or left out.
4. Keep things simple and fun
Focusing on the essentials: explain your company culture and brand;
familiarize them with the daily routine (when’s lunch?) and layout of
your office (where are the standing desks?); and introduce them to the
team.
Keep things fun: go for a coffee; play some team-building games; and/
or provide some merch. A good example of how to do this is the office
tours that Mailchimp organizes for their new hires, plus get-to-knowyou
lunches with folks from around the company.
5. Get feedback and make changes if necessary
After a few months on the job, ask everyone involved in the onboarding
process for feedback. Ask them what they liked, what they didn’t, and if
they have any ideas for making it better. Then implement their feedback
to make sure that you’re constantly improving.
What do I do next?
Meet with your team to talk about onboarding: present your plans, get
their feedback, and implement your new process.
If you’ve been following our guide from the beginning, then
implementing your onboarding plan marks the final step in your hiring
process. Congratulations! Now it’s time to think about how to measure
your results and make improvements. Get started by learning about
recruitment benchmarks with Playbook #5 Learn.
By the way, if you have any questions on anything in this playbook or
the wonderful world of hiring, then we’d love to hear from you. Say hi at
hello@homerun.co.
All Images by Studio Spass.
