Onboarding Part 1: Pre-boarding

This is a piece by www.wearelaika.com, a platform for matching Tech professionals with companies. Check out more content here.

As cheesy as it sounds, there really is no second chance to make a first impression. And when it comes to something as valuable as acquiring and keeping an employee, the first impression and process of assimilation in a company’s culture is often overlooked, but sometimes crucial.

The process of assimilation in a company is simply called onboarding. HR Cloud says, ‘Onboarding spans from the minute you make an offer to the time the employee starts genuinely producing in a role’.

And it goes way beyond a welcome email and a tour around the offices. You should not confuse it with orientation.

While orientation can be simmered down to a simple checklist you should cover until the end of the new employee’s first day at the job, onboarding is an ongoing process that will make the employee feel like they belong there and give them all the needed information and mentoring.

So, when does onboarding begin and when does it end? What can you do to help your new employee’s transition into your culture easier? When can you be sure they are here for the long run? Why does onboarding matter?

Why you need a good onboarding process

We know that this seems like a lot of work. And it probably is in the beginning. But after you set up a steady path based on successful examples, you will start noticing the bounties:

1. Onboarding is directly linked to employee retention. After a successful first year at your company, your employee is more likely to stay there for much longer. This is when all onboarding processes end.
2. Word of mouth is more dangerous than it seems. Be it something an employee who has a bad onboarding experience said to a colleague, or a Glassdoor review, a bad word can spread and your reputation can be marked for a long time to come.
3. It is damaging to the brand as a whole. High turnover in the first year of employment is suspicious. This means that either your HR management fails somewhere in the employee’s journey, or you don’t focus enough on retention.
4. In the endgame, high turnover is expensive. It is better to invest some money and time in a better onboarding process than go through the whole hiring process from the beginning.

Pre-boarding

This might be way too early in the process, even before you find your employee. But you have to have a brand and a culture the employee is supposed to fit in. How can you assimilate a new employee, if you are not sure about your own culture?

Even before you start looking for that perfect employee, make sure you have defined values, mission, vision, team culture, and an online presence. Let that potential candidate know about the company, future teammates, products or services, offices and everything in between.

You also have to advertise on the right channels and position yourself on the right channels.

If you need help with defining your Employer Brand, we can help you with that.

You found the right candidate. Now what?

Congratulations! You found the perfect person to fit in the job position. They have all the skills and technical knowledge, passed all the tests and interviews, and seem like a person that would fit in great. The only problem is, there is a month until they actually start working here.

If you don’t want them to start overthinking, feel like you don’t care for their wellbeing since the beginning, and let anxiety creep in during that interval, do your best to let them accustomed to your culture and learn your values.

Here are a few things you could do:

• Send them a guidebook with all the information they will need. The technologies you use, the timeframes you follow, whether you have a collective or individual vacation plan, what kind of medical insurance they get, how many team buildings you go on per year and what should they expect, do you have a social life together as a team outside of the office hours… There are so many details that make one company differentiate from others. Every company is a micro-universe made out of individuals that cohabitate in a pre-conditioned environment. The sooner they learn about life and work at the offices, the quicker they will fit in.
• Inform them about all the paperwork beforehand. Instead of welcoming them with a pile of papers on their first day at work, send them all official documents and contracts beforehand. This way, you will give them time to double-check everything they might possibly want to alter and make their start easier and more relaxed. You can do the same with important bureaucratic processes — company acronyms, protocol on requesting days off, refund forms, checking in and out of work… Everything they will come across while working there.
• Introduce their teammates. A simple video greeting by their team and manager goes a long way. If your team doesn’t feel comfortable with recording a video greeting, send their pictures and a few lines in which they describe themselves and tell the new colleague what they should expect from working with them. Let them describe the experience of working in your company, sincerely and insightfully. The new employee will appreciate their peers’ opinions as much as what your HR manager or CEO might say.
• Send them insightful and helpful content. Whether it is a blog about your company, articles focusing on motivation and productivity, your mission and vision, content about your offices, etc., they will be interested to know the company’s standpoint on these topics. It is also very valuable to new employees to know that their company will invest in nurturing and helping them, and they have good retention practices.

Need help with hiring & retention? That’s our specialty! We will find what fits you best. Read more on www.wearelaika.com/for-companies.