How to Master Your New Employee Onboarding Process (w/ Free Checklist)

After all the hunting, interviewing, and assessing, you finally found an A+ player to join your marketing team. But finding and hiring top talent is just the start. 

One of the most important processes within your company is onboarding.

Your onboarding process doesn’t just impact ramp-up time for employees. It also impacts other aspects of talent management, including tenure, job satisfaction, and more.

3 Reasons to Onboard Employees

According to 2017 research from Click Boarding, a positive onboarding experience yields many awesome results.

Nearly seven of 10 employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experienced great onboarding.

What's more, employers using a standard onboarding process experience 50 percent greater new hire productivity.

To put it simply, a bad onboarding process will make it harder for new hires to be productive, and it could even impact how long they stay with your organization.

Onboarding Establishes a Foundation to Build On.

You know what the foundation of a building is for, right? It's to give the structure something firm to sit on so that it doesn't just sink progressively lower and lower into the ground.

Well, your onboarding process acts the same way for your new employees.

Developing an organized onboarding plan allows new hires the opportunity to stretch their legs a bit and start growing rather than sinking in the sand as they try to make heads and tails of your brand, operations, and customers.

It's their safety net. Their life jacket. It gives them a starting line and sets them up for success.

Onboarding Elevates Your Brand.

A great onboarding plan will immerse your new hire in your company's values, beliefs, and motivation, making them excellent advocates for your brand.

When it comes time for them to actually get their feet wet, they'll be ready to represent your company with pride and enthusiasm.

Onboarding Encourages a Healthy Company Culture.

You should make sure that you implement your company's cultural values and social rules into your onboarding plan so that your new hire is properly introduced to life at your company.

Company culture is incredibly important in keeping your employees engaged and inspired, from your most senior team members to the greenest of interns.

Give new employees a fighting chance to catch up and start building in-office relationships by encouraging them to participate in company culture activities and align team members.

Building a Solid Employee Onboarding Process: A Step-by-Step Guide

A well put together onboarding process is built into stages where you can monitor both how the new hire is adapting and how you can satisfy their developmental needs.

Here's a quick run through of what you should key into during the important phases of their introduction into the company:

Before They Start

This is your opportunity to get yourself prepared for a new hire just as much as you're trying to get them ready.

During the one to two weeks before your new employee actually officially comes into office, make sure you're gathering all the necessary paperwork and resources that they'll need to fill out or follow up on so that they'll be ready for their new role.

First Day

Now that the first day is here, it's important that you establish objectives and goals from the start. Make sure you go over the job description and responsibilities again, just so it's clear what's expected of them.

Introduce them to their department and primary team, along with the rest of the staff depending on the size of your company. Everyone will likely be curious of the new kid on the block and you'll want to get them all on the right foot immediately.

Assign a senior team member as the new employee's mentor and provide them with any collected resources that will help them develop.

A Few Months In

During these early stages, you'll want to make sure that you're regularly checking in on your new hire to see how they're adjusting, learn where they could use help, and discover how you could improve their experience and your onboarding process.

By now, they should have been given an assignment or two to work on. Check their progress and provide feedback on their work. Communicate with their team or department to hear their feedback as well.

Ideally, they've been inducted into the company culture as well. Encourage them to participate in culture events, have lunch with team members, and engage in social conversations.

One Year Anniversary

After one year of working with your company, you'll be able to accurately assess an employee's productivity and fit. Examine their standing in their department and start planning for growth and development.

Are they ready to take on bigger, better projects? Can they start creating their own workload? What are their goals within the company and for their career?

This is the period where you want to look into where the employee sees themselves in their career. You'll want to focus on retention and employee satisfaction, so inquire after their needs and opportunities for you to improve their workplace life.

Development doesn't end once the onboarding process is over. Regularly check-in with your staff to help keep them engaged and productive, providing room for your business to grow and develop.

Employee Onboarding Software That Will Guarantee a Smooth Transition

In today's day and age, there's a useful tool for everything. Thankfully, that includes onboarding software.

There's no real way to automate onboarding, but here are just a few great platforms that will help keep your organized and efficient when bringing on new team members.

BambooHR

A cloud-based human resources software service, BambooHR is great for small to mid-size businesses. The software provides an information system and applicant tracking system tools to manage every aspect of the employee lifecycle.

You can monitor data like employee turnover, retention, anniversaries, and certifications. Administrators can provide employees full or limited access, depending on their preference.

Kronos Workforce Ready

Workforce Ready by Kronos is another HR platform, but it's a little bit more expansive than the others. The system incorporates recruiting, onboarding, performance management, compensation, payroll, scheduling, and more all within a single cloud.

Scalable for all sizes, it creates employee records across all of its applications, allowing for easy integrations and updating. Managers can update data in real time, both from desktop and mobile devices, keeping themselves organized and accurate.

Zenefits

Divided into three package deals (Essentials, Growth, and Zen), Zenefits is an HR SaaS platform built for small to mid-size businesses. Covering HR, benefits, payroll, and performance monitoring capabilities, it's an excellent option for those looking for the basics.

You can also receive advisory services, improving your HR administration.

New Employee Onboarding Checklist

To help keep you on the right track (which is best for both you and your new employee), we've developed an employee onboarding checklist containing reminders for all that you need to bring them aboard.

Of course, every business has their own routines, so be sure to update and optimize the list as necessary.

Remember, new hires are excited and nervous, so ease their mind by being open and supportive throughout the whole process.

With all of this in mind, you're ready to get your newbies on the road to success. 

Also, survey new hires as they go through the process to identify areas of improvement. Review these surveys regularly to look for recurring, common issues. Onboarding is not a one-way street. Open it up for conversations.