From the course: Daily Habits for Effective People Management

Onboarding with impact

From the course: Daily Habits for Effective People Management

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Onboarding with impact

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- Have you ever seen a new employee's post go viral on LinkedIn where they post a picture of a welcome basket they received or a handwritten note from leadership? Those posts all represent one thing, signs that an employer appreciates the new employee. It's all part of a strong onboarding effort. And having a formal onboarding program can result in 50% greater retention of new employees and 62% greater engagement. Your organization may control many aspects of onboarding, but as a manager, you can still create consistent formal processes for your own team and reap the benefits. Now, pause and go to the exercise files and download our onboarding guide. The four steps included there are, first, be organized before day one. Have standard checklists of what your team needs and coordinate with HR and IT on each. From paperwork to equipment and access, make sure that everything will be ready, and don't just let HR and IT be the ones the new employee hears from. Reach out before they start to let them know that you are working behind the scenes. Second, welcome the new employee. When you reach out about getting everything ready, reiterate how much you and the team are looking forward to them joining. When the employee starts, give them feedback right away. Tell them exactly why they stood out and were hired. Tie their experience and goals to the organization's goals to clearly communicate their unique value. Third, provide the employee support. Schedule time in your calendar to check in and have others do so as well. Train one or more members of the team to be their onboarding partner, to help create the training schedule and be a colleague that the new employee can ask candid questions. Provide your onboarding partner with a small budget to plan welcome activities and facilitate introductions to the team. Fourth, ensure the employee is equipped. Have onboarding training manuals or memos created and updated. And if you don't have those, that can be an incredibly helpful project for employees leaving on good terms to create. Some common examples include project or email templates, shadowing opportunities, and written or video resources that the new employee can learn from. At a minimum, have your new employee create their own onboarding notes, and go through them together to make sure that they have a clear understanding of what's expected from day one. And these notes, they can be used to create onboarding materials for future hires. Impactful onboarding doesn't have to overwhelm you. Small investments and smart delegation can create the formula for the right start.

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