Steps to Successful Onboarding

Step 1: Don't neglect pre-onboarding

Onboarding a new employee begins well before the first day of a new job and for some companies, this can start in the early stages of recruitment. At Kelio, we find it is the candidate’s experience of the whole process, from start to end, that is important. This can strengthen the employer brand image and therefore have a favourable impact on the new employee’s first impression as well as the company’s reputation. But onboarding is not always integrated.

In our experience, we favour improving the candidate experience by incorporating a pre-onboarding process. But when does pre-onboarding start and what does it consist of?

When does pre-onboarding start?

Pre-onboarding must begin as soon as the new employee's application is approved; when they move from the status of "candidate" to that of "future hire", and continue until their first day of work.

It is not uncommon for several weeks to pass between the end of the recruitment process and the start date for the new employee and during this time, candidates may disengage from the process.

In order to reduce this risk, pre-onboarding is a simple and effective tool that will allow employees to feel integrated and invested within the company before officially becoming part of it.

What does pre-onboarding involve?

During this stage, the company will be able to forge its first links with the employee, but also encourage exchanges between the employee and their manager.

To do this, the pre-onboarding must be divided into different parts:

Gathering information

Whether it is through your HRIS software or directly by email, you can collect all of the administrative information that will allow you to draft your employee's employment contract as well as the creation of his or her personnel file.

A few days before their arrival, you can send them a set of business cards as well as a welcome pack with information about the company. The latter can consist of brochures, a mouse pad, a mug, pencils or any other goodies that will create a sense of belonging and integration for your employee.

Getting in touch

Joining a new company is often stressful for employees with a change of routine, new premises and colleagues to get to know. These all create apprehension that can negatively interfere with the initial integration.

To limit the impact of this, it is an opportunity to take advantage of this pre-onboarding period and make the first connections. For example, you could arrange a telephone interview to confirm the day and time of their arrival, as well as discussing topics that could be a source of concern for them, such as access to the premises, parking and staff uniforms.

Alternatively, you could ask the employee's direct manager to contact him or her and introduce themselves, presenting some information about the organisation, the specific department that they will be working in, and the job role itself. As an HR manager, you can even remind the manager of this task through a pre-onboarding to-do list, specific to your organisation and shared by all managers.

Providing information

If your company has internal e-learning training modules and/or a digital welcome booklet, it may be a useful time to provide access to them while the employee is being onboarded. When catering and staff lunches are included, it is a chance to contact the new employee about their meal options or other alternatives nearby.

The more practical and useful the information that the employee has about his or her daily life within the company, the more they will feel that they already belong.

Step 2: Anticipate and plan onboarding

As we are discovering, pre-onboarding has an important role in an employee's onboarding process, but keep in mind that there is still the onboarding process to consider once the new employee arrives.

Prepare for the employee's arrival in advance

With pre-onboarding, you will have had the opportunity to prepare for the administrative arrival of the employee, but to give your onboarding a maximum chance of success, you will also have to prepare for the arrival of the employee from an organisational and human point of view.

Check that the employee will have all the necessary equipment for their first day, such as a company badge, computer, and access code to the building. These elements often have to be prepared in advance by different departments of your company, including the IT department, and their assistance takes some time. HRIS solutions, such as Kelio software, can help you set up collaborative processes where each stakeholder is notified ahead of their tasks that need to be carried out, so that the new employee's equipment is ready on the day of their arrival. Your new member of staff will feel that they matter and will be able to take charge of their tools from their first day in the company.

Remember to communicate with the various departments about the arrival of the new person by giving their name, job title, starting date and time of arrival. The HR employee portal or your company intranet are a good way to introduce newcomers to all of your workforce.

To make their integration a little easier, appoint a ‘buddy’, who will take the employee under their wing, answer all of their questions and introduce them more informally to their colleagues.

Organise the first days and diversify your integration process

In order for the arrival and first days, or even weeks, to be as smooth as possible, take the time to organise the first week or two of their schedule. A new role is less daunting if you know the expectations.

On the first day, plan a welcome breakfast with the HR department, their onboarding mentor, their manager and members of their department. This will be a perfect introduction for both the employee and their colleagues.

After that, you can conduct an interview with the employee to finalise all the administrative and contractual part of the employment, if it could not be completed beforehand. Similarly, ask their ‘buddy’ to have lunch with them - why not even go out for lunch with some of their colleagues.

The afternoon can be devoted to discovering the premises and the business processes; such as annual leave, staff training, social areas, safety processes and so on.

During the first few weeks, it will be important to follow and plan the various steps of how your employee integrates within the company. To do this, you will be able to:

• Organise interviews between their manager, HR representative and him or her, in order to define the objectives, they will have to fulfil and inform them precisely about their goals.
• Prepare a tour of the different departments and even allow them to spend time within them to better understand the activities and the importance of each one in the organisation.
• Encourage them to attend internal training sessions and/or presentation webinars.
• Schedule regular progress check-ins to monitor integration and ensure a good start to the role.
• Create meetings between the employee and the whole of the company, or even just between onboarders so that they can exchange their experience with each other.

Step 3: Think about onboarding over the long term

Onboarding shouldn't be seen as lasting a matter of days or weeks. Good onboarding takes time and as an HR manager, you need to be in charge of it.

To do this, schedule regular meetings between the onboarded employee and the HR department, during which the employee will be able to discuss the points that are going well and those where more support is needed.

Similarly, organise meetings between the HR department and the onboarder's manager in order to gather their thoughts and feelings. Encourage the manager to have regular informal check-ins with the employee to update on their progress and/or provide help and assistance when needed.

Finally, an onboarding journey should have a distinct and clear deadline, therefore, the onboarder will have the opportunity to provide feedback on his or her entire onboarding experience. This is an excellent way to ensure the ROI of your process and provides a chance to make improvements for the future.