Introduction:
Research and practical knowledge show that employees consider the first week in an organization as one of the major factors in being culturally assimilated in their workplace. The faster new hire feels integrated and prepared for their new jobs, the faster they can start contributing to the organization’s mission”. (Forrester)
New employee onboarding is a must-have process for running a great business, but it is tough to protect it. Employers spend tons of money, time, and resources in recruiting talent, but new hires are often looking for other employers as well. So just hiring is not enough; you must convince them to stay. A well planned and well-executed onboarding process will increase the chances for positive work experience leading to a win-win relationship with the new hire and your company. Reports show that 54% of organizations see greater new hire productivity and 50% higher retention rates for new hires when they have standardized onboarding in place.
Typical challenges of a new hire in the first week –
- Lack of focus in the preonboarding phase.
- Lack of employee engagement
- Absence of an onboarding plan
- Lack of learning & development
- Poor Employer Branding
- Lack of understanding of KRA’s & Job Responsibility
- Sporadic meetings with key SPOC’s & Mentors
Steps to have an Amazing First Week –
1. Preboarding –
Preboarding is a stage between new hire acceptance of offer letter and their joining date. There is a strong uncertainty in this phase and strong pre-onboarding processes engages them effectively. Pre-onboarding also reduces operational overhead by automating the administrative and logistic tasks. Most importantly it provides opportunities for new hires to feel welcomed and valued and to begin ramping up for Day1.
What objectives can the organization achieve through onboarding?
- Orient new employees to the organization vision
- Familiarize employees to the culture of an organization
- Foster the positive experience to new hires
2. Cultural Assimilation –
Culture assimilation is the way people behave, talk to each other, and work in office. It is about how new hires get integrated into an organization culture like office culture, or even how colleagues address each other. Recent survey also shows that 61% of new hires do not get any training on organization culture.
What objectives can an organization achieve through onboarding?
- Make them feel like insiders and ready to work automatically before joining.
- According to the recent survey, millennials rank “people & cultural fit” as the most important thing they look for in future employees.
- Get them to absorb the organization culture and ethos by videos and interactive sessions with current employees as to how they live the culture.
3. 30-60-90 days plan –
Mentors & stakeholders should create an onboarding plan for a new hire to measure their productivity, capabilities, and interests. Without an agenda or plan, the new hire must feel lost or scary which leads to a negative employer branding which any organization doesn’t want. With the help of a plan, stakeholders can easily analyze new hire’s productivity, success, and interest.
What objectives can an organization achieve through onboarding?
- Will help new hires to understand their roles & responsibilities.
- Will help to increase new hire productivity.
- Will help the organization to set the right expectation
4. Buddy Program –
The buddy program is the way to accelerate the new employee’s ability to deal with a new changing environment. Buddy is different from a mentor, coach, or manager. The relationship is less formal with the core purpose of engagement.
What Objectives can an organization achieve through Onboarding?
- Help Organization to take up feedbacks & survey
- Helps in cultural Assimilation for new hire
- Helps in Increasing new hire productivity
5. Micro-Learning:
Microlearning is among the latest onboarding trends, it’s not just a trend rather a solution. It can be delivered through many different formats, but it has to be broken into small short parts. Whether it’s a video, audio file, or even article the maximum time for a listener should be 15minutes.
What Objectives can an organization achieve through Onboarding?
- Generates 50% higher Employee Engagements
- 50% less cost than traditional learning
- Powerful tools for various compliance scenarios.
6. Asset Allocation –
Timely allocation of assets is important to both the new hires and the HR’s success. Asset allocation is limited not only to assigning the systems or workspace but it is often a wider term which includes system & desk allocation, Planning & ordering of new assets, repairing or unassigned assets, inventory management, etc. A new hire should be comfortable in their workspace.
What Objectives can an organization achieve through Onboarding?
- Save the time of new hire and organization up to 50%
- Reflect Positive image of Employer Brand
- Increase Engagement since its frees HR Bandwidt
7. Make it Fun –
New employees are often nervous on their first day, and why not? Instead of a day full of training and learning, we should make the first day of new hire GAMIFY. Gamifying the initial task of onboarding helps new hires to reduce their first-day anxiety and stress.
What Objectives can an organization achieve through Onboarding?
- Gamification act as a core engagement activity for Preonboarding Phase.
- Creates a healthy competition among new hires
- Creates stronger Employer Brand
Conclusion:
The first week in any organization plays a vital role in the new hire journey as he decides at the same time that how long will he stays over there in the company. The first week can utilize a lot to engage new hires through a better and efficient onboarding program.
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