Onboarding is originally mistaken for a paperwork exercise that’s all about payroll, tax information, employee handbooks and benefits forms. While these steps are essential and essential by law, they are not the heart of the onboarding process. These bring cracks and new hires start sending out job applications within the first six months on the job. Soon enough, a new employee that you invested all that time in, leaves with a sizeable percentage of employee turnover. Whereas, an onboarding that drives engagement and sparks human connection—improves new-hire retention by 82% and boosts productivity by 70%.
Onboarding is a series of processes designed to fully integrate new employees into an organization while keeping them engaged, productive and committed to departmental and company goals. The main goal of onboarding is to bring new hires into the company fold.
To ensure success on onboarding, the following pitfalls need to be avoided by the HR personnel.
- Delays in onboarding:Improper planning for the new hire puts off the gear for a new employee. If the new employee is asked to wait endlessly at the reception, taken to his workstation/cubical after a long wait, the computer that is not well connected, no technology subscriptions in place that are necessary for the job are unpleasant memories the employee carry throughout employment.
How do you resolve this? Design an onboarding strategy
Like most facets of life, that first impression can ultimately determine if a workforce and organization operate with similar goals and in a cohesive, healthy fashion. Onboarding strategy should be an immersion of a new employee into an organization’s policies, procedures, and culture that introduces them to the tools necessary for a productive and satisfying tenure without any ambiguity. Such a system can prove vital in providing a competitive advantage, satisfying employee journey, and healthy culture well into the future.
- Unclear goals and expectations:Organizations may have great talent attraction strategies, but they stumble once new employees get in the door. A lack of clarity in goals and expectations is the most common cause of enthusiasm deflation. Most misunderstandings can be prevented by being very clear about what’s expected from the employee at every stage.
How do you resolve this? Make clear what is expected of the new employee.
Onboarding is the ideal time and environment to be transparent and upfront with a new employee, providing both the organizational goals as well as individual goals. A sense of purpose can be built into the newcomer when he is enthusiastic to absorb and looking for opportunities to make himself worth.
- No pre-boarding:Waiting till the first day of work to get the necessary paperwork done which does not give the new employee time to read and digest the documents. The new hire is left feeling rushed and overwhelmed on the first day of work.
How do you resolve this? Getting paperwork done well before the first day of work.
Pre-boarding should also include a process where HR or the hiring manager files work orders so that IT, facilities and other groups pull together a fully equipped workspace and all necessary accoutrements—from software and passwords to uniforms, ID badges, an email account and access to relevant company assets—ahead of the employee reporting for work. Effective pre-boarding ensures that the employee’s first impression of the company is one of competence and teamwork. A few days before the first day of the employee in the organization, all necessary papers can be sent for the employee to read and assimilate. If he has queries, there will be time to resolve them before he signs the papers.
- Lack of structure, preparation and organization: No matter how relaxed the workplace is – an unstructured, casual culture with the idea that informality, it’s always a mistake to treat onboarding as a loose, ad hoc process.
How do you resolve this? Consider the onboarding process as an opportunity to immerse new employees in your culture.
The new hire might while fully appreciating the freedoms of a casual company, need a sense of belonging to function well in a team environment and to bring productivity levels up to expectations. Use some best practices:
- Hires get communications from executive leadership, managers, HR and future co-workers leading up to their start dates.
- Introduce the HRMS with appropriate access already assigned to the new hire as per his designation so that the tool can be well handled right from the first day.
- Unclear goals/expectations:Lack of clarity in goals and expectations to a new hire is the most common cause of enthusiasm deflation and might result in disappointing job performance.
How do you resolve this? Keeping clarity in goals and expectations ready before the new hire’s first day.
Most misunderstandings can be prevented by being very clear about what’s expected from the employee at every stage. Onboarding is the ideal time and environment to be transparent and upfront with a new employee, starting with the job description, providing concise expectations for their particular role as well as, what they add to the enterprise itself.
- Overloading Information:Onboarding goes for a toss when HR tries to cram everything into the first day or week of work and then leaves the employee to figure things out from there.
How do you resolve this? Planning the onboarding with utmost care.
Even with effective pre-boarding, it’s typical for a new employee to feel overwhelmed. Some processes, like peer and management introductions, review of key information and expectations can and should be extended over a week or more.
One another valuable suggestion could be a ‘New Employee FAQ’ on a page on your internal website that answers questions that a new hire might be reluctant to ask. A few could be like – When is payday/What is our work-from-home policy? etc.
- Not considering the generation differences: HR may not have considered the differences in onboarding employees’ age and fails to alter onboarding strategy according to differences between generations. In a group some information shared may not be relevant to all. Ex: An employee in his mid-40s with children will be interested in a different level of health insurance coverage and retirement funding options. Another employee might be just out of college and might want to know about the help the company offers with student loans.
How do you resolve this? Planning the onboarding taking care of minute details.
The HR formulate the narrative around to point out the benefits of a multigenerational team, where some employees know the industry and the organization deeply and have a wealth of contacts while others have insights into new ways to use technology to serve customers.
- Confusing onboarding with orientation: Many a time HR personnel might get confused and leave the new hires wondering whether the process is onboarding or orientation! Sometimes the HR may end up providing unhelpful, inconsistent information.
How do you resolve this? Planning the onboarding understanding both clearly.
HR can neatly bundle orientation into a single morning or afternoon but, onboarding is an ongoing process that builds on itself and gradually envelops the new employee in an organization’s policies, procedures, and culture.
- Flaws in feedback: Like a well-planned onboarding, well-formulated feedback is a must as a takeaway for HR. Many times, feedback is a namesake form where most queries are not well thought out.
How do you resolve this? Though the last lap in onboarding, this can be a springboard to formulate an onboarding strategy.
Feedback gathered at the final stage of the onboarding process can help HR and management to actively track and gauge the effectiveness of their onboarding strategy. Feedback allows an employer to make necessary changes as onboarding progresses to gain the most benefit from this immensely important early stage of the employee experience. You can now leverage the wealth of people data available in your workforce to develop an onboarding strategy, tailor-made for your specific needs and goals.
As a continuation to the feedback at the end of onboarding, surveying employees after they’ve been with the company for a few months, and ask what the company could have done better, solicit new entries for your FAQ page, and feed relevant insights back into your system, which goes beyond talent acquisition to help optimize the workforce.
Although every stage of the employee experience is vital, the impression given during onboarding could leave a lasting impression on an employee. Don’t throw a new hire into the deep end of the pool and expect them to swim. A lot depends on the onboarding process that is very vital for the organization. Develop your onboarding strategy, considering these common pitfalls, avoiding the costly mistakes that continue to plague even the biggest of organizations.
