5 Steps to Make Your Onboarding Process Effective

My biggest pet peeve in today’s business world is that far too many companies pay lip service to the importance of their onboarding process for new employees. They say its important, but their actions say otherwise. There has been enough research done on the benefits of effective onboarding to choke an elephant, but if you ask most of your friends and colleagues about the onboarding done at their current employer, they’ll either laugh sarcastically or simmer in anger silently.

Providing a seamless transition for new employees entering the workforce is key for your successful onboarding training program.  It’s important to be attentive and invest time and energy into training workers appropriately. More now than ever before, new hires rely on how leaders prepare and guide them into new roles and responsibilities.

Effective onboarding makes new employees feel welcome and valued by your company

Starting at a new company—or even just a new position—can be a challenging experience for some, but it doesn’t mean they are any less qualified for their jobs. If managers offer proper training, such as business communication seminars and company policy orientations, employees can get a better understanding of their new responsibilities and know how to perform their roles well.

Using quality training can mean a lot to the new hires and ensure a successful future for the company. There are always quite a few policies and procedures to cover when someone first starts and communicating those effectively allows for more productivity and faster growth. While workers may have a slight idea of this when they start at an organization, it’s best to have a more in-depth briefing on how the internal culture of the business works and how they are an essential part of that environment.

Here are five additional and equally significant tips for successful onboarding:

1. Acknowledge your employee’s learning styles   

People have different learning styles, meaning leaders should recognize how to approach training sessions that benefit each new member on his or her own level. Trying to do a “one size fits all” training method won’t be effective and leads to frustration.

2. Communicate your organization’s core values and goals      

Technically, you should do this during the interviewing and hiring process because it will help ensure you’re all going to be a good fit for each other. It also gives new hires perspective about how the business started, the principles it was built on and how it hopes to succeed in the future. This is often the first step in creating an engaging work environment where employees begin taking ownership in the success of the company as well as themselves.

3. Encourage personal initiatives   

Offer guidelines for how to perform a specific function at the company. But, always remember to let employees take their own paths and even customize their roles. Eliminate the fear of failure so workers can successfully and fearlessly move forward.

4. Involve other employees in the process   

Allow a variety of staff to take part in the training process. This is so new members can get a better idea of the culture and personality types in the office. Now might be the time to encourage a more hands-on training system that promotes communication between workers and departments.

5. Keep the process and the training ongoing  

What is the area where most onboarding fails? It actually “ends”, and it ends much, much too quickly. Honestly, onboarding should go on for years. Initial orientations may end within the first few weeks. However, companies should always follow up with recent hires monthly for the first year. In addition, offer skills training to all members of the workforce. 

Today’s up and coming workers—Millennials and Gen Z—overwhelmingly say that the way they are onboarded determines how long they plan to stay at a company. Considering they will comprise nearly 80 percent of the workforce within the next few years, it might be time to look at your onboarding process and improve it if necessary.