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New employees during their first days and weeks with a company can be vulnerable and harbour lots of feelings of stress and anxiety, as well as an eagerness to please their new employer. Onboarding is the process of introducing new employees to the expectations, skills, and culture of your company. We have come up with a helpful guide to the process of onboarding new recruits for novice managers. Carry on reading to find out more.
The Onboarding Process Begins in the Recruitment Phase
Businesses wanting to be proactive and ahead of the game in their approach to onboarding new employees must begin the onboarding process in the recruiting phase and make sure they are accustomed to the company culture before their first day.
The aim of your company in the recruitment process should be to hire candidates who you feel meet all the necessary job criteria, will be an asset to your company, and who will stay with your company for an extended period.
Giving future employees of your company realistic and accurate ideas of what it will be like to work for your company is also a crucial part of the onboarding process during recruitment.
Things You Can Do Before Their First Day
Planning is key to ensuring novice managers successfully onboard new members of staff. A new employee enjoying a good informative first day will be down to the manager’s adequate planning.
Before the first day of employment, the manager assigned to onboarding the new employee should start coordinating and communicating with all parties that will take part in the new recruit’s straight away. This may include sending emails and speaking with your company’s HR department, the administration team, the payroll team, and so on.
First Days and Weeks of Onboarding New Staff Members
As the expression goes, first impressions are vital, and that includes the initial impression that a new team member gets of your workplace.
First Days
The new employee’s first impressions of your company matter. Their first day at work will be the first chance to establish a strong relationship between the current members of staff and the new employee. On the first day, employees should meet their team and learn more about their new role. You may want to give new recruits a tour of the workplace or facility and arrange a meeting with HR so they can complete any remaining paperwork.
During a new employee ‘orientation’ during the first few days at a company, you have the opportunity to discuss with them all about your company’s vision and goals. You can also inform them all about the company’s products and services and answer any queries they may have about the new role and what it entails.
First Weeks
You will provide new staff members with lots of information during their opening days. However, new employees cannot learn and take in everything within a few first days at your company.
During new employees’ first week your company should:
- Set them up with a workplace mentor and someone they can pose questions and concerns to discuss company policies and procedures in depth
- Schedule team activities or mealtimes together, so the new employee integrates and meets as many members of staff as possible
- Talk with them at the end of every working day to monitor progress and feelings on their new job
Things Employers Must Do Before the End of the First 90 Days of Employment
Before the end of the first 90 days of employment, managers must provide new staff members with extensive feedback on areas they could improve in, schedule one-on-one conversations to discuss their progress and future goals, and ensure they meet other staff members and engage with them the team.
Tips for Monitoring and Evaluating the Performance of New Staff Members
Good managers should keep track and monitor the progress of new staff members continually. A quarterly review evaluating the performance of new staff members during the previous 3 months is a great idea and a more consistent way to carry out performance reviews and track progress more closely than is possible through annual performance reviews.
Employees need to be informed by managers whether they are meeting company expectations and what they can do to improve and try and achieve their goals. Managers can use performance management systems to help them monitor the progress of new staff members in real-time and make the necessary adjustments to ensure they achieve the company’s employee performance goals. If you are a manager interested in getting a new appraisal management system in order to help you closely monitor staff performance, perhaps take a look at the employee appraisal management system from the platform StaffCircle, capable of providing your company with real-time data on employee engagement and performance.
Holiday and Paid Time Off
Managers need to keep in mind that new employees need to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Burnout from overworking new recruits can have adverse knock-on effects for your company, such as increased numbers of staff deciding to leave and high levels of overall staff turnover.
A generous company policy regarding holidays and paid days off can be a big attraction for prospective new employees. Employees taking paid time off can be beneficial for businesses and increase employee productivity at work.
Managers should make sure that employees know when they can take paid time off and how to request time off with the company. You can review and change these policies. For example, suppose your staff have worked particularly hard and produced impressive performance results for the company in November and December, leading to the Christmas festive period. In that case, it may be a great morale booster for your staff to extend their Christmas holiday by offering them an extra day or 2 off.
Payment Schedules
All new employees during the onboarding process should have the company’s payment schedule explained to them and know when they will be paid. Managers should also make sure new staff members understand how they can claim their paycheck. The HR manager may require the new recruit’s account number and sort code in order to pay their wage to their personal banking account.
Employees should be fully aware of the financial opportunities and incentives your company offers, such as performance-based bonuses and so on.
Why Educating New Employees on Your Company Culture During Onboarding is Important
Reiterating your ‘company culture’ helps to remind new staff members of the purpose of their job role and how they can contribute to your company. Employees need to understand why a company exists. New employees must embrace your company culture. A company is able to operate a lot more smoothly when employees are aligned with the company culture.
Your company’s workplace may even require staff to use specialised terminology and language, e.g., the staff working in a pharmacy using acronyms to refer to pharmaceutical products promptly and so on. Looking at whether new employees manage to grasp and get the hang of your company’s workplace terminology and language will indicate if the new staff member has embraced your company culture and adapted adequately to their new workplace environment.
Onboarding new staff members is a process that at first may appear a little bit daunting to novice managers. However, it mostly resolves around integrating your chosen candidate into their team and making the new staff aware of your company culture, vision, and goals. New staff members should be made to feel at home and welcome by managers from early on. However, if they exhibit poor workplace behaviour or their performance at work starts to take a significant dip at any point, you will have to raise these issues with them as their manager.
