6.3 Onboarding Steps for New Employees

Tour:  Ensure new employees have had a tour of the company and met some of the staff.

Have clear goals and expectations: By setting clear goals and expectations for new employees, it helps them to understand the company, the staff, the policies, procedures; and what their job will be. Managers are able to help the new employees if they are having problems meeting the goals and expectations.

Be realistic about goals: Employees can feel overwhelmed when they start a new job. It is important to design a program that is simple and the employee is able to retain all the information. This way employees will feel comfortable and confident. Let them achieve small goals initially, and then build on more complex goals.

Create a schedule:  Create a schedule that shows new employees what they will be spending time on each day of their orientation and to review the materials with them. If there is information that is required reading ahead of orientation, ensure it is forwarded to the new employee prior to the training. Ensure you build in some fun activities!

Use digital documents:  When an employee starts a job there is a lot to learn i.e., policies, safety, products/services, rules and so on. This can create a great deal of paperwork. To lessen the paperwork, use digital documents. Employees can use devices in the training, and in their daily work when they need to find an important document. Having the documents at their finger tips also adds to reassurances for new employees.

Match new employees with a coach or mentor: The onboarding will help new employees learn about the job and the company. However, working with a coach or mentor in a real life experience integrates the learning. Ensuring that the new employee has someone they can reach out to for help or guidance can reduce stress, reduce errors on the job, and help the employee to become productive quicker.

After onboarding training: Some ideas to help employees blend into the company are to schedule informal events, speak to them about any challenges they are experiencing and solve them, and regularly review their progress.

“6.2 Onboarding Steps for New Employees” from Human Resources Management – 3rd Edition by Debra Patterson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.