The COVID-19 pandemic has forced employees to work from home and as a result, they have now adjusted to managing processes and tasks remotely. The same goes for a new hire, it is not always possible to onboard face to face and exchange paperwork. It is now essential that businesses adjust their HR practices and makes practical changes when onboarding a new hire.
Employee onboarding is an essential step to get right for a business or organization. This is the first stage of interaction with a new hire. It is often met with great enthusiasm from the new employee and this is the opportunist moment for your business to make a positive impression.
Ensuring that their profile is on the system and systematically ordered with the necessary credentials and personal information ensures that all compliance requirements are met and once this is complete it also gives off a sense of belonging to the new higher. Having a seamless and professional onboarding approach is a quick win to building their trust in the organization.
Getting the onboarding process right ensures compliance and safeguards your business from risks.
Here are some of the best practices when it comes to onboarding and orientation of new employees
1. Contact new hires before they contact you
Don’t let the new hire contact you for paperwork, reach out to them before they begin their first day. Complete all the essential forms and formalities ahead of their orientation. Remote working has made it necessary for businesses to complete onboarding online so you may want to look at what HR software solutions are out there.
2. Add a personal touch
A good onboarding practice is for a welcome message or welcome pack to be sent to the new hire once they have received their employment contract. A video from the CEO or manager feels more personal, relevant, and authentic and is worth considering if you are onboarding remotely. Think about ways you can thank your newly hired employee after they have accepted your offer. Adding a personal touch to the onboarding process reinforces a feeling of connection within the organization.
3. Create a seamless onboarding process
Organizations that adopt employee onboarding software can improve their employee retention and improve productivity in their workforce from the outset. Taking care of the paperwork before an employees first day will prepare them for a thorough orientation.
4. Team orientation
Pool together a few departmental representatives to interact with new employees. Create a buddy system. Each buddy can introduce them to various departments and teams to familiarise themselves with how the business operates. Assign a mentor to address their questions or concerns that they may have.
5. Take care of the paperwork in advance
When onboarding, manage the paperwork using onboarded software. Automating the process will give new hires an opportunity to complete the forms on their own time and wherever they are. Onboarding software can also keep track of documents submitted and sync them with the candidate’s profile already set up on the system.
6. Set expectations from the outset
When the employee joins the company they should able to get a clear understanding of what their role is and how to access resources to help them fulfil their responsibilities. Ensure that the new employee understands the value and the vision of the business and adopts this spirit when working for the business.
Final Thoughts
A strategic employee onboarding process can make a significant impact on your business workflows. Your modern onboarding can eliminate all the tedious paperwork and simplify the HR process by implementing new ideas and the correct practices.
In addition, adopting the latest onboarding software can also ease your implementation models and definitively improve functionality and efficiency. Thus, you’ll surely see more benefits of onboarding employees over time and address your business pain points using the right software.