Integrating new employees is no small feat! Imagine entering a workspace filled with unfamiliar faces, whose codes, processes, and premises you don't know. This is not the time to leave them fending for themselves.
The onboarding process is crucial for welcoming your new talents, facilitating their integration within the group, and enhancing your employer brand. So, how do you go about it? What processes should you put in place? Is the onboarding program the same for an intern, a junior, or an expert in their field? All about onboarding!
What is onboarding?
Once a candidate has been recruited, the recruitment process doesn't end there. The first few days are crucial for both you and the new recruit. According to a study on onboarding conducted by LinkedIn, 4% of new employees leave their position after a disastrous first day, and 22% of employee turnover occurs during the first 45 days. Your onboarding is the process you put in place to welcome a newcomer for the first few days, or even several weeks. You will certainly spend time on this, but it is an investment for the future! This is when the employee experience in your organization begins.
Steps to successful onboarding
Following the recruitment of an employee, here are the operational processes you can put in place to facilitate the integration period:
#1 Prepare for arrival
→ Send an introduction email to the new employee
→ Manage some administrative tasks: contract, health insurance, meal ticket, medical check-up etc.
→ Prepare his or her work tools: computer, telephone, email, drive, passwords, software access, etc.
→ Provide HR formalities: mission statement, objectives, documents to be read, and a welcome sheet listing all required documents. Include a training plan for new employees!
→ Brief the team: internal communication to warn the team members, mobilize them and coordinate well with the managers for the welcome of the new employee.
#2 Help the employee to get accustomed to the company
The first few days are crucial, as first impressions matter a lot. Joining a new team and feeling welcomed makes a significant difference! So, how do you approach this?
On the first day
→ Organize a welcome coffee with the team
→ Pass on a welcome booklet or even a welcome kit!
→ Spend about 2 hours on the history, culture, vision, and roadmap to help them understand how the company works, and the projects underway and to come.
→ Schedule a meeting with the manager
That same day or the first week
→ Set up meetings with team members or one-on-one interactions to allow the new hire to understand everyone's roles
→ Allocate time for them to set up their tools and read the provided documents
With these steps in place, assignments can be tackled quickly, allowing you to assess your new employee's abilities during the trial period!
💡If you have several employees recruited at the same time, consider collective onboarding over several days to welcome the newcomers and foster group cohesion.
Save time in your recruiting
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Managerial onboarding by profile type
Depending on the experience of your new hires, integration programs should be adapted. Here are different management practices according to the profiles:
For juniors
→ Framing the first few days is crucial!
→ Don't expect them to be immediately autonomous (it doesn't mean they aren't talented)
→ Aim for 1 hour of dedicated management time per week
For autonomous profiles
→ Challenge them from the start: Have them analyze and propose solutions during the first few days
→ Give them opportunities to lead: Put them in charge of meetings, projects, etc.
→ Provide ongoing support: Don't leave them to their own devices entirely.
Remote
Confinement has been a revelation of corporate cultures with the implementation of telecommuting, an opportunity to decentralize power. But when onboarding new employees remotely, how do you do it effectively?
→ Adapt the rituals: say good morning every morning via a remote communication tool, organize X meetings per week by video, and check in frequently to know the feeling of your employee
→ Trust & be transparent
How do you measure onboarding success?
While the onboarding process may seem successful from your perspective, what did your new employees think of their onboarding experience?
To evaluate the onboarding, conduct regular check-ins:
→ Schedule reviews at key milestones
At 1 week, 1 month, then 3 or 6 months after hire
→ Ask for an astonishment report
This is a surprise self-written report where employees share their honest feelings about the company, their arrival, integration, and work environment
→ Take advantage of the mandatory annual HR review (or the 2-month review for an internship)
Integrate onboarding discussions into mandatory annual HR reviews or 2-month internship reviews.
Evaluating the onboarding process will also help you prepare your new integrations: thanks to your employees' feedback, you will be able to optimize the integration and better integrate the newcomers!