The onboarding process can be stressful, long, and costly, but it certainly does not have to be. A structured, well-organized onboarding process can help your new hires complete the process without confusion, feel included and engaged, and, ultimately, more invested in sticking with the opportunity and the company. 

Keep reading below to learn how planning ahead, communicating, and following-up with new hires can make your onboarding process a dream.

Plan Ahead

To ensure that your onboarding process is successful, make a plan. Planning far in advance is always better, as it gives you time to be prepared and come up with contingencies, but planning the basics when it is time to start onboarding is okay too, so long as you remember to include all the necessary information.

When planning ahead, you want to create timelines for your company and for your candidates. Set due-by dates for paperwork and credentialing tests and follow those up with response timelines. This will let candidates know that you are actively working on getting them started and that you are dedicated to moving forward with this opportunity. If there are delays of any kind, even if they are just for a day, connect with your new hires to let them know what has happened and what the new timeline expectations are. 

Preparing and sharing the details of the first few weeks or training periods of new hires is equally vital to any other plan. Once the hiring process is confirmed, employers should plan the expectations, times, and dates for the training period of new hires. Doing so and relaying this information to all involved parties gives everyone time to prepare and ask questions, should they need to, so there is less confusion the day-of. 

Communication

When you communicate as a company to a new hire, you need to be sure that the candidate understands what you are saying, has access to what you are talking about, and has a way to ask questions when they need to. It can be easy to get caught up in the excitement of hiring new and qualified candidates, but it is important to be sure that your candidates are well connected to knowledgable points of contact and that they have easy access to necessary information.

Confused candidates can easily become overwhelmed candidates, so get them the plans you prepared for their first few days as early as possible so they can plan to arrive at the right location on time. This is especially important for large locations with many departments or chain companies with multiple locations. While people within the company may be familiar with nicknames for locations or where to find certain departments, new hires may not, so send clear information in advance. 

Once you are sure that your new hires are prepared, ensure that your team is equally prepared. Talk to managers, team leads, trainers, and the new employee’s new coworkers to inform them of changes and expectations for them in the coming weeks. If there are changes made to the set plan, double check that all team members are aware and prepared for the change so no one is caught off-guard.

Follow-Up

Continuous feedback about your new hire’s experience is essential to ensure that the onboarding process is serving its purpose. Schedule check-ins with the new employee, their manager and team members to offer support and gather feedback for improvement as necessary.

Take the new advice to heart and be open to implementing changes to existing systems. If you are able to keep these aspects of onboarding in mind, you will be able to create a flowing and functioning onboarding process. If you are looking for a helping hand in finding new hires to onboard, then connect with a recruiter here! Our recruiters are specialized and eager to chat, to connect today!