Back to Basics - Onboarding a New Employee

We will start with a very basic question, what is onboarding?

Onboarding involves integrating a new employee into an organisation or familiarizing a new Customer or Client with your company’s products or services. Today we will be looking at the onboarding process for new employees. This week’s blog will be another 2-part series looking at the different processes for both employee and client.

Below is a very basic onboarding process for a new employee:

• Make the hire official and submit relevant papaerwork to your HR/relevant team.

• Complete your reference checks and a background check, sometimes known as a DBS Check (if that’s a step your business takes).

• Establish the working hours and job duties the new starter will follow.

• Prepare and complete the relevant new hire forms such as payroll, and pension etc.

• Prepare your induction and how you plan on integrating the new member of staff, alongside arranging team introductions.

• Setup their working environment, providing the employee with all tools necessary to carry out their duties comfortably and safely.

• Prepare your training schedule, choosing what learning materials you want the new employee to have their training based in.

Additional steps could involve things such as familiarising the new employee with relevant health and safety info - the more detail the better as per your hiring process - it is a case of whatever works for you. Now you have gone through the onboarding process you may be wondering, what is the next step? We have compiled some easy do’s and don’ts to help you provide your new employee the best start possible...

Do’s:

• Schedule regular catch up’s

• Socialise outside of work, try and get to know them as a person as well as a new colleague

• Assign a buddy

• Introduce them to the team

• Make them feel welcome

• Remember, there is no such thing as a stupid question, be available, share knowledge and experiences

Don’ts:

• Overbear your new employee with constant meetings – this may seem like you aren’t confident in their abilities, ask the new employee what additional support they would like to have in place.

• Going to the local pub may be a good idea to the team but you have to remember, they are a new employee so may not be comfortable with that sort of environment, or even something simple like no way of getting home as they commute.

• Check with the new employee how they would feel about this and if they feel it would benefit them, this cuts out the possibility of wasted time for both the buddy and the new employee.

• Teams are important but you don’t want to overwhelm your new employee with meeting too many people at once. Slowly ease your new employee into meeting the team as they will have chance to form connections with other team mates along the way.

• Making employees feel welcome is paramount but you also need to make sure you keep it formal is it is a business environment, set out your etiquette expectations while providing a welcoming workplace.

Having new employees can be daunting for both the employer and the employee as it’s stepping into the unknown. Its also an exciting time as this new employee starts to integrate into your business, you will learn each other’s rhythm and find a working relationship/schedule that provides the business with a loyal employee while also providing the employee with the opportunity for growth.

Next week we will be looking at what the onboarding process is for new clients and how you can make a new client feel comfortable and at ease with your company.