Onboarding: 3 Steps to Success

Employee onboarding is one the most important 'first impressions' your new team member will have. The experience should set new hires up for success. However, many companies fail to allocate adequate time or resources to provide a quality induction process, leaving new starters feeling anxious about the journey ahead. 

How you design your new hire experience matters in more ways than one. When you consider that 22% of staff turnover occurs in the first forty-five days of employment, it is unsurprising that retention is a key factor. High turnover is a significant expense for employers and it is worth every effort to reduce and limit it. The best way to do that is by making new employees feel welcome and prepared for their jobs with a robust onboarding program. A quality program can shift retention considerably - 69% of employees who feel good about the onboarding process are likely to stay.

Not only are employees more likely to stick around, but they are also 21% more engaged and productive. Benefits of good onboarding are well-adjusted, highly engaged and effective new employees. Best of all, longer-term, these benefits increase the company bottom line. 

However, the rise of the digital age and remote working means onboarding teams has never been more challenging. Designing a program that helps your new hires understand company culture, work environment, and performance expectations can be overwhelming. With so much to share it no surprise that the average onboarding process includes 54 tasks. 

It doesn't have to be complicated - creating a reliable, quality process can be easy. Having clear objectives and choosing the right tools can help overcome this challenge. So how can you create a successful onboarding program? Here are three simple steps.  

STEP 1: EVALUATE YOUR CURRENT ONBOARDING PLAN  

Start by evaluating your existing onboarding procedure, identifying each component. When designing your program, focus on the overall business objectives. The program should give new hires a holistic understanding of the industry, product and services and company culture. 

Sharing the company marketing plan is an often-overlooked asset. Understanding what the company goals, tone of voice, and social media policy look like can be extremely beneficial, especially when developing employee advocacy. 

Onboarding should provide new hires with the skills, knowledge, and the processes to succeed. Be specific with how you define the purpose of each segment in the program. Doing so will also help you, should you need to transition your plan into a remote onboarding procedure. 

STEP 2: FIND TOOLS TO SUPPORT YOUR PROGRAM 

Once you've determined the purpose of each onboarding exercise, you can identify any tools you need to support them. There are lots of software options available - including learning management systems and employee engagement tools.  

By introducing the right onboarding technology to your process, you can be confident that your new hires get a consistent and quality training experience. These programs do the heavy lifting and free you up to focus on more of the important organisational content.

LinkedInduction is a virtual onboarding tool aligning your brand and your people. We empower your people to advocate for your brand and celebrate the company culture, sharing it across the world's largest social media network - LinkedIn. 

Our online onboarding course can easily integrate into your current new hire strategy. It can be fully customised to your organisation's brand and elevates the employee onboarding experience. 

STEP 3: EMPOWER YOUR EMPLOYEES 

Onboarding shouldn't just be about educating a new employee on the company vision, mission and culture or getting signoff on mandatory employee paperwork, codes of conduct or safety policies. 

Part of the process should encourage your new team member to embrace the company and its overall business goals. By sharing these with your team members and supporting them to get involved can help amplify your corporate messages, especially online and on your digital channels. 

Empower your new hires to align with the company goals and build their connections. By using their social profile and amplifying the organisation's content, they can create real opportunities for the business.  

After all, people buy from people they know, like and trust. On digital channels, company messages are reshared 24 times more frequently when distributed by employees versus the brand. And the leads developed through employee social marketing convert 7 times more often than other leads. It pays to give your employees the skills and confidence to speak to your business brand, online.

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