3 Proven Tips & Tricks to Bring Accuracy to Your Onboarding Process

Don't put your onboarding process on the back burner. Let's bring accuracy to the process with proven tips.

Recruiting and retaining the best talent takes more than just a competitive pay package. With the global job market gradually improving, today’s well-informed employees have started considering organizational culture, training opportunities, and work-life balance as major criteria—apart from pay package—for choosing their employers.

The entire idea of training as well as onboarding, therefore, is not only limited to preparing an employee for his/her new job. Possibilities are, without them, a new hire may not complete the first few months at the organization. For a new hire, the first three months are crucial. This is the time to introduce new employees to their colleagues, familiarize them with organizational goals, and assist them in getting an in-depth idea of the values that their organization espouses. Does work ethic take precedence over anything and everything at your organization? If yes, do not hesitate to drive the point home. It will ultimately bring in more transparency to the way they work.

Several companies have started following a set of narratives running from every job advertisement to the first day of a new hire. The main aim is to inform new hires about the way their company works and help them map the future course of their career in the company. And onboarding is an important ‘cog’ in this entire process.

How to bring accuracy to this onboarding process? Although there is no one-size-fits-all approach for the onboarding program, the following tips and tricks can do wonders for you.

Don’t misinterpret onboarding as training: According to a study published in the Academy of Management Journal, the probationary period—the first three months of employment—is important for a new hire to build rapport with the organization, its management, and colleagues. Now, if a new hire gets enough support and encouragement from teams and leaders, he/she will develop a positive attitude about the work—as proved by studies. Alternatively, the inverse takes place, resulting in unproductive and unsatisfied employees who often cannot make it past the first four months.

Onboarding is usually misinterpreted as training and this interchange leaves room for misconception about what is actually wrong with a new employee’s first few days on the job.

Structured onboarding leaves an impact on retention: Devising a structured onboarding program holds the key to success. According to a study conducted by Wynhurst Group, if employees undergo structured onboarding, they are almost 58% more likely to stay with their organizations even after three years.

A standardized onboarding program works as a way to show new hires their importance in the organization. This also ensures that new employees feel accountable for their work.

Strike a subtle balance between onboarding and training: If onboarding is considered an engine, training is then the fuel for it to run. Devise your onboarding program with utmost care, carefully considering all the small things that a new hire will require to gain success at his/her job. Your training should comprise all the important programs, technology and equipment, and the best practices. Also, it must have goals that are properly mentioned. Remember, onboarding does not end with sessions on organizational policies and departmental introductions. It is just a part of the process.

The emergence of next-generation workforce is slowly but surely bringing a shift in the workplace paradigm. With it, the practices of drawing, nurturing, and retaining talent are undergoing a tectonic change. This implies that the primary focus of your training program should be a new hire’s progress and comfort at his/her job. Make sure that your onboarding program provides as much importance to how your new hires are feeling during the process as it provides to the process itself. This is the ultimate recipe of successful onboarding.