A thoughtful and comprehensive onboarding program is essential for setting new hires up for success. It can help them learn about the company culture, their role, and the expectations for their performance. A well-designed onboarding program can also help accelerate new hire contribution, reduce turnover, increase productivity, and boost employee engagement.
Focus Areas
There are a number of things that new hires need to learn as they ramp up in their new role so they can contribute quickly and confidently. These include:
- The company's history, mission, and values
- The company's products or services
- The company's culture and values
- Their role and responsibilities
- The company's policies and procedures
- The company's tools and resources
- How to get their work done
- How to collaborate with their teammates
- How to meet the company's expectations
Program Tenets
Here are some tips for creating a great onboarding program:
- Start early. The onboarding process should start as soon as a new hire accepts the offer. This gives you time to send them welcome materials, answer their questions, and get them excited about their new role.
- Be personal. The onboarding process should be personalized to the individual employee. This means taking the time to learn about their skills, experience, and interests. It also means providing them with opportunities to meet their new colleagues and get to know the company culture.
- Be clear about expectations. Set clear expectations for the new hire's role, performance, and development. This will help them understand what is expected of them and how they can be successful.
- Provide training. The onboarding process should include training on the company's products, services, and culture. It should also include training on the new hire's specific role and responsibilities.
- Give feedback. Provide regular feedback to the new hire on their performance. This will help them stay on track and make sure they are meeting expectations.
- Celebrate successes. Take the time to celebrate the new hire's successes. This will help them feel valued and motivated.
Onboarding Tactics & Tools
In today's increasingly virtual and remote work environments, leveraging the right tools and tactics is essential to facilitate a seamless onboarding experience. Video meetings, asynchronous tools, and documentation all play a crucial role in creating an experience that appeals to new hires and ensures they get the information they need to contribute.
Video Meetings
Video meetings are essential for virtual onboarding, enabling face-to-face interactions and facilitating a sense of connection. Popular video meeting tools include Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet. When onboarding new hires using video meeting tools, it is important to ensure smooth communication and engagement. Here are some tactics:
- Schedule introductory video meetings: Set up one-on-one or small group video meetings to introduce new hires to their team members, managers, and key stakeholders.
- Conduct virtual tours: Use screen-sharing capabilities to provide virtual office tours, showcasing different departments, workspaces, and resources.
- Host interactive training sessions: Utilize video meeting tools' features such as breakout rooms and polling to create engaging and interactive training sessions for new hires.
- Record and share meetings: Record important onboarding meetings and training sessions so that new hires can refer back to them for clarification or in case of any missed information.
💡Pro Tip: Starting a new job can be stressful - many compare the first few days to drinking from a firehose. Use an AI meeting assistant like Supernormal to take detailed meeting notes for onboarding meetings and instantly share notes with new hires so they can refer to them in their first weeks of employment.
Async Tools
Asynchronous tools are valuable for onboarding, especially when working across different time zones or when new hires prefer flexibility. Tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Twist offer channels, threads, and other features to facilitate asynchronous communication. Here are some tactics to leverage async meeting tools for onboarding:
- Create onboarding channels/threads: Establish dedicated channels or threads for onboarding discussions, where new hires can ask questions, seek clarifications, and receive responses from team members at their convenience.
- Share onboarding resources: Use the file-sharing capabilities of async meeting tools to share important documents, videos, and training materials, ensuring that new hires have access to essential resources at any time.
- Encourage collaboration: Foster collaboration by assigning onboarding buddies or mentors who can provide guidance and support through async tools, promoting a sense of community.
- Provide regular check-ins: Schedule regular check-ins through async tools to gauge new hires' progress, address any concerns, and provide ongoing support.
Documentation
Documentation plays a crucial role in onboarding, allowing new hires to access relevant information and reference materials easily. Some popular documentation tools include Confluence, Notion, Google Docs, and Supernormal. Here are tactics for utilizing documentation tools during onboarding:
- Create a centralized knowledge base: Build a comprehensive knowledge base using documentation tools, organizing information on company policies, processes, FAQs, best practices, and ongoing work enabling new hires to access crucial information at their own pace.
💡Pro Tip: A lot of important work happens in meetings. AI assistants like Supernormal automatically take meeting notes and compile them in a centralized place where they can be shared with teams and their new additions. Allow new hires to access their team’s meeting notes so they can quickly get up to speed.
- Develop onboarding playbooks: Create structured onboarding playbooks or guides that provide step-by-step instructions and resources for new hires to follow throughout their onboarding journey.
- Enable collaboration and feedback: Leverage the collaborative features of documentation tools to allow new hires to contribute, suggest improvements, and provide feedback on existing documentation, promoting continuous learning and improvement.
Onboarding Timeline
The onboarding timeline will vary depending on the size and complexity of the company. However, most onboarding programs should last for at least 30 days. The first 30 days are critical, as this is the time when new hires are most likely to leave. The onboarding process can be divided into three phases:
- Orientation: This phase is typically one day long and covers the company's history, mission, values, products or services, policies and procedures, and tools and resources.
💡Pro Tip: Include company founders and C-level executives in hosting orientation so new hires can hear directly from leadership.
- Training: This phase typically lasts for two weeks and covers the new hire's specific role and responsibilities.
- Onboarding: This phase is ongoing and includes providing the new hire with support, feedback, and opportunities to learn and grow.
A great onboarding program is essential for setting new hires up for success. By following these tips and implementing an AI tool like Supernormal you can create an onboarding program that will help your new hires get up to speed quickly.