The Value of a New Hire Onboarding Program

It’s no secret that onboarding can make or break the candidate experience, and even their success with your organization.  Pumble by Cake.com turned to Mary Schroeder, Flex HR’s Vice President of HR Operations for her expert guidance. Mary advised Pumble that “having an onboarding process in place helps the new hire feel welcome and show we are excited for them to be joining the company. It helps them feel more comfortable and less anxious to start their new role. With an onboarding process in place, the new hire learns company policies and understands their role within the company and what the company culture is.”

Mary highlights the two most important aspects of an effective onboarding program: creating connection through conscious welcoming and introduction, and developing an understanding of the company and the new employee’s role within it. Too often, employees are left to their own devices when beginning a new role. This deeply impacts their ability to create meaningful relationships with other colleagues, as well as to develop a sense of purpose at the organization. A strategic onboarding program takes deliberate action to ensure the employee is set up to feel welcomed, while also understanding how their professional contributions will impact the company at-large.

 

Developing an Onboarding Plan that Delivers

It is probably a safe bet that you have had at least one poor onboarding experience. When there is no onboarding plan provided by the employer, the onus for learning, understanding, and connecting with others is on the new hire – the person newest to the organization with few existing relationships and a lot to learn. While it’s easy to say “we’re all adults” and assume the new hire can handle figuring things out, the reality is this is a recipe for failure and disengagement.

As leaders, it’s imperative to think about the desired outcome when bringing a new hire into the organization. This likely includes developing the new hire into a productive contributor who drives business goals forward; creating an independent thinker who asks questions and proposes solutions; and building a teammate who positively impacts those around them. With this in mind, develop an onboarding plan that can help achieve these outcomes. Mary Schroder recommends a 4-phase onboarding approach which includes:

• Pre-onboarding: What the new hire learns and receives ahead of their first day
• The welcoming phase: When the new hire is welcomed into the organization and prepared for what’s ahead
• The training phase: When actual job training takes place
• The transition: The ongoing support, like mentorship, that an employee receives post-training

Mary Schroeder shared her tips with Pumble: “[During the welcoming phase], I supply the new hire with the 3-week training program we have in place for all new hires, so they have an opportunity to see what their first few weeks will look like before their first day.

Once training starts, the process of transitioning the new hire into their role begins. We assign a mentor to the new hire to help transition them into the position. This helps them with feeling like part of the team.”

Thinking about onboarding using a phased approach helps to structure the plan in a way that reduces overwhelm and increases excitement for what’s ahead.

 

Creating Connection through Strategic Introductions

The importance of connection at work cannot be understated. In fact, Gen Z workers place more emphasis on making friends at work than they do even salary. As we onboard in this digital age, when employees may be working across multiple states or even countries, the importance of creating connections during onboarding is critical. So, what does this look like? Consider the following:

• Manager 1:1: One of the first connections to make on behalf of the new hire is with their manager. The manager can use this time to share more about their role, team, and expectations. The manager should also serve as the shepherd of the onboarding process, checking in regularly, being available for questions, and making sure the new hire has what they need to succeed.
• Assigning a “peer colleague”: While important to have a manager to lean on for questions, assigning a peer to help navigate the first few weeks of onboarding offers another unique perspective. The new hire might be more comfortable asking a peer colleague some questions rather than a manager and having a built-in resource for those questions is a great way to build relationships.
• Introduction to leadership: Creating opportunities for new hires to connect with leaders within your organization is an impactful experience. Understanding that leaders schedules are hectic, consider recording a video for new hires where the leader shares more on a specific topic, and use provide this during all future onboarding. Alternatively, coordinate a quarterly leadership connect where all new hires hired within the past quarter connect as a group with members of the leadership team.
• Introduction to key stakeholders: As part of the initial onboarding, be sure to facilitate connections with the colleagues the new hire will work closely with. This might include teammates, or colleagues from other teams that will directly influence their work. Creating these connections for the new hire – through 1:1 meetings, group sessions, or even a lunch outing – will help the new hire understand the inner-workings of the team and remove the onus from the new hire to make the initial introduction.
• Customer introductions: If your new hire will be interacting with customers, thoughtfully introducing the new hire and customer can be helpful on both sides. Depending on the depth of the relationship, this could be done in-person over a customer lunch, during a scheduled customer meeting, or even over e-mail if the situation warrants an informal connection.

 

Connection at work is increasingly important to employees in the modern workforce, where people spend more time at work than ever before. Fostering an environment that promotes connection, inclusivity, and belonging will not only positively impact your new hires, but your organization as a whole.

 

Here’s the reality: onboarding is not just the final step in the recruitment life cycle, it serves as the bridge between hiring and long-term retention. Organizations who deliver well-designed onboarding programs reinforce the promises they made during recruitment through clear expectation setting, facilitated connections, and meaningful training.  When done with intention, employees leave their onboarding experience feeling confident, engaged, and capable. By making onboarding a strategic priority, your organization boosts retention and engagement, which are key to not only keeping great employees but attracting them in the first place.

Would your organization benefit from dedicated onboarding support? Flex HR can provide the expertise you need. Reach out to us today!