New employees deserve a warm welcome in every company. However, many companies underestimate the importance of creating a great onboarding experience for new employees. Implementing generic onboarding strategies can lead to possible frustration, annoyance, or discomfort for new hires. All these feelings can result in poor production and high attrition rates.
By embracing proven-effective strategies, you can make your onboarding process more exciting, meaningful, and unforgettable. Moreover, avoid the most common mistakes when onboarding new employees. Read on below to find out.
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Using Generic Or Traditional Onboarding Practices
Establishing employee trust and loyalty starts in the new hire onboarding process. Companies need to adjust to the emerging needs of employees. While many businesses still use traditional onboarding practices, they can negatively affect employees’ perceptions, expectations, and retention.
At least once a year, the human resources (HR) department must review its onboarding practices. The company must decide if the onboarding process is still beneficial to the newly hired employees. Consider all aspects with detailed discussion, from the training process to utilizing advanced technology.
For instance, it’s a must to embrace technology to welcome new employees in the digital era. The process must impress new hires with proven effective and emerging onboarding strategies, such as implementing fun ways to welcome new employees virtually.
Modern workplaces, including remote and hybrid work settings, replace traditional in-office work setups. Therefore, the conventional onboarding process, involving new hires sitting in a room to watch various department presentations, is nearly obsolete. Video onboarding from the home office of the new employees replaces this onboarding practice.
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Not Having Pre-Onboarding
The new employee’s first official work day must be engaging, fun, and welcoming. This way, the employer can make an excellent first impression.
However, most companies wait for the first day of new employees’ official work before they begin the onboarding process. While this strategy can help save time and structure the onboarding workflow, new employees might find filling out and signing paperwork boring, which isn’t an excellent way to start work.
It’s advisable to carry out paperwork tasks before the new employee’s first official work day. For instance, the human resource staff can send digital files for employees to sign employment paperwork electronically via e-signature beforehand.
A company can tackle paperwork during the pre-boarding process, which is best carried out from the day a new employee signs the offer letter up to the first official work day. In addition, an efficient pre-boarding process can help new hires meet and build relationships with long-time employees and prevent employee turnover.
Aside from signing paperwork, pre-onboarding is the best time to share the company policy and culture. During this time, HR staff can assist new employees set up their work email accounts, email signature, and set up work folders. It’s also a perfect time to share the organization chart and obtain the new employee feedback on the company’s recruitment process.
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Failing To Introduce Good Company Culture
Most new employees have an initial impression of a company’s culture during their application. However, not everyone fully comprehends the company culture they are about to enter. HR professionals must set up a proper onboarding process to help new hires find their place in the company and among their coworkers.
A good example is allowing new hires to work on small tasks or projects with other team members to help them adjust to their new work roles and environment. While not all small projects may be relevant to their position, these things can help them better grasp the company culture.
Additionally, it’s crucial that new hires understand the company’s values from the beginning. This way, they can create realistic expectations by outlining the company’s communication strategy. Therefore, HR must explain the company culture and operation framework to new employees to effectively resolve future challenges, clear doubts, and leverage new opportunities.
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Lacking Shared Responsibilities
The onboarding procedure in most businesses depends on the HR team. However, the HR department is not the only entity in charge of the onboarding procedure. Instead, everyone in the organization shares responsibility for the onboarding process.
New hire onboarding processes that are centralized and personalized are the most effective. Otherwise, the onboarding process will become more HR-focused, resulting in a lack of clarity regarding the nature and scope of the job.
Managers must inform existing employees at least a week beforehand that new hires will be onboard. This way, they can prepare and adjust to the new team members on the big day. For instance, they can prepare some modules, tutorial videos, or other helpful online or printed resources for their new colleagues. In addition, matching new hires with peer buddies is also advisable to make onboarding and transition smoother.
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Understating Or Exaggerating Job Scope
In accepting and beginning a role, new employees must have realistic expectations. Managers must avoid mismatches between the job description and the work environment in which the position is actually performed. Otherwise, prospective employees may be left with the impression that they were misled.
When it comes to training new employees in the scope of their roles, many managers are stumped. For example, they may unintentionally employ jargon due to their familiarity with the terminology. During the hiring process, some managers may overstate expectations, resulting in employee disappointment when they cannot do the more challenging tasks. On the other hand, understating the job role scope can overwhelm new hires, possibly causing disengagement.
HR teams can resolve this problem by developing guidelines to help managers explain the job scope more effectively. This strategy will also help set clear expectations and goals depending on the workloads and projects. Furthermore, creating talking points for each job type can provide helpful suggestions for managers when introducing new employees to their new roles.
Conclusion
To build an enjoyable, productive, and healthy workplace, avoid the frequent top mistakes when onboarding new staff. Business owners, human resource managers, and current employees can collaborate to devise the most effective onboarding strategies. As a result, new employees will feel more welcomed by their new employers, enhancing work inspiration, morale, positive corporate culture, and loyalty.
