Seven Steps to Effective Onboarding

We recently added a new employee at HRM. Carrie Nicholson joined us as our Director of People Placement. Getting her started and setting up an onboarding process was an automatic thing for us to do. However, I’ve noticed that with some of the companies we work with, onboarding is a term which is well known in HR, but can often get you a blank look when you mention it to other parts of the organization.

To start, onboarding is a more comprehensive form of a new hire orientation. The typical 2 hour new hire orientation presentation is supposed to fully inform an employee about the history of the company, get them to sign the handbook, apply for benefits, learn safety rules, and be ready to roll by 10:00 a.m. Onboarding goes beyond that and should help to fully initiate a new employee onto the team.

Here’s why onboarding is important: When you hire a new person, there’s a lot of anxiety – on both sides. Effective onboarding can help to lessen that anxiety. Here are some key things you can do to make the onboarding process go smoothly.

1. Set a specific schedule. Do this for the first week or so of employment and send it to your new employee in advance. Removal of some of the unknowns is a great way to reduce stress.
2. Explain the overall mission of the organization and how this position fits into the bigger picture. How will this position impact the organization?
3. Introduce your new person to the rest of the team and not just “Hi, this is Sue,” but “Hi, this is Sue and she’s going to be helping you do X, X, and X.”
4. Feed him. Meals are important to me, and so are people, so it was pretty uncomfortable when I started my very first professional job and got deserted by the entire HR department on my first day at noon. At a minimum, have a plan in place to feed your new person until he can develop a lunch plan of his own.
5. Communicate your performance expectations. What are the key measureables? How will they be evaluated?
6. Teach her about your company’s products. Do you make widgets? Have your new person spend time in the plant making them. If it’s not practical to do that, have her job shadow someone who does.
7. Explain the office nuances. Every office has their quirks and rules. Do you bring your own coffee cup or use the ones there? Do you pay for coffee or is it provided? Don’t make your new person learn the rules after they’ve just dropped the favorite coffee cup of your crabbiest employee.

When it comes to onboarding new employees, Carrie was really easy. In part, because I’ve hired her twice before: Once as a supplier when she was a manager with Kelly Services and then several years later we hired as the HR Manager at ASMO when we hired her to manage the process she had set up.

I must do a fair job with the onboarding, she keeps coming back, or maybe it’s just the food….

How to Hire the Perfect Employee

When I meet people, I generally categorize them into three groups: Those that I avoid, those that I would invite to join me on my deck, and those that I would hire. One of the mistakes a lot of companies make is to hire people from the second group. A person can be friendly and enjoyable and fun on my deck, but that doesn’t make him/her a good employee for my company.

The first step in finding the perfect employee is to honestly understand how your organization functions. As a consultant, I visit 4-5 different companies in various industries each week. They have vastly different cultures, markets, sense of urgencies, and hiring needs. What might be a great candidate for one employer could be a complete failure for another.

For example, I’m a high energy, creative, type A personality that is most productive prior to 10:00 a.m. If you are looking for a lot of change in a short period of time with some out of the box ideas, someone with my personality might be a great hire. However, if your organization is heavily bureaucratic, that decision would be a disaster.

When you design your selection process, take a good look at the skills required, the personality and the culture. Can your organization tolerate an HR guy that’s hyperactive at 6:00 a.m. or a great salesperson who doesn’t have the detail orientation to fill out an expense report but can sell like crazy? Some can, some can’t.

Don’t settle for what you think is the ideal employee. Take the time to complete a job analysis to truly and honestly understand what works and what doesn’t before you bring someone on board. You’ll hear the “hire for talent” or “hire for skill” mantra, but when we design selection systems, we don’t settle for one or the other and you shouldn’t either. Instead, profile the entire job and candidate. If you know what the ideal candidate looks like from all aspects, you’re much more likely to find what you want and need. If you don’t you just might find yourself with an energetic HR guy on your doorstep at 6:00 a.m.