Frederick Jace
“New job stress” is a real thing. It’s not uncommon at all for people to feel stressed out when starting a new job at a new company.
Fortunately, you can make things a little easier and less stressful for new employees by putting the right employee onboarding process into place. By utilizing an effective onboarding process, you’ll remove a lot of the usual stress from the equation and make new employees feel right at home at your company. Plus, it is the right thing to do, considering the stress and effort they put into getting the new job.
Are you creating an onboarding process for your company for the first time? Or are you looking to improve the onboarding process that you’ve been using in recent years?
Either way, you can benefit from checking out our quick guide to employee onboarding below. It’ll help you find new employees, hire new employees, and put new employees through the proper employee training without any issues.
Here is our simple guide to employee onboarding.
Start by Sending a Job Candidate a Formal Job Offer Letter
Once your company decides that you would like to hire a specific person to fill an open position, the person who is going to serve as their manager will likely want to touch base with them via phone or email to let them know about it. But you should also make things official by sending them a formal job offer letter.
In a job offer letter, you should always include things like:
- The job title that a person will be taking on
- A description of the job that a person will be doing
- The name of the manager that a person will be reporting to
- The salary that a person will be making and the benefits that they’ll be entitled to
- Instructions on what a person should do next to accept a position
This is a very important part of the employee onboarding process. It’ll ensure that a person is ready to commit to working for your company. It’ll also help to avoid any confusion over things like salary and benefits.
Use Onboarding Software to Collect Important Paperwork From a New Hire
If a person says that they do, in fact, want to accept a position with your company after you send them a job offer letter, the next thing you’ll need to do is collect important paperwork from them.
In the past, companies used to wait until a person’s first day to have them fill out this paperwork. But nowadays, it’s much easier to use Agile ATS onboarding software to have them do it in the days leading up to their first day on the job.
Obtain Any Devices and/or Equipment That a New Hire Will Need
Are there going to be any devices and/or equipment that a new hire will need from the moment that they start working for your company? They might need things like a smartphone, a tablet, or a laptop.
Whatever the case, you should begin to get the wheels in motion as far as obtaining these things is concerned. You don’t want to have to scramble to try to find them at the 11th hour when a new hire shows up for their first day of work.
You should touch base with your IT department, if you have one, to make sure that your company has the devices and/or equipment that your new hire will need. If you don’t, you might have to order them, and that’s obviously something you’ll want to do well before their first day.
Create the Necessary Accounts for a New Hire
There is a pretty good chance that a new hire is going to need to have access to a bunch of different accounts in order to do their job. First and foremost, they’ll likely need you to set them up with an email account.
But it won’t stop there. They might also need an account to get onto your company’s server. If they do, this is another thing that you’ll want to sort out before they begin working for your company.
If you don’t get the necessary accounts created for a new hire, it’s going to hinder their ability to get right to work on their first day. You should get them up and running ASAP to avoid any unnecessary delays.
Put Together a Dedicated Workspace for a New Hire
Where is your new hire going to sit and work when they start working for your company? If you haven’t given this any thought yet, it’s something that you should start to consider at this point.
You’re probably going to want to put together a dedicated workspace for them that consists of a desk, an office chair, a computer, a phone, and any office supplies that they’ll need to do their job. You might also want to decorate their workspace just a little bit for them so that they feel welcome when they arrive for their first day at work.
You should try to set up a new hire’s workspace in the place that’s going to make the most sense for them. They should be situated in a spot where they’ll be able to communicate with other members of their team as well as their manager.
Schedule an Orientation for a New Hire
On your new hire’s first day of work, you’re going to want to sit down with them and speak with them more about your company as a whole. You’ll want to discuss everything from your company culture to the policies that you have in place for sick days and vacation time. You’ll also want to go through your company’s employee handbook with them.
To give yourself more than enough time to do all of this, you should schedule an orientation for a new hire. Or better yet, you should wait until several new hires have started at your company and bring them all together for an orientation.
This will give you an opportunity to get all of your new hires on the same page. It’ll also give them a chance to get to know one another a little bit better before heading out to do their jobs.
Send a New Hire a Welcome Email With the Information They’ll Need for Their First Day
Remember that “new job stress” that we were talking about earlier? A lot of that stress is a direct result of all the questions that people have about a new job when they’re first starting it.
They wonder:
- “What time should I be at work?”
- “What should I wear to work?”
- “How should I enter the building at work?”
- “Who should I report to at work?”
- “What time is work over?”
You should attempt to put a new hire’s mind at ease by sending them a welcome email that details everything they need to know for their first day. They’ll feel so much less stressed out when they know the answers to all of the questions that we just mentioned.
Provide a New Hire With a Tour of Your Facility
When a new hire shows up at your facility for their first day of work, they’re going to look lost. Even if your facility isn’t all that big, they aren’t going to know anything about it. They’ll be dazed and confused for the first few hours.
You should help them out with this particular problem by providing them with a full tour of your facility. You should walk around and show them where everything is so that they know how to navigate their way around by themselves by the time you’re finished.
The tour that you give a new hire should obviously highlight where they’ll be working, where other employees will be working, etc. But it should also shine a light on where the restrooms are, where the break room is, etc.
By showing a new hire around, you’ll make them more comfortable with their surroundings. And when they feel comfortable at work, they’ll be able to put their best foot forward when it comes to their job performance.
Introduce a New Hire to As Many Other Employees As You Can
As you walk around in your facility with a new hire, you’re inevitably going to cross paths with a lot of different employees. You should take advantage of this by introducing your new hire to as many of them as you can.
After you make just a few introductions, your new hire’s head is likely going to be spinning. They aren’t going to be able to remember everyone’s name or job title after meeting them.
But if nothing else, you’re going to let your existing employees know who a new hire is. This will make them feel more comfortable with the idea of reintroducing themselves to your new hire later and speaking with them further.
Your goal should be to try to integrate your new hire into the mix organically. You can do this by introducing them to lots of people and then letting them go from there.
Keep in Touch With a New Hire During Their First Few Months With Your Company
Once you’ve done everything else on this list, the employee onboarding process will be just about over. A new hire should be ready to venture out on their own and start their brand-new job.
But this shouldn’t be the last time that you speak with a new hire. You should make it your mission to keep in touch with them, at least during their first few months with your company.
You might even want to go as far as to set up 30-day, 60-day, and 90-day check-ins with them just to see how they’re adjusting. With a little luck, they should be adjusting to their new job just fine and getting the hang of things without a problem.
At some point, you should also circle back around and ask a new hire to provide you with some feedback on your employee onboarding process. You should see what they did and didn’t like about it and find out if they have any suggestions on how to make it better.
You should always try to improve the onboarding process that you use. It’ll allow you to hire new employees more seamlessly and put them in a position to succeed from the start.
It’s why you shouldn’t be shy about asking those who have been through the process for their feedback. They might be able to point out things that you could be doing better that you wouldn’t have thought of yourself.
This Employee Onboarding Process Will Set Your New Hires Up for Success
Far too often, companies put little to no effort into the employee onboarding process that they use for new hires. They take the most basic approach possible to hiring new employees and are then surprised when new hires have a difficult time adjusting to their new jobs.
You should try to steer clear of this situation as best you can. You should use everything that you’ve learned here today to create an employee onboarding process that will work wonders for your company. It’ll take some time and effort on your part to get it right, but it’ll be worth it in the end.
Would you like to get some additional tips on bringing new employees on board at your company? Search for them in the rest of the articles that we’ve posted on our blog.
