5 Best Practices For Your Small Business Onboarding Process

How to Build an Effective Onboarding Process?

Once you find the right hire for your company, the business onboarding process is a critical part of building a great team. It is important to create an impeccable onboarding process to make them feel comfortable in your work environment.

The onboarding process is a holistic introduction that gives knowledge about the company policies, necessary skills, and work ethics at the office and most importantly how to be productive as an employee. It also includes training & development programs, socializing with the other team members, essential paperwork, and getting an understanding of the operations.

In many places, the business onboarding process is just the orientation which includes the very basic- the new employees watch some videos, fill necessary forms and are asked to start the work. However the right onboarding process is a chance for your new hire to connect emotionally with your company’s values, vision, and culture. Right onboarding helps the new employees to be more productive and a positive first impression of the workplace is built on their mind. Here are some tips to make the onboarding process a delight for your new joiners: 

1. Prepare for new employees

• Manage your new employees by proving them with a clear and brief overview of their first day in the company.
• Prepare everything in advance. Whatever they require to start their day with should be ready before the employee reaches the office.
• Introduce the new employee to the rest of the team. You don’t have to go far into the details. Make sure you introduce them to all the major departments of your company.
• The onboarding process makes sure that they have a copy of the employee handbook; that includes an employment letter, welcome note, company policies, payroll information and general HR policies.
• Give them a proper guide and schedule for their first week in the company.
• Assign your new employee with a clean work area and software they might need to login to.

2. Make sure they follow the rules

• It is important to teach your new employees to stay in compliance and follow the rules & regulations.
• Make sure that they have a copy of the rules & regulations and a manual of your office culture and ethics to follow.
• Refresh their knowledge and make them aware of the new regulations by providing them regular training programs.

3. Clear company culture, values, and vision

• Make them understand the vision and culture of the company on the first day itself. Do not rush; explain to them why each value is important for your company.
• Let them know how your company is operating to achieve the goals in order to set an example and expectations.
• Your new employees can contribute more positively to your business if they are clear about the vision, value and culture of your company. Make them understand that the company’s value and vision are critical.
• You also need to focus on your workplace and build a culture that supports efficiency, hard work and employee productivity.
• Have transparency in your communication; the clearer the communication, the more productive the employee will be.

4. Create a comprehensive training and development program

• Build a team of experienced employees for the training and development program to help train new joiners.
• Training encourages continuous employee development and will not only lead to employee efficiency but also employee satisfaction.
• Training helps new employees to expand their skills that can benefit your company in the long run.

5. Set-up a practice run

• Practice by conducting a mock call internally with the new employees to understand what they have learned.
• Have a small onboarding test that includes procedures for customer interaction & certain regular tasks. If they succeed in the test it means that you have done your job correctly and if they don’t then make note of the areas you have to work on again.
• Ask for feedback from the new employees to understand if anything needs to be removed, added or better explained.
• Encourage the team heads and managers to have phone calls and quick meetings with the new employees; this practice makes the new hires more comfortable and will reduce the time on other ineffective modes of communication. Building a personal connection is critical team building.
• For better employee productivity, ensure each person is in the right role as per their needs and skills.

It can take some time to build a successful onboarding process for your company but the right onboarding process will encourage the new employees to stick with the organization for the longer run. So if you want to generate more revenue and build a solid team for your company than spend time understanding the right onboarding process and execute it to the tee.