By Jamie Norrington of Tech94
Onboarding new people into a business has always been a key talking point for hiring managers, business owners or HR professionals with the conversation focused on how you create the best experience.
The last 2 years have meant a shift in how onboarding is conducted, moving away from your conventional boardroom style set up, to teams/zoom calls with people dotted all around the country or even the world. This in itself has presented issues and a disconnect between new starters and their new teams.
So with this in mind, Tech 94 Recruitment has put together its 5 suggestions on how companies who are hiring remotely or even in-person can create a position onboarding experience in order to retain staff.
Communicate Regularly
We go on about communication quite a lot in recruitment and HR, so we are going to bang this drum once again.
Communication with new starters is key to ensuring they onboard and settle into their new position. Now, this does not mean messaging them every 5 minutes but instead making sure they are clear lines of comms open at all times.
Starting a new career path is a challenge for anyone, so having a support mechanism is key.
Weekly Catch Ups
Moving on from communicating regularly, putting in a weekly catch-up at least for the first month is the perfect way to catch any issues or concerns before they start to impact someone’s onboarding.
A simple 30-minute call to discuss any queries or concerns, or even just to find out how someone is will speak volumes of your business, and help to demonstrate the great culture that you have (hopefully)
Have A Structure
We have all been there, onboarding into a new role and the process seems a bit thrown together with no real structure. This can sometimes create confusion and frustration for a new joiner, not giving the right first impression.
Before any onboarding, build an agenda which is clear and can be shown to any new starters. This helps them to understand what is going to be covered, plus adds that layer of structure to help those who are delivering this process.
Make It Interactive
No one likes being spoken to for a full week, so making an onboarding process interactive is a great way to engage new starters, and also get them to start buying into the vision of the business.
How can you make it interactive you may ask?
Simple, get them to complete tasks, join in with meetings within their department or even book virtual or in-person catch-ups with team members. All of these elements will keep people engaged, and ensure they have a great time onboarding into your business.
Create A Cohort (Where Possible)
Not as common in some roles, however, if you are hiring for multiple people try to onboard them all at once. This is helpful for a couple of reasons. Firstly would be time and resources. Those onboarding are not having to take periods of their time throughout the month to onboard new starters, instead doing it in one block.
Secondly, it helps new starters to form friendships and working relationships sooner. We all know that joining a new business is a big step for anyone, so having those who are on the same journey as you, will definitely go a long way to settling the nerves.
Contact info@the-gift-club.com for help hiring your tech team.
