Innovative Hiring Practices to Engage New Employees
Amy is excited about her new role with Office 123. When she arrives on her first day the receptionist doesn’t know who she is and asks her to sit in the lobby. Twenty minutes later she receives a phone call with instructions to show Amy to her to her workstation, where the IT guy is still under her desk setting up her computer. Amy waits awkwardly until he is finished and sits down to await further instructions. A few minutes later she receives a stack of forms from HR and is instructed to fill them out and give them to her manager. Amy completes the forms but realizes she doesn’t know where who or where her manager is. She asks someone in the workstation next to her for help her but when she knocks on the manager’s office door she’s told to she’s on an important call and is sent back to her workstation and review the company’s website. After an hour, her manager takes Amy on a cursory walk through the office introducing people briefly by name. They meet for another half hour and review the corporate mission and values, at which time Amy is referred to the receptionist to get options for places to have lunch in the area. Amy walks out alone and is not sure she wants to come back after lunch. She feels she’s made a horrible mistake in saying yes to Office 123’s offer.
Amanda is also excited about her role at Office XYZ. She is greeted by name and welcomed to the team by her manager at the front door. She is led to an open space where they spend several hours talking about her new role, the company’s values and mission, Amanda’s goals and how she can be supported to be effective in her first weeks. Amanda is taken to her tidy, well-equipped workstation where she finds all required equipment and supplies as well as a welcome card signed by the team and a company swag bag (including company branded coffee mug, T-shirt, and water bottle, and gift cards to Amazon and a local coffee shop). Amanda is asked to complete the forms on her desk for HR but before she finishes Annie introduces herself as her “buddy”. Annie gives Amanda a tour of the office and introduces her to the team in each department. Annie talks about what she loves about working at Office XYZ, including their great team, and lets Amanda know about the teambuilding event planned for later that afternoon. Annie takes Amanda to lunch and gives her an opportunity to ask any questions she has so far. By the time Amanda gets back to her workstation, she’s thinking that taking this job is probably the best decision she’s ever made.
Both Amy and Amanda began their day with unbridled enthusiasm for their new roles, but their onboarding experiences led them to very different conclusions about the companies they had chosen to work for. You never get a second chance to make a first impression and first impressions are often difficult to change. Even if Office 123 is a great place to work and Amy’s first day was an anomaly, it will take weeks or even months for the company to win Amy back, whereas Amanda is “all in” from day one.
New employees whose arrival is highly anticipated and valued will be instantly engaged and eager to buy in to the corporate culture. In contrast, those who feel “processed” (just another cog in the wheel) take a long time to recapture the enthusiasm they may have felt when they walked through the door, or worse, walk out the door even before their probationary review.
Why is Innovative Onboarding Important?
1. It gets new hires to successful performance faster. Understanding what is expected of them gives a new employee a leg up on successfully hitting the ground running.
2. It improves employee retention. Gostick and Elton, authors of “The Carrot Principle”, say that only 4% of new hires decide after the first day that they are sure they want to stay with their current company, but with a structured and engaging onboarding process, 66% of them are likely to remain with a company for longer than 3 years.
3. It gets new hires engaged immediately. Creating a fantastic, stress-free first day where employees are welcomed, immersed and given the opportunity to dig in to their new role is a sure-fire way to get them feeling fully engaged. When that’s continued throughout the onboarding process their commitment and motivation to perform deepens.
4. It improves your employer brand. Your onboarding process is an opportunity to brag on your company, including all the great perks and benefits they get from saying YES to your offer. In turn, they will brag about you to their friends and family. “Can you believe my company gives us . . . ?”. This leads to becoming known as an “employer of choice” in the marketplace.
Onboarding Principles
Focus on team-building: Put new hires on teams to begin to build teamwork. The more quickly they get to know their co-workers the stronger their bond to the company.
Make it personal: Gallup surveys show that job satisfaction is higher in employees who feel they are cared about in the workplace so use the onboarding process to get to know them. Curious, open-ended questions will help you find out what motivates them, how they learn, where they will easily succeed, and where they might need support. Check in with your new hires regularly to ensure the onboarding experience is accomplishing what you want it to.
Engage the manager: An engaged manager sets the stage for a long-lasting, dynamic relationship that leads to retention. The manager should lay out the onboarding/training plan early in the process and check in both formally (weekly meetings) and informally (over lunch) to chat about how it’s going in the new role and offering ongoing support.
Buddy up: A buddy provides a safe place for your new hire to go to during the first few weeks and months, reducing the stress of information overload and overwhelm. This relationship will assist with culture integration and is key to new employees feeling valued and supported.
Get them working right away: New employees should not be sitting around waiting for something to happen. On their first day, and every day afterward, give them meaningful tasks they are invested early. While training is part of onboarding, there are generally tasks that can be done, with a bit of guidance, so new employees take ownership of their role from the get-go.
Examples of Innovative Onboarding Practices
Here are a few examples of innovative onboarding practices. While the ability to implement these ideas will vary with different sized businesses, see if you can take the idea and find a way to make it work at your company.
Pre-boarding: Providing new hires with information about the company a week before they are hired is a great way to get people excited about working for you. This could include FAQs, a welcome packet with the company history, core values, press clippings and what a new employee can expect during their first day, week and month, an org chart showing who their manager is and how they fit into the team structure, etc.
Gamify the process: You may not be able to do this like Google, but the idea is to make onboarding fun. Even small firms could plan fun team events when new employees arrive, or make a game out of learning about the company. Your creativity will get your new hires pumped about working for you.
Celebrate the hire: Bring in lunch for the team, let the new hire introduce themselves at a staff meeting, talk to the team about what made you choose them for the role and how excited you are about their contribution.
Show your company values: Don’t just highlight them. Show actual examples of how your employees “live those values” and make them come to life.
Get them “in the know” quickly: Schedule meetings with managers and key employees so the new hire gets a lay of the land and increases their connection with the team. Provide them with a glossary of acronyms, buzzwords and a who’s who list of key people in each department.
Provide opportunities for team members to connect based on interests: Some larger companies assist employees with connecting with others on the team who have similar likes and interests (somewhat like an “employee match.com”). If a new employee is into hiking, they can find others who have the same interest, making it easier to make connections.
Effective onboarding is one of the most important things a company can do to engage, excite, and draw in a new employee, yet very few companies do this well. Onboarding should be a team-building exercise that brings the team together rather than a boring info session before they are handed their first tasks. How can you add some spice to your onboarding process to quickly get your new hires motivated, productive and enthusiastic about your company?
