Onboarding

Onboarding is a yawner. Few line executives are interested in the subject and even fewer are going to give HR credit for investing in this segment of the recruiting process.          

Wait a minute! I thought the person was an employee by the time they were participating in HR’s onboarding experience, so why is this step a part of the staffing process and what is onboarding anyway. 

My point of view is that onboarding begins when the employee is informed about anything other than their start date and base earnings. Additionally, it ends once the employee has all of their administrative needs satisfied (e.g. properly enrolled in benefits) and ready access to the tools and internal staff they need to perform their work in a productive fashion.  

HR has a tendency to view the new employee orientation, if there is one, as the sub process that encompasses their responsibilities with respect to onboarding. However, if HR is going to accept responsibility for loweringturnover, increasing employee productivity, and enhancing both employee satisfaction and engagement then they need to do more. 

However, they don’t have to go it alone nor should they. If what I am about to suggest is not welcomed by your organization and you have to do all the work, it is not worth doing. You need to share the following responsibility, both the development of the process and the execution, with managers who get it and are willing to be of assistance. Otherwise you will be wasting your time. 

OK so what needs to be done? Here is a list to start with but I am sure you can add and edit the list to fit your company’s circumstances:

1.     Ensure the new employee understands their benefits and the benefit choices they and their family have (e.g. do they know if there is a credit union and how to sign up?)

2.     Keep track of how sufficient the process is for benefit enrollment. Are people signing up on time without any corrections (this could be used as a measure of the onboarding’s performance)?

3.     Ensure that new hires show up at the orientation with all of their required paperwork and how many leave with the necessary paperwork fully completed (“You left your passport at home again”, now what, since were past three days of employment and the I9 can’t be certified?)

4.     Make a check list of all the forms and documents that the new hire should be receiving, returning and when based on legal regulations and company expectations.

5.     What is very important is that a simple process be put into place that ensures that the employee feels respected and is welcomed to the firm. So depending upon the needs and the level of the person, the following items should be addressed by their first day of work if possible can include:

a.      Work space arrangements and office equipment and suhttp://www.hralliance.bizpplies

b.     Email set up

c.      Business cards

d.     Payroll notified with salary and bonus approvals documented and entered into the appropriate systems

e.      Phone (both desk and mobile) set up and presented

f.      Computer and printing procedures plus a personal introduction to the help desk, commonly used and available applications, and possibly a tour of the firm’s intranet

g.     A discussion about the company internet, computer, and phone policies and restrictions

h.     Introductions to key fellow staffers and security procedures

i.       A schedule of meet and greet luncheons and meetings with important coworkers

j.       A list of expectations from the boss for the next 90 days

k.     A schedule of department and appropriate company meetings, how meetings are arranged and who to invite

l.       A list of company contacts, email addresses, phone numbers, titles, reporting relationships, etc.

m.   A statement of the company mission, vision, strategy, goals and objectives and how this all relates to the job the person was hired to do.

n.     If a manager, how do they accesses employee files and who in HR, marketing, operations, finance etc. is their go to contact?

o.     What element of the onboarding process can be automated with welcome and instructional videos, automated forms (that feed directly into the HRIS and payroll system once approved), updated org charts, employee manuals, benefit information, etc. all of which can be available to the new employee prior to the first day or work.

p.     Can the orientation process be standardized, regardless of where the employee reports to work?

Well I have only touched the surface but you get the idea. It takes a lot to prepare the employee for their new assignment and the more complete, automated, and yet personal your organization’s approach the greater the chances are that the employee will remain excited and productive in their new career opportunity.

If you do this right, you may even be prepared when someone in marketing calls up to notify you for the first time, “Hey, our new Sales Director starts tomorrow, are we all ready for her”.

 
           From Michael Salisbury with the Human Resource Alliance (HRA) at www.hralliance.biz