Onboarding process optimization: A guide

Onboarding an employee is one of the most critical experiences they’ll have with your brand. This simple process sets the tone for their expectations, understanding and experience with your business’s culture, ideals and mission – aligning them from the very first day toward the bigger organizational picture. Unfortunately, while important, the onboarding process is one of the most overlooked steps in the recruiting process. Business owners who invest the time to optimize, evaluate and refine this process regularly will reap the reward of more engaged, active and productive employee experiences. Plus, your team members will actively benefit and feel the confidence that they need to start off well with your business in their respective roles.

Today, we’re digging into key elements of onboarding process optimization and will be covering what every business onboarding process should include.

How do I improve my hiring process?

Improving your hiring process is a nuanced, diverse experience that depends on a variety of factors – such as what you currently have in place, your business’s culture and the type of information you’ll need to cover to start your new hire on the right track. With this in mind, it’s best to begin your process with a collaborative evaluation, encouraging both senior and junior employees to give honest feedback about their experiences. You should also walk through every step yourself, as if you were a new hire, evaluating for key knowledge gaps or areas of inefficiency.

What should every business hiring process include?

Inclusions in the hiring process truly depend on the nature of your business and hire. However, there are a few common things that (nearly) every business hiring process should include, such as:

• Organization-related Informational Sessions: These sessions are organization-specific and include topics such as workplace culture, mission, expectations and more. Information in this phase will not be role specific.
• Role-specific Informational Sessions: Ideally, you’ll do this with the new hire and the employee who gave notice, facilitating knowledge transfer and collaboration between both parties. If there is no present employee in the role, or if they’ve already left, consider sitting down with the new team member and their direct manager to ensure that there is enough of a foundation for effective training in the coming days. You will also hand off any informational packets or SOPs at this time for review.
• Paperwork Submittal and Finalization: Any outstanding documentation or paperwork should be addressed during this step and sent through to HR.
• Payroll Confirmation: Banking information should be confirmed with HR to facilitate ongoing payroll.
• Required Safety Modules: Equal opportunity training, sexual harassment seminars and any other mandatory organization- or state-mandated training should be included.
• Icebreakers, Welcome Gifts, Parties: It’s always a great idea to promote camaraderie and engagement when you bring on someone new. A gift or gathering is the perfect way to introduce someone to the team.

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