It goes without saying that your goal as an HR professional will likely be to make the employee onboarding process as seamless and efficient as you can. Research indicates that approximately 22% of employee turnover takes place during the first 45 days of employment at an average cost of replacement between 16 and 20% of that employee’s salary.
That is a significant productivity and dollar cost, not to mention the disruption it causes to the rest of your employees and the drain it places on your HR team. So can your organisation onboard new employees in a manner that inspires them to stay with you long-term and become productive, cohesive, integral members of the team as soon as possible? What about compliance onboarding, is there a better way? How can you leverage automation for the best employee onboarding experiences?
👇 In this article, we’ll be exploring the most important things HR teams need to consider when thinking about employee onboarding. We’re prepared a detailed HR onboarding checklist to make your life easier when it comes to navigating onboarding documents and processes, step by step. Let’s dive right in!
What is Employee Onboarding?
Ultimately, the purpose of HR onboarding is to enable new hires to perform their job effectively and independently by the end of the process.
Employee onboarding refers to the process of providing new employees with the necessary tools and knowledge to excel in their roles and contribute to the success of the company.
This process involves various tasks such as setting up devices, introducing the team, and providing information on company benefits. However, it is also an opportunity to showcase the company's values and operations and demonstrate to new hires that they can develop and grow their career while working for the organisation.
The duration of the onboarding process varies from one company to another, but most new employees can be successfully onboarded within three months. This really does depend on factors such as the complexity of the role, the learning pace of the new hire, and the quality of the onboarding process.
Ultimately, the purpose of HR onboarding is to enable new hires to perform their job effectively and independently by the end of the process. Going slightly further than that, employee onboarding automation serves two main purposes. Firstly, it aims to quickly make new hires operational in their role. Secondly, it seeks to shape new employees' initial impressions of the company, which is increasingly important.
A successful onboarding process results in a new employee who:
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Is enthusiastic about their role and the company
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Has established relationships with colleagues and manager(s)
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Has access to all necessary resources and training
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Understands their role and feels prepared to succeed
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Feels comfortable in the organisation
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Has set clear goals and achieved them
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Understands their appraisal criteria
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Has formed meaningful connections
💡 You might be interested to know that 89% of companies have short onboarding programs lasting less than three months. However, effective onboarding is an ongoing process that can take up to a year for the employee to reach their full performance potential.
The Importance of HR Employee Onboarding
“The recruitment process is where you start building your relationship with potential candidates”
Investing in employee onboarding automation offers several advantages including maximising retention and loyalty – 69% of employees are more likely to remain with a company for three years when they have the best employee onboarding experiences.
Successful HR onboarding also significantly strengthens company culture by helping new team members understand the organisation's vision, mission, values, and behaviours that are expected of them. Additionally, it fosters a sense of belonging and inclusion, which is crucial for driving organisational performance.
Why Onboarding Should Be Built on a Strong Foundation
Your employee onboarding process needs to be built on a firm foundation and laying that foundation begins during recruitment. The recruitment process is where you start building your relationship with potential candidates, so every action and every communication contributes to the perception each candidate forms of your business.
Once an offer is made, how you manage compliance onboarding and transition the candidate from potential to actual employee firms up the foundation. When your new employee shows up for their first day of work, the way your business communicates the culture of your business through word and action to illustrate 'how we do things around here,' is critical to ensuring that your foundation will support your new employee throughout their entire lifecycle.
The process you use to set your new employee up for success, with crystal clear clarity about performance expectations and just-in-time support to meet their needs, is the glue that will hold everything together. Making sure that new employees feel welcome within the social structure; of their team and the wider business, extends across the entire onboarding process and beyond.
It would be easy to think of these stages as mutually exclusive and linear, but that isn't really the case in the real world. It is certainly important to break each stage down to create a roadmap for HR, leadership, management and other employees to follow. Yet it is also crucial to remember that each individual is different and you might need to adjust your process accordingly to meet individual needs.
Best Practices for HR Employee Onboarding
Educating a new employee on the knowledge, skills, and behaviours needed to contribute to the organisation's success can take months. It’s important to think of onboarding as a process that can last throughout the whole first year of employment. As a result, it can be challenging to develop a specific onboarding agenda, schedule, or template.
To overcome this challenge, it is recommended to follow some best practices when creating longer-term goals and metrics for assessing the success of the onboarding process. Let’s look at the most important ones. 🚀
Recruitment Onboarding Best Practices
Offer a self-service, fully automated recruitment process. One way to improve the recruitment process and enhance the candidate onboarding experience is by offering a self-service, fully automated employee onboarding system. This approach allows candidates to communicate easily across multiple channels and select interview time slots that suit them, without the need for extensive communication with HR or recruiters.
Such a system can significantly reduce the time and effort required to manage the recruitment process, making it more efficient and cost-effective for the organisation. It also provides a more convenient and accessible onboarding experience for candidates, allowing them to engage with the organisation at their convenience.
Paint a clear picture of where candidates are at during the recruitment process. To ensure that candidates have a clear picture of where they stand in the recruitment process, it is essential to provide regular updates and feedback. This can include:
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Automated status updates
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Email notifications
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Online dashboards that display the candidate's progress through the various stages of the recruitment process
This approach can help candidates feel more engaged and informed throughout the process, reducing anxiety and uncertainty.`
Present a fully branded onboarding experience that builds awareness and makes a good impression. A fully branded onboarding experience is also crucial to building awareness and making a good impression. A well-designed recruitment portal, including a branded career site, job descriptions, and other recruitment materials, can help create the best employee onboarding experiences.
Set the scene for a digital HR experience that will continue through the employee lifecycle. Setting the scene for a digital HR experience that will continue through the employee lifecycle is essential. This can help companies streamline HR processes, reduce administrative burdens, and provide a more engaging and interactive experience for employees.
This can include onboarding, training, and development programs, as well as ongoing performance management and career development opportunities. By creating a digital HR experience that is seamless and integrated, organisations can attract and retain top talent and position themselves for long-term success.
Compliance Onboarding Best Practices
Make it possible for your candidate to accept their offer and sign their employment contract as easily as possible. To ensure a smooth transition from candidate to employee, it's important to make it as easy as you can for the candidate to accept their offer and sign their employee contract.
In today's digital age, digital contracts and signatures have become the norm. With digital contracts, candidates can easily accept the offer and sign their contract electronically, reducing the time and effort required to finalise the employment agreement.
Seamlessly transfer a 'candidate' record to an 'employee' record in your core HR solution. After the employment contract has been signed, it's essential to seamlessly transfer the candidate record to an employee record in the core HR system. This process can automatically trigger digital tax and super forms, ensuring that all necessary employee information is accurately recorded and that the organisation remains compliant with legal and regulatory requirements.
Offer a self-service experience where employees can update all their personal details. Once employees have joined the company, it's important to offer a self-service experience where employees can update all their personal details, such as their address, contact information, and emergency contact details. The aim of this self-service portal is to help reduce the administrative burden on HR teams and empower employees to manage their own personal information.
Provide a seamless compliance onboarding process where new employees can access, understand and complete your company policy. In addition to personal details, it's important to provide a seamless compliance onboarding process where new employees can access, understand, and complete the company's policies, occupational health and safety requirements, travel and expense policies, and other relevant compliance requirements.
By providing a clear and accessible compliance onboarding process, organisations can help ensure that new employees understand and comply with company policies and procedures, reducing the risk of legal or reputational issues.
Culture and Values Onboarding Best Practices
Communicate your company values, vision and mission. Communicating your company's values, vision, and mission is crucial to ensuring that new employees understand the organisation's culture and goals.
This communication should occur both in word and action, across both real and digital environments. The values, vision, and mission should be integrated into the onboarding process, including introductions from senior leaders, training programs, and interactive activities that demonstrate the organisation's culture.
Ensure that your newbie knows 'how we do things around here’. This includes the company's norms and expectations, such as work hours, dress code, communication channels, and other unwritten rules. This information should be shared during the onboarding process to help new employees feel more comfortable and confident in their new environment.
Explain the company terminology and language. New employees may not be familiar with industry-specific terms or acronyms used within the organisation. Providing a glossary of terms or training sessions that clarify key concepts and language can help new employees quickly get up to speed.
Share insights about how individuals and groups like to communicate. Communication styles can vary significantly between teams, departments, and individuals. Providing guidance on preferred communication channels, etiquette, and frequency can help new employees navigate these differences and build effective relationships with their colleagues.
Join the dots in your corporate strategy. It is important to help new employees understand how their role fits into the larger picture. Providing an overview of the company's strategic goals, plans, and initiatives can help new employees see how their work contributes to the organisation's success.
Illustrate how you work differently if a crisis hits. This ensures that new employees understand the organisation's approach to managing unexpected events. This information should be shared during the onboarding process, including examples of how the company has responded to crises in the past and the role that employees played in the response. New employees can feel more prepared and confident in their ability to navigate unexpected challenges.
Social Onboarding Best Practices
Provide preboarding welcome videos and engagement questionnaires for the next 12 months. These materials can provide a preview of what to expect during the onboarding process and help new employees feel more prepared and informed. It's important to provide relevant content at critical junctures throughout the first 12 months of employment to reinforce key messages and ensure that new employees feel supported and engaged.
Involve employees from all levels in welcoming your new team member. This can include educating existing employees about the background of their new team members, enabling them to personalise their interactions and making the new employee feel known and valued. You’ll be able to start building a sense of community and support for the new employee, making them feel more welcomed and engaged from the start.
Assign a buddy so that your new team member has an ally right from the get-go. This can help new employees navigate the complexities of the workplace and provide them with a trusted source of information and support.
Hold welcome morning teas, lunches or other initiatory activities. This can offer less formal opportunities for employees to get to know each other and build networks. Another benefit is to help break down barriers and encourage collaboration and teamwork, fostering a positive workplace culture.
Performance Onboarding Best Practices
Provide crystal clear clarity about roles, responsibilities, KPIs and milestones. This is essential for new employees to understand what is expected of them and how their performance will be measured.
Regular opportunities should be provided to discuss these topics, allowing new employees to ask questions, seek clarification, and provide feedback on their progress. This can help ensure that new employees are meeting expectations and making progress towards their goals.
Provide an accurate roadmap for the probation period. This can help new employees understand the expectations and milestones that they need to achieve during this critical period. This can include specific training, feedback sessions, and goal-setting activities that are designed to support the new employee's success.
Introduce performance management systems and processes as soon as possible. The aim is to help new employees understand how their performance will be evaluated and how they can improve over time. This can include regular feedback sessions, goal-setting activities, and training programs that are designed to help employees develop their skills and competencies.
Empower new employees with the capacity to communicate and implement their career goals within their new role. This can include providing opportunities for professional development, training, and networking, as well as encouraging employees to take ownership of their own career paths.
Provide peer-to-peer, real-time feedback. This can help them identify areas for improvement and take proactive steps to address any challenges they may be facing.
Ensure just-in-time learning needs are met via e-learning and knowledge management tools. This can help new employees quickly acquire the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in their roles. This can include providing access to online training modules, instructional videos, and other learning resources that can be accessed on demand.
Make managing performance a part of the everyday business landscape, not a once-a-year event. Making managing performance not a once-a-year event can help ensure that new employees receive ongoing feedback and support as they work towards their goals. This can include regular check-ins, goal-setting activities, and training programs that are designed to support employees' ongoing development and success.
Employee Onboarding Checklist: The Takeaway
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it is definitely a good place to start building a solid onboarding foundation that sets new employees up for success. Of course, having agile, employee onboarding automation software at your disposal creates a world of opportunity to reduce your admin and integrate your onboarding processes with those of your entire employee lifecycle.
👋 Most importantly though, automating as much of your employee onboarding process as possible will free up your leaders and HR staff to invest time and energy in your most important assets – your employees. If you're ready to transform the employee onboarding automation process at your organisation, click the button below to learn more about Subscribe-HR's employee onboarding automation software solution.
FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions
What are the 5 C's of effective onboarding?
Here are the 5 C's of effective onboarding:
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Compliance onboarding: Ensuring that new employees understand and comply with company policies, procedures, and legal requirements.
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Clarification: Providing clear expectations, goals, and feedback to help new employees understand their roles and responsibilities.
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Culture: Integrating new employees into the company culture and helping them feel connected to their colleagues and the organisation's values and mission.
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Connection: Creating opportunities for new employees to build relationships with their colleagues and feel supported and engaged in their work.
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Check-back: Following up with new employees regularly to ensure that they are adjusting to their new role and environment and have the resources and support they need to be successful.
What should be included in HR onboarding?
Here are some of the items that should be included in HR onboarding:
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Employment contracts and offer letters
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Tax and superannuation forms
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Review of company policies, procedures, and code of conduct
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Orientation to the company's organisational structure, culture, and values
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Introduction to company history, products or services, and strategic objectives
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Benefits enrollment and explanation of employee benefits packages
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Review of HR and payroll procedures, including how to request time off, track time worked, and submit expenses
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Introduction to company software and IT systems
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Health and safety training and procedures
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Assigning a mentor or buddy to help new hires navigate the company culture and expectations
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Providing ongoing feedback and support to ensure that new employees feel supported and engaged in their new roles
