Studies have shown that new hires need at least 90 days to prove that hiring them was the right decision. In that duration, they get acclimatized to the new environment, grasp their new job responsibilities and meet the expectations related to their job role.
The employee’s performance doesn’t just depend on their skill set and experience. It is also greatly influenced by the onboarding program. Employees need to feel prepared and welcomed for their jobs to be able to meet the employer’s expectations.
In this blog post, we have compiled 5 tips to create and execute a successful new employee onboarding program. But before that, you need to know about the significance of an onboarding program.
Why Does Onboarding Exist?
Boosting the efficiency of their talent management system is a priority for every organization. And, one of the sure-fire ways of achieving that is ensuring a strategic use of onboarding.
It enables new hires to get accustomed to the performance as well as social aspects of their roles quickly.
The importance of onboarding can be restated in the fact that nearly 25% of the American workforce undergo career transition every year. Among those, about 500,000 managers belong to Fortune 500 companies that take up new jobs and roles every year.
Moreover, managers switch companies every 2-4 years on average. An inefficient onboarding program can force them to leave their new company prematurely, costing both parties time and money.
Hence, if you’re creating a new employee onboarding program, the following tips could make a world of difference for your retention rate:
1. Interactive Onboarding Program
You have recruited a promising team member and want to retain them for as long as possible. But have you ever thought about what inspires loyalty and fosters a connection? A comprehensive and engaging onboarding experience is often the last answer.
However, studies have indicated that an effective employee onboarding program increases the likelihood of new joiners staying committed to their company and job by 18 times. Clearly, it lays the foundation of an employee’s journey in an organization.
In your new employee onboarding program, you want to:
- Get your new hires enthusiastic about their first day at work
- Minimize the probability of them feeling overwhelmed
- Upload a welcome video in which team members introduce themselves
- Offer gamified onboarding experience, especially where policies, ethics, and compliance are necessary. This way, employees would actually retain the information
- Create and deliver structured onboarding content that can be accessed anytime, anywhere
- Treat it as an ongoing process rather than a one and done thing
2. Career Growth Opportunities
Your new joiners should have ample opportunities for professional growth. Even though it’s not something you would be able to offer on the first day or week itself, you can always talk about roadblocks that have been holding them back in terms of professional and career development.
Is it their fear of speaking in public? Do they face issues during team engagement activities? What doubts do they have about their leadership or people skills?
The roadblocks can be many. During the onboarding program, you should help them move past these fears to advance in their careers.
And you can do so by giving them a supportive environment not just on the first day but throughout their time in your organization. Overcoming these fears is the first step towards personal and professional development.
3. Cloud-Hosted Onboarding
One of the best ways to create a successful new employee onboarding program is to move to a cloud-based system. Internet access and mobile phones have facilitated the sharing of digital information.
Whether it’s managing finances or chatting with friends, technology has made everything hassle-free.
And when you recruit millennials or people from Generation Y, they expect this convenience to be integrated into every aspect of the employee experience, including the onboarding process.
Using cloud-based onboarding solutions would not only help them access content over mobile devices but also minimize paperwork for the HR department.
Listed below are the other benefits of moving your onboarding process over to the cloud:
- Reduce the onboarding time by minimizing the paperwork
- Make the process exciting and not overwhelming
- Make the onboarding experience more engaging and welcoming
- Improving accessibility of information concerned with onboarding
- Offer a user-friendly experience
4. Customized Learning
When implementing an effective new employee onboarding program, offering self-paced and customized learning is key. Some of your new hires may prefer seminars and videos over files and eBooks. In contrast, the opposite can be true for other employees.
With the help of content-sharing platforms like Kytes, you can offer customized onboarding content that suits the preferences of your new employees. A learning management system (LMS) can act as a rich knowledge base that your employees can access whenever they want.
Just like preferences, the learning pace of each employee is also unique. By offering customized learning materials and giving them enough time to grasp them, you can ensure the success of your onboarding program.
5. Improved Ease of Access
One of the main problems with the conventional onboarding program is that employees spend a lot of time looking for answers once it’s over. In your new employee onboarding program, you need to reduce that time by improving the accessibility of information.
An integrated learning base, for example, can help eliminate this issue. It can be your centralized knowledge base that your new employees can access timely and easily.
Therefore, they will acclimatize quickly and start contributing to the growth of your organization.
In Summary
Employee retention and improved productivity should be the main drivers of your new employee onboarding program. Effective and innovative learning methods can help you reduce turnover and enhance your new hire’s productivity.
Make use of cloud-based technology to streamline your onboarding process and help employees commit to your organization.
An optimized onboarding program would help you retain the top talent and keep them engaged from the day they joined to when their employment ends.
Partnering with a content-sharing platform like Kytes can greatly benefit when it comes to delivering interactive onboarding content and making it a memorable experience for your new joiners.
