How Well-Executed Onboarding Springboards Employee Success
The problem with modern employee onboarding is that employers tend to turn the process into an orientation. Robin Erickson, one of the leading experts in the talent acquisition industry, says that often instead of true onboarding employees end up going through, “a two- or three-day whirlwind of compliance-related paperwork, team exercises, and administrative tasks.” This whirlwind experience brings with it a host of issues. The lack of structure tends to cause new employees to feel confused about their new role within the company. It also unintentionally communicates a negative message to new hires: their new company does not value them or their time. Erickson further explores the issues of poorly constructed onboarding processes – and the tools and techniques that can prevent them.
Develop a Strategic Framework for Onboarding
HR teams must design onboarding programs with specific end goals in mind. This means that from start to finish, each step of the onboarding process should relate to the new employee and his or her role within the company. HR teams should also make an effort to extend the onboarding process beyond the employee’s initial first few days. A strong onboarding program provides guidance to employees in a long-term way so as to ensure that new hires feel supported and confident in their roles. A key element that requires careful consideration relates to compliance. Compliance training can be an extremely dull task – this is exacerbated when new employees struggle to connect their role within the company to the compliance training at hand. Therefore, compliance training sessions should seek to create meaningful connections to an employee’s company role and the tasks he or she will complete as part of that role. Subsequent onboarding training should function in a similar manner. Every step of the onboarding process needs to clearly communicate how the information given is setting up the new hire with the tools and knowledge needed to succeed within his or her company role. Pairing new hires with managers or other company leaders throughout the onboarding process is one of the best methods for ensuring that this happens.
Establish Guidelines and Milestones
Training team members and managers must be prepared to provide new hires with clear definitions of their roles and expectations regarding their responsibilities. HR team members should establish these roles and responsibilities in advance. They must also help managers to understand the established roles so as to ensure that they are well-able to communicate this vital information to new hires. An important aspect of role establishment is to put milestones in place for new hires. This creates a sort of rubric for new hires to follow, which will empower them with a clear direction for success. It will also serve as a tool for managers to use when assessing the performance of employees. An ideal example of this would be to lay out a set of expectations for an employee’s first 30, 60 or 90 days with the company.
Conclusion
Instituting strategic and structured onboarding practices will help employees to develop a higher level of ease within their new roles. This level of ease typically results in higher employee productivity and increase employee retention levels. By taking the time to develop a strong onboarding program, HR team members will be well on the way to significantly improving their company culture as a whole.
About the Author
Justin Goodman has spent the past 20 years in insurance. He is the co-founder and CEO of Total CSR and co-founder and Managing Director of Project 55. By the age of 29, he was recognized as one of the top five construction insurance experts nationwide by Risk and Insurance Magazine. He also was named to Insurance Business Magazine’s Hot 100 and most recently the 2024 Insurance Journal Agent of the Year. Justin has trained over 50,000 CSR’s, account managers and producers through his work at Total CSR. He has a passion for developing the next generation of insurance professionals. When not with his family, he devotes his free time to speaking engagements and advising agency owners across the country.
