A variety of studies shows that good onboarding improves employee performance and job satisfaction. When your team works better, so does your entire business. There is no arguing the fact that an effective onboarding strategy is necessary. The only question is how to make yours top-notch. To do this you’ll need to develop high-quality materials, establish a support system, and establish a welcoming and strong company culture.
1. Upgrade the quality of your introduction materials
The main tool in the onboarding process is the information package you present your new employees. It must contain detailed instructions for everything they need to know. Every business is unique and therefore has unique requirements to what exactly should be included in this introduction package. However, while the information contained within will vary, basic types of content you need to use are the same for everyone.
- Presentation of the business
Create a beautiful and efficient PowerPoint presentation that will introduce the history of your brand. Make another one that outlines the business process and goals. You can use a PowerPoint template to save time and get a great layout with a few clicks. Some options are available at https://www.improvepresentation.com/blog/best-powerpoint-templates. - Printed manuals and instructions
Provide your new employees with printed materials that will contain a detailed description of their job process. They also need to have manuals for all tools they will work with. If you have any specialized processes, like an original outline for starting a dialog with customers, create instructions for that too. It’s essential to make these materials clear and easy to understand. - Videos
You’ll need to make an introductory video as well as how-to videos to illustrate some of the instructions mentioned above.
2. Establish a great company culture and make it social
Having good values and principles that your new employees can relate to and support is key to building a strong team. It’s a fact that today job seekers consider company culture as one of the most important factors (Association for Talent Development). So it’s essential to build a strong culture that people will want to be a part of.
However, you should make it ‘humane’ as well. Make your company a friendly place and include an introduction to it into your onboarding strategy. Social media will be a great help here because you can use them to show off the social aspects of your culture. For example, post pictures from your regular company parties and other events or shots of people socializing in break rooms (employees of all levels talking freely with each other).
Be sure to post success stories of different employees, so you new team members can see that they will be valued and listened to. You should also have a video introduction to the company and culture made by the head of your business. This will instantly make your company seem more informal and friendly place. This will help new employees relax and slip into the team more efficiently.
3. Assign a mentor to your new employees
Integrating into any new social group is always hard unless you already have a friend who is ‘in the game’. Give your new employees such a friend to boost your onboarding instantly.
Depending on your situation, you can assign a group or individual mentor to new recruits. Make sure they understand that they aren’t in a supervisory position over their charges. Instead, they should become a friend, helper, and guide.
