How Not-To Onboard Employees
With no formal onboarding process, an organization leaves itself open to some of most common onboarding mistakes. If any of the following describe your organization, it’s time for a new strategy.- Waiting for a new hire’s first day - Onboarding should begin in the downtime before a new employee begins. This applies not only to internal preparation, but also to correspondence. It should never go radio silent after the new hire accepts an offer. Those days or weeks provide an opportunity to inform the candidate of what to expect/bring on the first day, and how to get a headstart on any paperwork or accounts.
- *Paper* forms - There’s no reason to wait for the first day, then hand a new hire a stack of forms and paperwork. Most of this can happen digitally in the lead up to an employee’s first day. This makes record-keeping easier for both sides.
- Failure to set up workspace/tools - This takes a coordinated effort from HR, IT, facilities, and any other relevant departments. What type of equipment does the new hire need in his/her workspace? Does IT and/or finance need to approve and install applications, software, or other business tools? If your organization waits for the new employee to arrive, you’re wasting valuable days just getting the employee into an environment to be productive.
- Failure to set expectations - According to the aforementioned Onboardia survey, 17.5% of employees didn’t understand performance expectations for their position after 90 days of work. Make sure expectations and company processes are very clear from the beginning.
- Failure to follow up on employee experience - This goes hand-in-hand with a common stage of ITIL best practice for service management: Continual Service Improvement (CSI). What works best about your onboarding process? Which areas are inefficient for new hires? The best way to find out is to ask them. Use surveys or post-orientation breakout sessions to collect feedback.