When you own a small business, you know the only constant is to expect changes. Unfortunately, the chances are that you've had to make some significant changes in your company in response to the pandemic. One of the most significant changes is in hiring, training, and managing teams in person and remotely. As a result, we have experienced unprecedented levels of turnover that have shaped what some call "The Great Resignation." As a result, companies need a robust onboarding process for training new hires and retaining employees. When designing your onboarding process, we suggest that your employees feel like part of the team and understand your culture, mission, and vision.
What should you accomplish with your Onboarding process?
Do you have an onboarding process? When designing your program, keep in mind the fundamental goals of an onboarding process. We suggest a core program used for in-person and remote-based employees.
Create the tools and resources needed to train them to become TEAM members.
Prioritize social and interpersonal connections by inviting new hires to TEAM meetings.
Establish access to systems, test logins, and training workflows.
Start slow, and progress steadily with planned training and meeting agendas.
Assign the top 2-3 tasks per week to start the process.
I know it seems more challenging to do remotely, but it's very doable. It takes a well-organized system and the processes to facilitate the training. Here are some guidelines for implementing your onboarding process.
Set employee expectations from the beginning.
The new hire should clearly understand the roles and responsibilities of their assigned position during the interview process. In addition, we suggest you give the employee a written agreement that outlines specific work requirements they agree to do as part of their new position. On the first day, a new employee should meet with their manager to review the agreement, understand their role and responsibilities, and ask questions.
New Hire employee orientation.
Prepare a comprehensive orientation to showcase your company's mission, vision, and values. The new hire has only learned about your company through the interview process and online information. We find it advantageous to introduce the new hire to leadership and different levels of management for clarity on their role. This process will make the new employee feel valued and respected. An onboarding process isn't just about doing the paperwork—your first opportunity to make a good impression comes with the interview and then the onboarding process. Make the best of the opportunity and impress your new hire.
The Onboarding process should include the following:
Company history
Mission
Vision
Values
Goals
Customer Experience principles
Business model
Organizational review
Product and service overview
Brand strategy
Market overview
We suggest the new hire have the opportunity to meet with each department and department head to learn about their area of expertise. Working with different departments helps the employee understand the flow of the business and their role in the process.
Schedule necessary training.
Onboarding and learning/development have become a focus of most employers as they have realized they must offer opportunities for growth and advancement to keep employees long-term. So what are you doing to keep your employees excited about their job? Outline every aspect of what they need to learn to perform their job and prepare a training schedule with an expert user.
Here are a few tips for outlining the training schedule.
Identify team leads who will be involved in the training
Identify electronic health system, appointment procedures, scheduling blocks, ETC.
Create the training/meeting plan for the team.
Assign top two to three tasks per week to start the process.
Create the logins (Email address, access to systems, Phone)
Sharing Passwords via Lastpass, DashLane, or Passpack.
Test logins.
Schedule Zoom conferences for training sessions for the assistant and team members.
The assistant should shadow each department to understand the practice workflow.
Assign appropriate study content for the position.
Intro new team member during morning huddle (Explain the roles and responsibilities of the new hire)
Build-in opportunities for social interactions.
Introduce your TEAM member! It's essential to develop relationships with co-workers, especially new hires who are remote-based. Without it, remote-based employees will feel isolated and forgotten, and their productivity will suffer. It makes a huge difference in boosting morale and productivity. We recommend TEAM building for new hires through TEAM huddles and a buddy system.
Create an onboarding checklist.
We suggest you create a checklist of activities involved in successfully onboarding in-person and remote-based new hires.
Create a meeting agenda or template that outlines all the meetings, training, training instructor, and the meeting room or zoom link for the meeting. You can use this to schedule with each new employee for the first couple of weeks.
Prioritize the meeting agenda or template with regular meetings, weekly team meetings, HR onboarding sessions, and required training.
Ensure HR, the manager, and the employee access the schedule.
A well-planned onboarding experience will impress the leaders, the managers, and the new employee. Therefore, our goal is to offer every new employee a consistent and successful onboarding experience.
As you create your company's onboarding process, know that it will take at least 90 days before a new hire starts feeling confident and comfortable. Depending on the role and responsibilities of the position, the process may take as long as a year.
Focus on your long-term goals to ensure that everybody is succeeding, everybody's doing well and has the tools and resources they need. Our goal is to stop the frequent turnover in the workforce by improving the employee experience. Our employees are more likely to stay long-term if they feel comfortable, supported, and valued by the leadership team and the company.
Glenda Acevedo can simplify the onboarding process of your new employee by customizing the tools and resources needed to train them to become a member of your TEAM. Schedule your FREE consultation to learn more about the services we provide.
Visit our website at Glendaacevedo.com or contact Glenda@glendaacevedo.com.