Five quick wins to improve your onboarding

In addition to helping new starters hit the ground running, your onboarding process can have a significant impact on retention rates and make your company more desirable.

So if you want to make sure your system for bringing new joiners into your company is working as well as it can, take a look at these quick wins and see which areas of your onboarding you might be able to review and improve.

This article is the final part of our ten-part series on hiring and onboarding. In the series, you should have learned how to prepare for the recruitment process, select the best candidate and successfully onboard your new starter.

You can revisit the other articles in the series at the bottom of the page, or read stories of how other business leaders approach the hiring process.

(1) Talk to existing employees about their experiences

The best way to find out about how your business brings aboard new starters is to hear from the people who’ve been through it. Set up a listening exercise or send around a survey to gather opinions and highlight what you’re doing right and where you can improve.

(2) Review existing training programmes

Training and inductions are crucial to getting people started with their new job, so it’s always worth reviewing what training you provide. Ask each team to assess their training programmes, to ensure what people are being taught accurately reflects the work they’ll do. Remember to consider organisational-level training for new starters as well, whether that’s about finance policies or health and safety.

(3) Check in with the new employee

Set aside 10 minutes each week to call or email the new employee and see how they’re doing and pass on any positive feedback you’ve received. Small actions like this will go a long way to making new employees feel welcome and valued, whether they’ve been at the company for 3 days or 3 months. Consider pairing them up with a peer-level buddy or mentor to help show them the ropes as well.

(4) Formalise your approach to introductions and team bonding

Whether it’s a team email, walk round the office, team lunch, buddy system, or a combination of them all, putting a structure in place to facilitate introductions ensures no one is forgotten. Decide which activities should take place in every new employee’s first day, first week and first month.

(5) Speak to other business leaders

Every business will have a different approach to bringing their new employees on board. Take the opportunity to speak to other businesses about what they’ve learnt from their experiences, and how it can apply to you. Read about how snack business Snaffling Pig incorporates its core values into every process, including hiring and bringing new staff on board.

If you’re keen to keep working on your approach to onboarding, look at our onboarding action plan and see what steps you can take.