When you have finally found the right person to hire, and they have accepted your job offer, it can feel like the hard work has been done. The heavy work of recruitment is over; now all you have to do is onboard your new member of staff, and your business will soon be purring like a fine-tuned machine.
However, the onboarding that is necessary to help integrate a new staff member is one of the most important tasks in business. Finding the right person is all well and good, but now you have to integrate that person into your business. There are ways and means of doing this; do it well, and your new hire will be able to hit the ground running. Do it poorly, and they will struggle, meaning that your business may struggle to get up to speed as quickly as you might hope.
If you want to ensure that your next onboarding experience is as smooth as possible, here’s what you’re going to need to keep in mind…
DO: Use different ways of explaining the business
If you sit a new hire down and then just talk to them for two hours, the chances of them being able to retain the information is next to zero. It’s important to vary the way that you explain various company systems and procedures; too much dry talking is more liable to create confusion rather than a well-onboarded employee. Opt for a range of different mediums, including videos from the likes of movingbitsonline.com and specifically-designed onboarding websites to convey the information you need to share— this allows for a far more natural, enjoyable, and understandable process.
DON’T: Go too quickly
A new employee is having to learn a lot of information in a short space of time. As a result, you should try to stagger their introductory period over a number of half-days. This may seem like a waste of time when you just want to get them to work as quickly as possible, but it’s more beneficial in the long run, as what they learn they will actually be able to recall.
DO: Encourage questions
If an employee is not asking questions during their onboarding, there’s a chance they are trying to pretend they understand rather than paint themselves in a bad light for asking too many questions. It’s important you counter this by encouraging questions throughout the process; explaining that it’s better to answer a silly question than to have to fix a silly mistake. Questions are good when someone is learning, so pause frequently to give them a chance to ask!
DON’T: Use a deadline
A new employee is ready to proceed when they are ready; there’s no point in placing a deadline on the learning process. As wired.com discuss, some people learn faster than others, so it’s unwise to expect all employees to pick up their onboarding at the same pace. It’s more important to focus on the quality of what an employee has learned than the speed at which they have learned it, so try and ensure employees have the freedom to learn at their own pace.
In conclusion
By following the “dos” and “don’ts” above, you should be able to ensure that your new employee can adjust to their new workplace in the quickest possible time— and thus your business will be able to benefit from their presence, too!