Onboarding - What it is, What it isn’t, and How it Works
It can leave you blindsided to have an employee announce their resignation shortly after joining your team. But the truth is, approximately 30 percent of workers are most likely to leave a job within the first ninety days of starting it. Meaning you have to, once again, invest time and revenue into advertising the open position, divvy up tasks to other employees, and retrain a new hire. All in all, you are likely to spend the equivalent of 50 to 200 percent of your old employee’s salary just to replace them.
This is a challenge every employer will face at some point, but it can be mitigated by developing a solid onboarding program. Companies that invest time and effort into creating the best onboarding strategies for their businesses report stronger company culture, improved legal compliance, higher productivity, and greater employee satisfaction.
What is Onboarding?
Onboarding is an overarching strategy that is designed to promote acclimation and integration into a company. It is meant to instill a sense of belonging and confidence that empowers your new employee to ask questions and try new things in order to grow in their role. It is also used to create positive relationships between your new hire, yourself, and everyone they work with.
Onboarding is not orientation. Orientation is only a part of onboarding and usually takes place on the first day. Onboarding, on the other hand, is extensive and takes anywhere from three to twelve months, depending on the job.
Onboarding is also not job training. Job training is the process by which a new hire is supplied with the tools they need to execute expected job functions. While it is more broad than orientation (usually taking at least a month or two to fully implement) it is still only a part of the whole onboarding program.
The 6 C’s of Employee Onboarding
The 6 C’s are a list of general concepts, developed by Dr. Talya Baur, that can be applied to every onboarding blueprint. Dr. Baur, an expert in the field of onboarding and a graduate of Purdue University, has spent twenty-five years developing and refining this list into what it is now. These concepts take into account that onboarding is both a legal and educational process as well as a highly psychological one.
Compliance – First and foremost, your legal bases must be covered and your onboarding process must be compliant. There is specific paperwork that needs to be submitted.
Clarification – In order to encourage integration and employee satisfaction from day one, you must be able to provide your new hire a clear understanding of their role and how it fits into the company.
Confidence – Onboarding is the time to nurture your employee’s autonomy and competence by building them up, rather than tearing them down.
Connection – Your new hire should feel accepted and valued in their work environment. They should be able to connect with their fellow employees and feel safe enough to explore new challenges and grow.
Culture – Your organization’s mission, values, and history should be clear and understandable from the get-go. Establishing this awareness is the best way to create, maintain, and even evolve company culture.
Check-back – Once your employee is established, take time to ask them what worked, what didn’t, and what needs improvement. This feedback will be invaluable to refining an airtight onboarding strategy.
Before Day Zero
For a new hire, their onboarding experience officially begins on orientation day. The same cannot be said for you as the employer. For you, the process begins with the composition of the job description. A poorly written description can cause confusion about the advertised position, leading to dissonance when your employee starts work. To prevent this, consult your top performers and get a good idea of what exactly their job looks like, what responsibilities they have, and how they conduct themselves.
Once this is done and you’ve advertised the position, your next stop is the interview process.
First impressions are important and your demeanor should be designed to attract the most capable candidates and demonstrate the conduct you expect to be displayed at your company. Take time to create connection, practice active listening, and answer questions clearly and concisely.
Once the right candidate has accepted the job you enter the preboarding phase.
Day Zero – Preboarding
Now is the time to compile all the paperwork necessary for orientation day. Including:
Welcome letter
Employee agreement
Non disclosure agreement
Employee handbook
W-4
I-9
Benefits sign-up
Occasionally, the time between job acceptance and the first day of work can be lengthy. Take this opportunity to remain proactive in your communication with your new hire. The last thing you want is for them to feel like they’ve been forgotten about.
Furthermore, some companies take advantage of this period by having their new hires complete their paperwork before day one, saving on turnaround time and increasing productivity. Facebook famously has such a thorough preboarding program that new hires only need forty-five minutes to acclimate themselves to their new place of business before they begin work.
If this is not an option, place their paperwork in their welcome packet along with any additional material, such as:
Nametag
Uniform
Personal Protective Equipment
Laptop
Workphone
Company branded welcome swag (e.g. pens, t-shirts, mugs, etc)
Additional preboarding tasks may include:
Finalizing their workstation assignment.
Setting up their work email (and/or ensuring they are on the appropriate email lists).
Notifying all applicable parties of the start date (e.g. HR, managers, future colleagues, etc.).
Schedule an HR meeting for orientation day.
Plan some orientation day event to jumpstart the bonding process (people like to mock the office pizza party, but a luncheon or similar community event would be appropriate in this situation).
Day 1 - Orientation
Finally, the onboarding clock has officially begun ticking! Your goal for this first day is to complete all legal paperwork and make sure your new hire feels welcome at your company.
An orientation day checklist might include:
Arranging to have someone welcome the new hire.
Give a tour.
Introduce key players.
Meet with HR.
Complete any paperwork left undone from the preboarding phase.
Arrange downtime to settle in and set up.
Finalize and check all equipment and technologies (e.g. computer, phone, email, or applicable messaging apps).
Pizza party, company lunch, and/or ice breaker activities.
Days 1-30 – Acclimation
The first month of onboarding is the acclimation phase. Now is time for your new employee to become accustomed to their environment and begin forming bonds with their coworkers.
During this time you should:
Prioritize job training and goal setting.
Schedule regular 1:1s to keep your new hire on track.
Enlist a top performer to act as a mentor or buddy – answering questions and helping with smaller problems that might arise.
Assign a progressive load of productive tasks to encourage learning, engagement, and confidence.
Day 30 – Feedback
The thirty day mark signals the end of the acclimation phase. By this point, while your new employee should be relatively established in the company, their first days and weeks are still very fresh in their mind. Taking this into account, many successful companies implement a check-in survey at the thirty day mark to improve future onboarding experiences and suss out any issues before they snowball into something serious. Now is the time to get real, honest feedback about what worked and what didn’t.
Questions a 30 day check-in survey might include are:
Do you feel like a valued member of this company? Why or why not?
Is the company and your role in it meeting your expectations?
Do you feel you have the necessary tools to succeed?
Have you been able to collaborate with your supervisor, mentor, or buddy to accomplish training goals?
How would you rate your progress toward said goals?
Are you experiencing any difficulties?
Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the onboarding process?
Surveying your new employee demonstrates a willingness to proactively invest in their growth and professional development. It allows them a chance to advocate for themselves and to help improve the process for their future coworkers.
Days 30-90 – Integration
The final sixty days of onboarding are all about integration. By the end of it, your new hire should be a fully incorporated member of the team. Your goal during this time is to reinforce and promote your new hire’s independence and further nurture their relationships with their colleagues. They should be able to perform tasks with minimal to no supervision and you should shift their professional focus from smaller, immediate accomplishments, to broader long-term goals.
During this time you should:
Continue regular 1:1’s, allowing your employee space to ask questions and promote their own learning.
Address any issues highlighted in the 30 day check-in survey.
Conduct another survey at the 90 day mark.
A 90 day check-in survey should be similar to the previous one and include some of the same questions. But it should also include ones that are tailored to someone who is about to be categorized as a fully established member of the workforce, such as:
What are your long-term goals?
What steps are you willing to take to accomplish those goals?
Where do you see yourself in five years?
This will give you the chance to reassess and address previously established pain points and begin helping your employee plot a proactive career path.
Day 90 and Beyond
Congratulations! You now have a full fledged employee that has successfully acclimated to their job and integrated into company culture.
Now is the time to switch from 1:1’s to regular performance evaluations and begin addressing the long-term career intentions outlined in the 90 day survey.
Optimizing Onboarding:
Legal Compliance
When tailoring your onboarding program be sure to prioritize your legal responsibilities. If you file paperwork incorrectly on behalf of your employee it will come back around to bite you both. Some regulations you need to be aware of include:
Exempt v. non-exempt employees
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
Title VII
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Equal Pay Act
Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA)
Unemployment Insurance
Furthermore, your onboarding process should include some variant of compliance and safety training such as the following:
Fire safety
Sexual harassment training
Diversity and inclusion training
Workplace Health and Safety and OSHA protocols
Depending on what type of business you operate and what role your new hire is taking on, some of these items can be detailed in the employee handbook and simply reviewed on orientation day. Some companies even include a place for the new hire to sign their initials after each section in their handbook, indicating that they had read and agreed to follow the stipulations listed.
However, if you are running a business that requires a heavy focus on a specific field, or are hiring an employee who should have a strong awareness of these protocols, you must take the time to set up formal training sessions to address them. For example: The YMCA requires their lifeguards and swim personnel to complete extensive health and safety, CPR, and water safety training. If they do not comply they will be turned away at orientation.
Information
Information should be easily accessible to your employees, including:
Training manuals
Policies and best practices
Benefits packages
Paid time off (PTO) and holiday hours
Sick leave information
Again, a number of these can be written in the employee handbook and verbally reviewed on orientation day. During your tour make it a point to show your new hire where all manuals and reference materials are located.
When creating a training program for your employee be sure to take into account:
Technical and job specific training
Soft skills
Technology and systems training
Giving your new hire the tools to gain autonomy early on will help them feel comfortable and confident in their abilities and their role at your company. Check in with top performers to find holes in your current training program that might inhibit future hires.
Finally, you will need an overview of company culture, including:
A clear mission statement
Code of conduct
Performance expectations
Meeting schedules
Information about regularly occurring social events or gatherings
Again, you can utilize your employee handbook to communicate much of this information.
For corporate events or happenings, you can use an announcement board or messaging apps like Slack. You should further encourage employees to have a means of communicating and meeting with each other outside of employer supervision. Ask a trusted employee to invite your new hire into the GroupMe or group chat designated for personal events.
Ownership
Take time to establish who owns each step of the onboarding process and collaborate with them as you finetune your plan.
Human Resources (HR) – Typically the most involved on orientation day. They coordinate paperwork, lead orientation meetings, explain admin policies, and present benefits and compensation information.
Managers/Team Leads – Are responsible for guidance in the day-to-day. They help coordinate job training, clarify expectations and performance goals, and instigate the positive relationships a new hire is meant to build with the rest of the team.
Mentors/buddies – Some companies assign a mentor or buddy to a new hire. These are trusted employees who are lower on the totem pole than a manager or team lead. They assist in showing the ropes further, answering questions when higher-ups are unavailable, and guiding new hires through company culture and dynamics.
Coworkers – Serve to further socialize and acclimatize a new hire into the workforce. They play the smallest specific role in onboarding but will make the greatest impact on a new hire. They are the embodiment of your company’s culture and mission and should reflect as much when interacting with a new employee.
Order of Steps
When reviewing your onboarding program take some time to establish the best order in which to address each element of the program. Consult your top performers for information on the ideal order of operations in job training, meet with managers to determine what best elevates a new hire’s KPI (Key Performance Indicators), and get feedback from employees to learn how to maximize orientation day. Do your best to establish a roadmap that ensures your newest worker is getting from point A to point C without missing B along the way.
Create checklists and automate what you can to help streamline the process and provide the maximum amount of clarity.
Review and Revise
Your company is constantly evolving and your onboarding process should reflect that. Something that worked perfectly a year or two ago might be hindering acclimation and integration now. Reviewing and revising your process at the end of every onboarding period is the best way to fix weaknesses and solidify strengths.
