Onboarding A New Hire The Right Way

For any business, hiring a new employee is often a difficult task. While the application process may run smoothly, and the applicant may accept the offer of a position, there's a chance they could leave within the first year. 

So, what can you do to ensure the success of a new hire, and make the recruitment process as easy as possible?

Onboarding the right way
There are a number of ways to ensure that a new hire gets off to the right start, and by taking the time to create an effective onboarding process you can improve employee retention, engagement and  productivity.
According to recent Allegis Group research, “a quality onboarding experience helps to facilitate time to productivity as high-performing recruitment organisations report that it takes them 44% less time for a new hire to become productive. Additionally, consider that companies state it takes approximately three months to fill highly skilled positions and 1.5 months to fill entry-level jobs. Effective onboarding helps to ensure this investment is not thrown away.”

1. Ensure the orientation is engaging
If your orientation process consists of reading through presentations and slideshows if business information, your new hire may become quickly disengaged. 

Think about the employee's perspective, and try to make the process as interesting and informative as possible. This is a great way to get a worker off to the right start, as they'll likely be more willing to engage with the business.

2. Create a social network
While this may not work for individual hires or even tiny groups, it's a good idea for large-scale onboarding. Creating an online network allows employees to connect and help each other out - especially valuable when they're just started in a new role.

What leading organisations recommend
Our research shows that there is a significant disconnect between hiring managers, recruiters and candidates when it comes to a consistent and effective onboarding program. For example:
• 87% of hiring managers say new hires are always made to feel truly welcomed by their new team, yet just 59% of recruiters and 48% of candidates agree
• 86% of hiring managers claim job expectations of the new hire are always clear, while only 49% of recruiters and 37% of candidates claim the same
• 85% of hiring managers say job expectations for the new hire are always realistic while only 52% of recruiters and 37% of candidates agree

By laying the groundwork, and ensuring a candidate feels welcome and understands what is expected from them from the outset, leading organisations are able to ensure employees are prepared, slot in well to the company culture, and hit the ground running. 

Hiring processes in businesses aren't likely to slow down anytime in the near future, and so it is crucial to get the process right from the outset. A small amount of effort at the start of the process could yield a successful, engaged employee in the long term.