You have just hired several new employees. They are all excellent picks, have great qualification background, skills, and job experience. However, they are not aware of your company policies, protocols, and compliance guidelines. Well, now you need an effective onboarding program to acquaint your new hires with all these.
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It is common for a person to change companies if they feel like within a few years, sometimes within a year. Thus, first impressions are incredibly crucial to ensure employee retention. A standard onboarding program is the first step towards that goal.
So, how would you conduct an onboarding program?
Let us look at some ways of designing onboarding programs. These are some best onboarding strategies that can help you improve your new employee onboarding plan. The article “Remote Employee Onboarding: A Need of the Hour Today” elaborates on the Pre- onboarding Process, Onboarding Process, During and Post Onboarding.
Onboarding Strategies That Actually Work
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Have a Pre-Onboarding Process:
An onboarding program usually begins on the first day and goes on for about 90 days. This process can be daunting for new employees as it involves a lot of paperwork, information overload, and often, employees end up confused with more questions than answers. This process can be made less confusing if a few things are moved to the pre-onboarding phase. The sharing of information like the employee handbook, information about company culture, and employee benefits brochure can be done in this pre-onboarding phase. Also, paperwork like tax information and direct deposit details can be filled to save time spent on these details later. A face-to-face meeting to a call can be scheduled to check if the new hires have additional questions or concerns. It keeps the communication line open and shows the new employees you care about them and their states of mind.
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Make an Impression:
When the organization is not ready with the company onboarding process, it is noticeable to the new hires. Many organizations underestimate the importance of onboarding and do not have proper onboarding initiatives in place. Thus, being ready for the new employees, introducing them to all the team members, and giving them time to acclimatize to the organization is essential.
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Share the new employee onboarding plan:
The employees who feel lost during the onboarding process are usually less likely to remain in the company beyond a few months. It thus becomes essential to share the new employee onboarding plan with the new hires so that they understand what to expect next and are given proper guidance throughout the process. Ensuring that they have a checklist and are on the same page regarding the onboarding plan is crucial.
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Mentoring:
It is another good onboarding strategy that works wonders. Assigning mentors during the onboarding process helps the new hires gain knowledge through sharing and consulting their mentors. Also, mentors can guide them on their career path and in the team’s ways of functioning. Another benefit is that mentors help in building social connections. Many new hires often leave the organization if they have not made valuable social connections and failed to understand its power dynamics. Mentors can also guide the new hires to understand the company culture and gain valuable insight into the workplace.
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Regular Check-ins:
Organizations with regular check-ins with new hires during the onboarding process have a better employee retention rate than those who do not. These meetings provide the employees and the organization to discuss expectations, answer further questions, and address issues if any.
eLearning In An Onboarding Program
You have an excellent strategy for the onboarding of the new employees. But your organization still relies on the traditional methods of training new employees. There is always a TL or manager with little experience with training who conducts the employees’ onboarding and training. When this happens, the new hires would feel confused and have no interest in the entire process. So, even if you had crucial information to share with them, they would fail to grasp it.
With changing times, the organization must also move ahead and adapt. eLearning helps in creating the much-needed interest and engagement in the onboarding initiatives. The organizations can use eLearning modules that cater to different human senses and successfully convey important information. Also, this training can be provided to a much larger employee base when delivered through various means than the usual traditional training methods would.
What Are The Advantages Of eLearning In Onboarding?
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High interest and engagement:
To create interest in the onboarding process, create games that are highly interactive and creative. The new hires should be involved in the content so that they learn and enjoy the process.
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Complete experience:
When training new employees, it is vital to prepare them for each aspect of their job role. This is possible with virtual reality, where real-world situations are created. Virtual reality puts the employee at ease compared to the classroom setting of traditional training and delivers the content by inspiring learning.
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Motivation:
When using gamification in training, competition can be a huge motivating factor to learn and do better. Rewards in the form of trophies and medals can be given in the eLearning modules so that the new hires learn the training material better and are determined to do better than their peers. Many new employees even retake these training modules to understand better and to beat scores set previously.
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Flexibility:
Unlike classroom training, eLearning material can be revisited anytime, anywhere, multiple times. This flexibility helps the new employees learn at their own pace when they are ready without the compulsion of being present on time for specific learning experiences.
Why Is Onboarding Using Elearning Beneficial For Your Organization?
When measuring the success of onboarding programs, the organization also benefits greatly. Besides engaging the new employees in the content and motivating them to do better, eLearning reduces the cost you would pay to trainers for the classroom or other training methods.
Moreover, there is no need to set aside that conference room or the meeting hall for the onboarding. eLearning modules can be accessed through computers, tablets, or even mobile phones, and the new employees need not be in a physical classroom to attend.
What Challenges Will You Face With eLearning during Onboarding?
There are challenges that you will face when wanting to conduct onboarding using eLearning. Let us see what those are.
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Software limitations:
New employees may not have access to the online training modules on their mobile devices. One way around this is to work with flexible software that is sure to work on various devices. The organization would need to invest in such a system for the new hires to train at their own pace.
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Inclusivity:
Organizations must keep in mind that employees with special needs may not have access to the information and make sure that their modules are easily adaptive on assistive tech. Thus, it is an excellent idea to have captions and Alt-text to make it more user-friendly for effective onboarding options for all new employees.
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Internet connectivity:
New employees who need to move around for their work may not always have access to the internet and thus would not access the online training modules as part of the company onboarding process. It becomes essential to invest in offline training modules or content that can be downloaded on the employees’ devices or accessed offline.
Thus, effective onboarding programs play a huge role in employee retention and the new employees’ work quality. If the new hires are provided with enough guidance in their initial days, they can stay and positively contribute to the organization.
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