3 reasons for a good employee onboarding

Imagine it’s your first day at your new job. You don’t know where to go and hope everything is ready for you. Well, the problem is - in many organisations, everything isn't ready. And there is a lot of room for improvement. 

Organizations however often don’t have improving their onboarding process ranked highly on their priority list. This is a missed opportunity. These are three reasons why your team should start working on a better onboarding process. 

If you want to know how to work on a better onboarding process, follow this link. 

1. It’s good employer branding

In their first weeks, you colleagues are often asked how they feel about the organization. Your team has a significant impact on the answer given, and subsequently how the employee will talk about your organization to his friends and family. Are their first few workdays quite chaotic? Then you can be certain your new colleague will tell dozens of people.

Did you prepare everything for your colleague’s first workday? Then they will tell a different story. By putting in the extra effort —some flowers or a hand-written card on their desk can be enough— you increase the chance that she shares her enthusiasm on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. This means your brand could reach hundreds of people who’ve never heard of your before. This type of word-of-mouth marketing can be very powerful. Use it to your advantage.

2. …without it costing too much effort

Do you give new colleagues a little bit more attention on their first day? If not, start doing it. You won’t regret it. It’s said that people base their opinion on a first impression, and spend the rest of the time collecting proof to support their opinion. The same goes for onboarding.

When a new colleague has a bad first impression of your organization, he or she will be later on be more inclined to see things that fail as proof that the organization isn’t well-organized. Their view of your organization can be influenced, but this takes time and effort. Time and effort you’re better off putting into other business.

This works the other way around as well. When their first impression is good, your new colleague will see any problems he or she might encounter as an exception to the rule.

3. It contributes to your employee satisfaction

A charm offensive during someone’s first day can be useful internally as well. A first day is a good moment for your team to build a personal relationship with your new colleague. Or, when your team was already involved in the recruitment process, to build on this relationship. A little personal attention will be appreciated and contributes to the positive image the employee has of your HR team.

Paying a visit to your new colleague on the first working day is also a good opportunity for you to explain certain things, or to answer any questions your colleague might have. You lower the threshold for them to talk to the team. This is important, because otherwise you run the risk of him or her holding back questions or complaints, which might lead to them being frustrated about HR. And that’s fatal for your employee satisfaction.

Where do I start?

Getting your onboarding running smoothly seems like a lot of work. But it doesn’t have to be. First off, go get a cup of coffee with your colleagues from other Service Departments. Then discuss setting up a Shared Service Desk. Prepare for that discussion in our video that explains the basics, and the benefits for your Service Desk.