The Importance of Employee Onboarding

What is onboarding? Is it simply the process of integrating a new employee into an organization? Is it the process of transferring knowledge and skills to new employee so that they can effectively contribute to the organization? Well, it’s much more than that.

It is easy to create an onboarding presentation deck and speaker notes. But it’s not all about the content; it’s about the experience; it’s about how people feel at the end of the day. Do they feel connected and comfortable? Are they excited and energized? Have you instilled a feeling of pride in them to be associated with the organization? These are all critical elements of an employees’ engagement and long-term success at your company.

It is critical to break the initial ice to build an experience. To accomplish this, you need to conduct energizing activities that will get new hires instantly connected and involved.

An onboarding process is your best opportunity to get new hires on the right track and within the shortest possible time. It should be top priority. You need to onboard your new hires to various components of the organization such as the corporate culture, organizational values, the leadership team, and their team.

4 Reasons Why Employee Onboarding is Important

1. Employee onboarding can help build confidence.

Starting a new job is difficult. Many a times, a new role does not meet the job description entirely. And more than often, employees don’t know a single soul in the new organization.

2. An effective onboarding reduces the learning curve for an employee.

Simply handing over a manual or running them through a deck on the first day is not practical. The more comprehensive the training, the better time-to-value for new hires.

3. It provides valuable feedback.

Onboarding is a continuous learning process and feedback is critical. And what better feedback than from the people themselves who are taking the training?

4. An effective onboarding builds a social circle

Peers play a huge part in motivation. The faster a hire is engaged, the stronger are their chances to stick around.

How do you plan for an employee’s first day on the job?

The pre-boarding process is an excellent way to strengthen employee engagement even before onboarding new hires. Every person who is about to join a company would have questions on their mind. How do the managers treat their employees? What will the work culture be like? What is the training plan?

A pre-boarding video or microsite will serve as a huge opportunity to impress your new hires by clearing their doubts and confusions even before day one.

Learn more about how to build a successful onboarding process from Chief Learning Architect Arun Prakash.