Onboarding New Employees — GET ORGANIZED!

Today, I sat down with Rebecca Jacobs, OpenView’s events and organizational guru, to talk more about our own firm’s onboarding process.  We quickly realized that the onboarding process is not just about processing paperwork.  What it’s really about is successfully orienting and incorporating your newest employees to your organization and your company culture.  Truthfully, onboarding begins from the first contact with a prospective employee – that first email or call during the interview process – but that’s not necessarily the part companies have the most trouble with.  It’s what happens when the offer letter is signed that most companies tend to breeze right through without much thought behind the process.  A disorganized process could not only let some important pieces of paperwork slip through the cracks, but it could leave your new employees questioning why they joined in the first place.

What are the real benefits of having an organized onboarding process?

• Increased visibility for new hires into the organization & improved employee retention.  If employees feel valued and integrated in your organization, they will feel more capable, happier and satisfied in their new job.
• Increased productivity. Getting new employees the right information, equipment and training they need quickly and logically will improve their chances of becoming more productive sooner.

As a new employee myself, I found the on-boarding process at OpenView to be excellent.  I took a few moments to reflect on the things that made my experience a positive one.  From the employee perspective, here are a few of the small but important pieces that I would recommend an organization incorporate to their process:

• An informal meet & greet outside of the office.  About two weeks before I joined, the team invited me over for a few hours to our studio space.  I had a chance to chat with my future co-workers, including those I hadn’t met during my interviews, and connect with them on “non-interview” topics.
• Getting to see where I would sit before my first day.  Believe it or not, simply knowing that I already had my own spot alleviated some of the uncertainty of my first day on the job.
• An intro e-mail & blog post by a colleague.  Though short and sweet, I quickly felt welcomed and like an important part of the team.
• One-on-one meetings with colleagues from different departments.  These were 30-minute meetings that quickly intro’d me to their work and how my role would interact with them.
• An organized and planned process.  I arrived on my first day and everything was laid out for me.  I had a schedule of events for my first few days, logins and passwords, and my computer and phone was ready to go.

The most important thing to remember is that not just one person or department is responsible for a successful onboarding process.  Although a human resources team will often coordinate new hire orientation and the collection of required paperwork, the true organizational challenge is to get all of the stakeholders involved in and committed to the process!