So you’ve done the dance, hired the perfect candidate, and are ready to let them work their magic. Not so fast! Have you implemented an onboarding plan to integrate your new hires into the company yet? If not, we strongly urge you to do so. Here are 11 reasons why.
1) Attract better talent
The hiring battlefield is a tough one, and the benefits of an effective onboarding programme can extend beyond the first day of work to help you during the search. Matching pay and benefits is easy; what’s difficult is housing a strong yet welcoming company culture that your new employees will feel at home in. Using your onboarding programme as a portrayal of your company ethos can help you attract more qualified talent.
2) Start the conversation earlier
The onboarding process is the perfect time for new hires to get introduced to company culture and core values, becoming part of the conversation early on. Creating employee engagement at these early stages is conductive to fostering employee engagement in the long run, allowing for employees to feel part of the team as soon as they step their foot in the door.
3) Increase employee satisfaction
Increase employee satisfaction
There’s no denying the fact that we’re more productive when we’re happier. An effective employee onboarding plan can help you ease your employees’ introduction into the workplace and into their teams, allowing for a smoother transition. Making sure that this first impression is a good one can boost employee happiness at these early stages, allowing them to start the experience on the right foot.
4) Boost employee retention
Once you’ve found the right employees, you won’t want to let them go (because let’s be honest, who wants to put themselves through the hiring process more times than necessary?). With a warm and welcoming onboarding plan you can help increase employee satisfaction as part of the company, reducing turnover and making sure that every employee is a valued part of the team.
5) Reduce employee turnover
A good onboarding plan can help reduce employee turnover further along the line as well. Figuring out whether new hires are the right fit for the company during the onboarding process is an effective way of ensuring that voluntary turnover rates will remain low in the long term, boosting morale throughout the team.
6) Build dedication
Onboarding often allocates time for management to speak to new hires about company values. This chance for new talent to meet with senior management is the perfect opportunity to inform recent employees on company vision and goals, making them part of the process and integrating them into the team immediately. Learning more about company culture from higher management can help newer talent internalize the mission statement more quickly, becoming dedicated pieces of the puzzle.
7) Build team spirit
Onboarding is the perfect time for new hires to not only hear from senior management, but also meet with their team members. Getting to know their coworkers in a welcoming non-work setting can help new hires forge better relationships built on trust rather than on common goals. Connections formed during these early stages of integration will often remain strong, creating engaged employees with higher satisfaction and productivity levels.
8) Increase performance
If your employees don’t know what’s expected of them, they won’t be able to fulfill these roles. This is where an effective onboarding plan comes into play by helping new hires gain clarity on the requirements of their roles and the objectives they will be working towards. Combined with satisfaction in the work place, having a clear understanding of goals can work wonders in increasing productivity.
9) Increase business growth
When employee productivity is boosted, so is business growth. If your team is working well and continuously achieving the goals they set out to achieve, company revenue will increase accordingly. Put simply, onboarding can help you make more money by clarifying objectives, improving output accordingly, and boosting earnings.
10) Improve communication
Onboarding will help open up communication channels within your company in multiple ways. First, when new hires are given the chance to meet with team members and senior management in non-work settings at earlier stages, they will feel more comfortable sharing any opinions or concerns at this time as well. And second, employees who have gone through onboarding will be better ingrained in the company culture and will more openly share their thoughts further along the line as well.
11) Boost confidence
An effective onboarding plan is the perfect time to boost employee morale by showing them the ways in which they are essential to the team. This, in turn, will empower new hires to get a better understanding of the company and the job, as well as to recognise ways in which their skills are integral to business growth. Empowered employees perform better at their positions and lead their contribution with increased clarity.
Bonus – a better HR experience!
Implementing a good onboarding programme will make for a better HR experience for everyone by seamlessly integrating new hires into the company. Fostering company culture and forging relationships between employees is a great way of minimizing potential problems later on, optimising the HR experience!
So what are you waiting for? Implement an onboarding plan now! And once you have, don’t forget to check out our post on metrics to measure its success.