Thought Leadership in Action

Onboarding is one of the most crucial times in an employee’s life cycle with your company. Every interaction you have with new employees can reinforce their decision to work with you — or start giving them second thoughts.

“One in three employees are already thinking about leaving your company within their first six months on the job,” says Morgan Chaney, head of marketing at Blueboard, an experiential rewards company. “With costs rising to replace employees, structuring an effective onboarding program is not only a crucial part of your employee experience but also directly affects the health of your employee retention rates, not to mention morale and culture.”

Try these three tips to improve your onboarding process.

1. Start It Early

Employers often fail to put any effort into onboarding until the employee’s first day — and that’s a mistake, experts say. The most important thing to consider when planning an effective onboarding program is that it begins as soon as the candidate accepts the offer, Chaney says. Waiting for the first day of work is too late.

“Employers should take advantage of the employee's downtime or transition time between jobs to give them snackable content about the company,” Chaney says. Information about the company’s history, mission, vision and values in the form of articles or videos is a great way to keep new employees engaged before their first day. In addition, initiate some of the more monotonous paperwork related to benefits so it doesn’t take up time on the first day, Chaney says.

2. Tailor Onboarding for Your Company

It’s easy to download a generic onboarding process from the Internet and use that for your company — but then you’re using a generic process that tells the employee very little about your company. “Onboarding activities should, above all else, be in alignment with company culture,” says Robin Schooling, vice president of human resources at Hollywood Casino Baton Rouge.

Use onboarding as a chance to educate your new employee about what it’s like to work at your organization, and what they can expect in their position. “If you have a fun, free-wheeling and lively culture, then by all means, have a wild and rambunctious onboarding process,” Schooling says. “If, however, you’re a serious and staid business, onboarding activities should be a truthful indicator of what the day-to-day will be like.”

3. Socialize It

When you bring new people into your organization, remember that you’re bringing them in to work with the people at your organization. Your onboarding process must reflect that, says Alisha Morris, director of human resources at Levick, a public relations firm. “Wouldn’t it be great to walk in to your first day at a new job and have it seem as though you are walking into Cheers? What a great first impression that would make,” she says.

To help make that happen, ensure that your existing staff are aware of the new hire’s arrival, Morris says. Circulate information about who the new hire is, her background and who she will be working with. In addition, assign a co-worker to serve as that person’s onboarding pal. “Make sure your new hire has someone, a peer, who they can ask all the silly questions they won’t feel comfortable asking others in the organization,” Morris says. “We have to admit that all offices have office politics, and getting the lay of the land can help a new staff member navigate what might otherwise be a tricky situation.”