Your new employees deserve more than a free lunch on their first day. Always think about creative ways to welcome and train your new team members. The employee onboarding experience is your opportunity to extend the interest and excitement of new hires. It can be a touchy time, giving those fresh employees the opportunity to decide if they’re going to stay engaged in the position or fall into the unfortunate bucket of disengaged from the beginning.
A strong onboarding process sets off your employees on the right foot and convinces them to stick around. And who doesn’t prefer a nice, smooth transition into a new position?
What Makes an Employee Onboarding Experience Great?
1. Add Swag to Your Onboarding Kit
Who doesn’t like gifts? Company swag can make employees like part of the team. Welcome new employees with mugs, pens, t-shirts or water bottles so they’re ready to be a champion of your brand. Along with company swag, consider including some office essentials: office floor plan, employee handbook or directory, workplace tech, coupons for the local lunch spot, etc.
2. Mix Up Training Sessions
Gone are the days of terribly dry employee pieces of training. Video is an especially entertaining and engaging way to share information with new employees, while face-to-face and interactive online training sessions are helpful for detailing processes. Discussing the basics of employee dress code? Go for video. Explaining how to complete a project start to finish? Do it in person and make it as interactive as possible.
Before onboarding new employees, however, you need to secure today’s best talent and get them excited to join your team. Reach out to the marketing and creative recruiters at Profiles to find out how.
3. Automate the Paperwork
Don’t make your employees spend their whole first day filling out forms. Instead, send any forms you can to new employees before their first day and automate the filing process. That way, new hires can walk in the door with all of the paperwork done, ready to meet people and start training right away.
4. Ease Their Anxieties
Even the most confident new hires may be nervous about their first day. It helps when employers quell some of those nerves. Make sure there’s someone at the front of the office to greet new employees when they arrive. Introduce them to everyone they’ll be working with and, if possible, give them a list of all employees, including job titles and contact info, for reference as new hires get acclimated.
