Which type of training familiarizes new employees with their jobs work units and the organization in general?

In human resources, onboarding is defined as the process of familiarizing a new employee with the organization. Onboarding begins from the moment an offer is made to the employee until the time the employee becomes a productive member of the organization.

Which type of training familiarizes new employees with their jobs work units and the organization in general?

We dive deep into what employee onboarding is, what each step of the onboarding process entails, why it should matter to people-centric organizations, an onboarding template or checklist you can use to ensure a superior onboarding experience, and automation and personalization as the best practices for onboarding.

Table of Contents

What Is Onboarding?

Employee onboarding is broadly defined as the process of familiarizing a (new) employee with the organizations policies, the employees role in the organization, and the organizations culture. It also involves creating an environment in which the employee is made comfortable enough to interact freely with their colleagues and establish social relationships in the workplace.

Specifically, it involves getting the employee to complete the necessary paperwork for labor law compliance and equipping them with all the tools they need to do their job well. During onboarding, employees learn what the organization expects from them in terms of skills, communication style, and attitude.

We read through a number of research papers and studies on onboarding and its effectiveness. The findings from all of them can be summarized in two key points:

  • Hiring is not only time-consuming, but it is also an expensive affair.
  • Retaining employees depends on how these difficult-to-find employees are onboarded. If they are not onboarded optimally, you may lose them, and that will result in another expensive hiring cycle.

The success of employee onboarding depends on the efficiency of the onboarding program. The quicker employees are empowered to do their jobs, the faster they are likely to become valuable, contributing members of the organization.

Onboarding is not just HRs job. It also the responsibility of the immediate manager, who will familiarize the employee with their role in the company, their performance expectations, and the culture of the team they are going to be a part of.

In addition, onboarding is not only associated with new employees. Employees move laterally into new roles, known as crossboarding (covered later in this article), and they also need to be onboarded following a similar process. While they may be familiar with organizational culture, team culture may be different. While they may be familiar with company policies, they may still need a mentor to guide them through their new role.

Lets move on to what the employee onboarding process entails.

Learn More: 10 Employee Onboarding Checklist Items You Can’t Afford to Miss

The Employee Onboarding Process: How to Onboard Employees

When a prospective employee accepts an offer letter, they officially become a part of the organization. The following steps are what make up the onboarding process.

Which type of training familiarizes new employees with their jobs work units and the organization in general?

Fig 1. Follow these steps to onboard employees

Provide comprehensive information about policies and employee benefits on the employees first day in the organization. The training session or materials should include everything from compliance to insurance to tax liabilities to company policies on leaves and diversity and inclusion.

In this step, also have the employee sign all the compliance forms that formally validate them as members of the organization.

Depending on the country you are in, if digital signatures are accepted on state/federal compliance forms, you can use employee onboarding software to share the necessary documentation with new employees before their first day in the company. This means they can complete all compliance formalities beforehand and become contributing members of the team right from day one.

Using digital signatures is also helpful when you have to onboard remote employees into the company.

2. Provide role clarity

What exactly is an employee expected to do as part of their job? A breakdown of all their daily tasks is important to help them gain clarity about their role.

Who communicates this information? This is the best time for the manager to step into the onboarding process, as they are best positioned to offer a clear picture of what an employees role will involve.

This information should be provided over the first 30 days on the job, as the new employee learns and slowly takes ownership of their role. In this process, it is also important to inform the employee of whom they must collaborate with to get their job done members of their own teams as well as members of other teams along with the reporting matrix for such collaborations.

With an automated solution such as Bamboo HR, new employees can be introduced to members of their team and supporting teams much before they join the organization. These employee onboarding software solutions allow each team member to create an online profile, which a new employee can go through to learn more about their team members. Similarly, employees can create their own profile and introduce themselves to their team members much before they join the organization.

Even in the case of cross boarding, you can share the employees profile beforehand.

The benefit? There is already a certain amount of familiarity and friendliness between the employee and their colleagues right from day one.

3. Facilitate training

Training is part of the long-term onboarding process and is best facilitated by the immediate manager. Even the most experienced employee needs to be provided with a training period to understand how processes function in their new organization or new team.

Companies can start delivering this training even before employees first day at the organization. Basic training materials can be sent across, and employees can be given a breakdown of the tasks they are expected to accomplish through employee onboarding software.

Hibobs employee onboarding software allows HR to set up customized workflows for new employees, giving them a sense of whats in store for them when they enter the company.

Boardon is also a pre-onboarding software that allows you to use the time before the onboarding efficiently.

Freshteam is an all-in-one hiring, onboarding, and employee data management solution that can help you streamline the entire onboarding process.

Learn More: How to Strengthen the Relationship Between Recruiting and Onboarding

4. Induct into organizational culture

Assimilation into organizational culture is an ongoing process. However, HR managers and team managers must give an employee a broad overview of the culture when they join the company.

How can they do this? One way is to make sure that culture is reflected in the company vision and mission statement.

Is your organization output-oriented or outcome-oriented?

How easy is it for your employees to come up to you and discuss a problem theyre experiencing at work?

How open are managers to entertaining non-work conversations?

Define what the company culture stands for, and then ensure this culture is communicated to the new employee.

You can also do this through your onboarding software, which gives new hires direct insights into the team members, the profile of the company, and as a result, an insight into the culture of your organization.

5. Help form social connections with colleagues

While this is not entirely the responsibility of the manager/HR, it is their job to facilitate communication between employees, even if some employees are not very open to integrating. This involves creating an environment where friendships between colleagues are encouraged.

A lot of organizations employ the system of new-hire buddies, where they dedicate one employee to help the new employee navigate the workplace from job-related tasks to administrative queries and everything in between.

However, a Hibob survey found that 49% of the employees surveyed would rather make friends with their coworkers instead of limiting their interactions to their new-hire buddy.

This information, however, should not discount the value of a new-hire buddy. Not everyone is comfortable going up to their new coworkers and forging relationships with them.

If new employees or team members have simple queries like how to work the printer or whom to speak to for an ergonomic laptop stand, a new-hire buddy can help easily. And in the age of AI, chatbots (discussed below) can serve as great new-hire buddies.

Learn More: 3 Ways VR Can Transform Employee Onboarding

What Is the Duration of Employee Onboarding?

In our recent Hibob survey, we found that a majority of new hires spend between two and five hours being onboarded for their new roles, says Ronni Zehavi, co-founder and CEO of Hibob, in an exclusive chat with HR Technologist.

This is the amount of time it takes to get the employee to sign their compliance documents and for a general introduction to the rest of the team. However, the real onboarding begins once this process is over.

A formal onboarding program can range between 30 days, 90 days, 180 days, or a good 365 days. This phase is used to complete all the tasks mentioned in the previous section through an environment of ongoing support.

Ideally, onboarding begins or should begin as soon as the employee accepts the offer letter.

Invite new hires to join internal platforms ahead of their first week so that they can not only get a head-start on reading the employee handbook and policies, but also so they are able to put faces to names, learn about company news, and get involved in social or cultural events at the company such as clubs that bring people together of shared interests helping employees find their niche, recommends Zehavi.

Which type of training familiarizes new employees with their jobs work units and the organization in general?

Fig 2. The ideal duration of onboarding an employee

Though it varies from organization to organization, the amount of time spent on the various facets of onboarding can be broken down into these four phases:

1. One day to one week: Ensure compliance, familiarize the employee with their role

2. One week to three months: Train the employee to perform their job. Familiarize them with their colleagues who are key to their function. Help them get a sense of the culture of the organization.

3. Three months to six months: Evaluate their performance and ensure that they have everything they need to perform their jobs optimally. Take their feedback to gauge their engagement.

4. Six months to a year: The employee should have developed complete knowledge about their role, the market, the company, and the industry. They should have assimilated into the company and company culture.

Employee Onboarding Process Template

To deliver a meaningful employee experience starting right from employee experience and onboarding, you must ensure that you deliver a superior onboarding experience. This can be done by maintaining an onboarding checklist to ensure the new employee has received all the necessary information to start effectively on their jobs.

Below you will find examples of two onboarding templates one for HR professionals, and one for immediate managers. While the onboarding process begins with HR, as discussed above, the process continues with the line manager.

Which type of training familiarizes new employees with their jobs work units and the organization in general?

Fig 3. Follow this onboarding template for new hires and cross boarded team members

Which type of training familiarizes new employees with their jobs work units and the organization in general?

Fig 4. An onboarding process template for managers. For managers, onboarding employees is a longer process than it is for HR.

The priority for day one is to take an employee through all the necessary paperwork and inform them about the companys rules, policies, and background in general.

But a new employee is usually overwhelmed about being in a new place, and it is highly unlikely that they will be able to retain all the information youve shared with them.

As weve seen above, this is where a friendly chatbot can be most effective. It is the chatbot whom your employees can turn to and ask questions without feeling embarrassed about having forgotten or being unable to pay attention during their orientation.

Some of these questions are:

  • How many medical leaves am I entitled to?
  • Can these leaves be carried over to the next year?
  • How often can I bring my daughter to work?

An HR chatbot can be programmed to answer all the questions your employees may have as and when they have them. And for questions it cannot answer, it can be programmed to direct the employee to you, the HR personnel, to answer those questions.

What does this do for the employee experience? Chatbots can redefine the employee experience by creating a comfortable environment for the employee to settle into.

What does this do for you? It saves you the time you spend answering repetitive questions. You can share all the documents you want and all the links you want on company policies, but people belonging to the culture of Googling the information they don’t need to remember. They expect the same experience in the workplace as well.

If you can cater to this expectation, both you and the employee will have a more positive experience at work.

But thats not all. Chatbots with friendly personalities can be designed to query the new employee every so often.

  • Its been three days since you got here. How are you feeling?
  • I notice you still havent set up your self-service account. Would you like me to guide you through the process?

Such conversations help employees feel cared for and included in the organization. It can also help them get acquainted with the workplace faster, making them efficient in a shorter amount of time.

Learn More: 7 Benefits of Creating AI Help Desks for Employees

Best Practices for Employee Onboarding

A lot of employees are likely to drop out of a job even after accepting an offer. This is something you may not be able to control. But what you can control is how the employee experience is defined once an employee enters your organization.

We notice that employee onboarding trends are changing now so that automation and upskilling are becoming the mainstay of the onboarding process, and there is a greater focus on the onboarding experience. While these were rare and found in some companies, now even smaller companies will be compelled to pay attention to the onboarding experience and ensure that they can retain their employees.

These trends are now becoming onboarding best practices. While some best practices are evergreen, others are trends evolving into best practices as we head into the future of work. Lets take a look.

Which type of training familiarizes new employees with their jobs work units and the organization in general?

Fig 5. The best practices that maximize the employee onboarding experience

Often, employees are promised a certain role, but the breakdown of tasks in the job reveals something entirely different from their expectations. In the Hibob survey discussed above, more than 25% of employees shared that they were not given enough information about their job before they accepted the offer. On the other hand, 40% shared that their job was exactly what was described in the interview.

Addressing this problem requires a transparent recruitment process and a transparent interview process as well. Bringing in talent based on job descriptions candidates want to hear rather than what the job actually entails can be the deal-breaker for employees.

Using an AI-powered writing tool such as Textio to write intelligent job descriptions can help you overcome this challenge.

2. Automate and personalize the onboarding process

With technology changing the way we work, live, and interact, no one has the patience to fill in reams of manual documentation on paper. Instead, consider installing an onboarding software that will have basic information to be filled in and the rest flowing in from other data sources. Configure the necessary approval processes into the onboarding workflow so that the new employee is intimated about the completion of formalities.

Measure and analyze how well you are implementing the process through custom alerts, dashboards, and reports. HR must build in the right compliances at the outset to be on track. From document verification to background checks to project allocation and communications, you can streamline the entire process.

Most software comes with automatic reminders, eliminating the cumbersome tracking of to-dos, and allowing you to focus on the strategic part of onboarding. Smart onboarding is a must for a great user experience.

Automating employee onboarding can eliminate hours of administrative work during employees first week. Not only would this enable new team members to hit the ground running right away, but it can also provide a sense of belonging and an opportunity for them to learn more about the company, department and team members before day one.

Onboarding software can also be used to help existing employees learn more about their new team members. Imagine a new employee finding a coffee of their choice from their favorite caf at their desk when they first arrive. This kind of personalization, made up of small but meaningful gestures, can change how employees feel about the company in the long run.

You could even consider a video onboarding strategy to get new employees started off in their job as quickly and comfortably as possible.

3. Action an end-to-end onboarding schedule and stick to it

If you want to make the onboarding process smarter and stress-free, put the best practices into action by using the onboarding template provided above for all that is scheduled to happen during the first week/first day of the employees arrival at the office premises. Share this chart with the new hire as well so they know what to expect.

4. Discuss everything thats necessary and skip what is not

Depending on what the employee opts for (compensation components, benefits, work arrangements, etc.), it is important to demarcate what is a must-do and what is optional under the onboarding program. This will depend on the role and function, and on what the manager wants to be covered.

For example, knowing about the company culture should be a mandate for every employee, but induction on an insurance scheme may not be necessary for someone who has not opted for it.

5. Provide complete company policy information

One reason why employees may be hard to retain is that they did not receive enough information about company policies when they were onboarded. Surprises in the form of pay cuts for leaving half an hour earlier than the end of the workday, or not being informed about the leave policy clearly in advance can put them off. And so, employees leave the organization just about as soon as they join it.

A well-documented employee handbook that is shared with employees at the outset is a great way to ensure that they have all the information they need when they start their new jobs.

This can be delivered through your onboarding platform or even simply through the company intranet. It is a great idea to power your chatbot to answer such queries as well, because not every employee may be able to mentally retain all the policies outlined in the handbook.

6. Provide all the tools they need to do their job

This entails clearing up the space assigned to the employee, organizing access cards, employee IDs, and helping set up the IT equipment. Also, ensure all their communication and employee self-service accounts are created before they arrive on the job.

7. Conduct a meet and greet

It is important to make the new employee feel welcomed as a part of the immediate and extended team. Make sure to have a ready list of staff they should meet in the first few days and block their time to make the meetings happen.

For specific roles, it is important to facilitate a chat with leadership. The fact that senior leaders are taking out time to learn about them makes people feel valued.

A great way to do this, if you have geographical challenges, is by having a video CEO interaction. Other small aspects to keep in mind are inviting new employees or team members to lunch and informing them about the dos and donts of the company. The objective is to extend a warm welcome to the employee so they feel comfortable enough to integrate right from day one.

8. Avoid an isolating onboarding experience

Another key point Zehavi mentions is that new hires commonly report negative onboarding experiences when they are singled out as a new hire rather than being onboarded in a group, as this can create added stress.

It is overwhelming to be the new face in the organization. But a positive company culture and a new-hire buddy can help change this. The support offered by a designated mentor/colleague can ease the stress of being in a new environment. And, as already established, chatbot support can be a game-changer in the employee onboarding experience.

9. Measure onboarding metrics

A smart onboarding system will typically throw up a slew of relevant onboarding metrics to help track the effectiveness and efficiency of the onboarding process. Some of the key metrics to track are costs, engagement levels, training costs, and outcomes for new employees, succession management success rates, and retention.

Some HR departments go one step ahead to calculate the overall onboarding ROI by tying it into performance, development costs, attrition statistics, and talent management initiatives.

All this put together will help you keep the onboarding process efficient as you hire more talent in a tight talent market.

Beyond Onboarding: Crossboarding and Offboarding

As mentioned earlier, crossboarding entails using existing employees for a new role in the company instead of hiring external talent. By training, upskilling or reskilling the employee, the organization empowers them to take on the new role. These employees must be onboarded too, being given information about their new reporting structure, the new skill set they will need on the job, and the new key performance indicators, and handling this transfer into new roles also fall under HRs job description.

Crossboarding

Apart from following the best practices mentioned above, here are three ways to go about crossboarding an employee efficiently:

1. Identify cost gaps and plug them with the right talent

Smart HR managers will always have their eyes on recruitment costs and look an alternative vacancy filling mechanism, where an existing employee with the right talent and fit is made to shift into a newer and expanded role. This empowers the employee while minimizing investments and creating a sense of belonging and ownership.

2. Communicate your expectations clearly

Often, an employee may feel underwhelmed by the change of role. It is important to make them feel that it isnt a step down instead, it is a way to pick up new skills. This is vital to actually invest themselves in the extended role and really deliver.

3. Use your social network

Great HR managers always have their ears to the ground. They pick up current trends, gather data on work frustration, and quickly shift good workers to new roles before they begin to look outward. Relationship-building is at the cornerstone of every HR teams toolbox.

Offboarding

Sometimes, organizations can be a little cold when letting go of an employee. This can create a sense of disappointment and resentment in employees and close off future possibilities of rehiring them. Here are three ways to avoid this:

1. Make memories

No matter the reasons driving the departure, it is important to say goodbye with warmth and a degree of affability that doesnt take away from the first impressions of an onboarding program. Celebrate what the employee achieved, organize a farewell, and talk positively about the employee. Someday, this could engineer a turnaround.

2. Gather feedback

Try to understand what led to the employees exit. Did they experience a job-related issue that could not be resolved? Did they have trouble assimilating into the company culture? A detailed offboarding documentation process is as important onboarding and can help contain future attrition challenges.

3. Enable compliance

It is critical to ensure all security protocols and regulatory considerations are well-maintained even as employees leave the company months (or years) after their onboarding program. A detailed exit management template, timeline, and checklist will make this process foolproof and error-free.

Zehavi mentions, Our data shows that new hires dread adapting to office politics and personalities more than learning new protocol or filling out paperwork. If you find that your office is cliquey in nature, your new hires will notice. An office environment that lacks a sense of inclusivity and community can be extremely off-putting and intimidating for employees who are just joining the organization.

So, can HR change this? Not alone, says Zehavi. In traditional office settings, HR teams do not work as closely with employees as team managers, so it can be difficult for HR to effect change. It is imperative to include culture training for managers, so they are able to create the most inclusive environment possible for new team members.

Formal employee onboarding programs are more likely to drive success because of their structured nature. They help employees familiarize themselves with the organization, its people, and its culture through a series of planned sequential tasks.

While it may be challenging for employees to remember everything at once, it is far better than the sink or swim approach, where they have to figure out what the best way to go about a certain task in the workplace is.

You cannot foresee or avoid some cases of employee turnover, but turnover that arises from poor employee engagement can be controlled. Needless to say, this is by arranging for a positive employee onboarding experience from day one. Just like first impressions matter when you meet people, they matter when employees first interact with the organization as its members.

Whether you onboard employees individually or in groups, it is important to deliver a consistent experience to them. This can be achieved to a certain extent when you automate key tasks and deliver a digital employee onboarding experience such as delivering employee compliance documents beforehand, breaking down their tasks for them, and giving them insights into the teams they will be a part of.

In addition, deploy regular onboarding surveys in the first 15, 30, 60, and 90 days. This serves two purposes. One, it helps you create a consistent onboarding program for all new hires. Two, it helps you learn how your new employees are doing whether they need any help or if they have any specific feedback for you. These surveys can be delivered through a chatbot so that employees can take the survey at their convenience.

Learn More: 10 Best Onboarding Experience Strategies for Your 2020 Hires

The Changing Face of Employee Onboarding

As we head into the future of work, onboarding will begin to involve more than just compliance and integration into the work culture. In an exclusive conversation with HR Technologist, Robert Dvorak, CEO of SilkRoad Technology, a provider of strategic onboarding and workforce provider solutions, said that onboarding is not just for new hires. It extends to the entire workforce.

Stressing the importance of continuous learning, he said, HR leaders must prepare their entire workforce not just new hires with the skills they need, and continually onboard them to new roles of business value and relevance. These new skills include critical thinking, active learning, and an agile mindset to build sustained relevancy to their organization and their career [emphasis added].

So in the employee onboarding process, while it is essential to ensure that your employees are happy with the culture they are being brought into, it is also essential to engage in continuous onboarding to help them stay relevant in their jobs. A positive and technology-enabled onboarding experience will result in higher engagement and high performance and productivity on the job much faster.

What is your understanding of the employee onboarding process? Are there any additional steps and measures you take to ensure a smooth, positive onboarding experience? Share your tips with us on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter. We would love to know what you think!