How to evaluate the onboarding process in my company?
Assessment for Human Resources
Have you ever wondered if the introduction of new employees to your company is carried out the right way? Do their first days boost engagement? Before you jump to creating a post-onboarding employee survey, try answering the below questions, designed to diagnose the pros and cons of the onboarding process in your company.
Do new hires receive information about the company and the first day of work a few days before?
It’s always a good solution to start the onboarding before the employee even shows up in the company. Emailing information about how the first day of work will look like can significantly reduce stress and anxiety before the big day.
You can equip the employee with a set of information about the company: you can do it for example by granting access to the intranet, the onboarding app, or simply by sending a PDF document. This way, you can start boosting employee engagement even before the first day arrives.
Are all the employee’s questions and doubts resolved before the first day of work?
Are you sure that you’ve discussed all the job details with the new hires before welcoming them to the company? It’s of great importance especially when you hire graduates with little professional experience (see also: Onboarding for newbies).
Employee onboarding
Introduce new hires to the company culture effectively and foster the knowledge-sharing.
Improve the process and communication.
Is the new employee’s workstation ready before his arrival?
According to the CareerBuilder research, 38% of companies don’t prepare workstations for new employees properly. Having no access to the computer, system, even the desk or any other element of basic equipment makes employees think that the company is chaos, or even that no one cares about him or his work!
You can prepare a simple checklist to verify if everything’s ready a day before the employee arrives at the department.
It’s also a good idea to prepare a Welcome Pack: a set of company’s gadgets that will allow the new hire to feel like a part of the “family”. You can also add something extra for the employee’s loved ones to make them think that his workplace is cool from the very beginning!
Does the employee know what to do during the first day and is the schedule quite busy?
It’s the sad reality in many companies: during the first day of work, the employee spends half of it doing absolutely nothing or reading the company’s documents and website over and over. This kind of the first day at a new job makes employees come back home tired and discouraged.
A well-planned first day of work allows the employee to start the new job with engagement and enthusiasm.
Does the employee know the go-to person for every issue from the very beginning?
The possibility to contact coworkers regarding any issues that the employee might have makes the onboarding faster. For instance, in the tomHRM onboarding app, you can assign to every task an employee responsible for helping the new hire.
Has the employee completed all the necessary training?
Not only the compulsory (e.g. safety training) but also other training meant to equip the employee with skills needed to work effectively.
Is the employee familiar with the company’s organizational structure and employees?
You can carry out this introduction on different levels: starting from the company’s structure and employee list, ending with more detailed information about the team.
If your company is using the tomHRM system, then employees can view the profiles of all coworkers in the team or the whole company, read their descriptions, information about responsibilities and work experience. New hires can also update their own profiles (if you enable self-service).
Does the employee have access to all essential information regarding the company’s rules?
From the dress code, to instructions such as how to book a conference room and how to send time off requests?
A convenient way to gather this kind of information is a company’s wiki or intranet. You can also make use of new hires’ frequently asked questions.
Another good solution is a knowledge base full of less important, but extremely helpful information: nearest shops, restaurants and menus, smoking lounges, etc.
Does the employee know the company’s mission, goals, business environment and objectives for the future?
Regardless of the job position, this sort of information helps employees adapt to the company and foster their engagement. You should familiarize the employee with:
- the role his job position has in the overall company structure,
- the company’s mission and history,
- how his work contributes to the company’s growth.
This knowledge should be provided to the employee over a few days to make sure he doesn’t feel overwhelmed.
Does the employee have a clear understanding of his goals?
One of onboarding’s main objectives is to prepare the employee to work effectively and achieve full productivity quickly. To make it possible, the employee needs to know what are the expectations regarding his performance: what are the goals and the time expected to achieve them.
Have you conducted an onboarding survey during or after the process?
You can carry out a short assessment as soon as after the first day or week, and then after one and three months after the employee’s start of work.
When was the last time you’ve improved your onboarding program?
How companies improve their onboarding programs? (according to CareerBuilder)
- The last changes were made over 3 years ago (over 10% of companies)
- Changes made during the last two years (19%)
- We’ve implemented changes this year (49%)
- We’re improving it constantly (22%).
Companies that improve their onboarding programs on a regular basis tend to analyze trends inside the organization way more efficiently and can deal better with employee turnover.
Have you responded YES to all the questions, and you constantly improve and update your onboarding program? Well done!
