Onboarding New Employees

When it comes to building a strong team that you can trust to keep your business running and growing, it is vital to build an equally strong onboarding program. Employee retention and keeping top talent on your side speaks to your strength, but how so? Furthermore, how can we develop an onboarding program that encourages new hires to become a welcome part of the company?

Why Employee Retention & Onboarding Are Important

For the day to day management of your business to the broader forward momentum, having employees who understand your business and are enthusiastic about contributing to its success is a mark of a company ready to thrive. And the best way to encourage such employees is to ensure that they stay with your business for a long time. As much as fresh blood can bring fresh ideas and new perspectives to your business, a long-standing employee can offer their experience in the market and industry and their intimate understanding of current company processes to keep everything running smoothly, be a familiar and comforting face for regular clients.

An onboarding program not only gives new hires an opportunity to bring their capabilities to the table, but it can also turn them into the kind of lifelong employees who are as much a part of the company’s fabric as the owners. The onboarding process is your chance to earn that hire’s trust as a responsible employer, along with giving them the tools they need to succeed.

What Makes an Effective Onboarding Program?

From the outset, the onboarding process should give the new employee a chance to feel comfortable. It’s important to begin with all the basics and little aspects that you may take for granted, but someone new might not be aware of, such as parking and lunch customs, so that the small things don’t stress and distract your new hire from the bigger picture. Often, it also helps to start the new hire out with some smaller tasks that familiarize them with the technology and tools that you use in a low-stress environment, while offering some early wins, so that they can confidently embrace the rest of their assignments.

Giving them the opportunity to meet the rest of the team and in an open and friendly setting, like a team lunch or other kind of outing/activity, without any questions or conversation that sounds like a continuation of their job interview can encourage friendly working relationships between all employees. The better everyone can get along with each other, the more eager they are to work together and support the company.

It’s important that your onboarding be structured to balance the new hire’s and your company’s needs. For example, the hire will need to have enough time throughout the onboarding process to really understand the company, it’s culture, and their role within it in order to prove their worth. However, you’ll need them to catch up to the rest of the team in a timely manner that offers the results you needed when you first started the hiring process. The onboarding program needs to reflect all parties.

If you’re looking at building an onboarding program but don’t know how to start, then Equation Staffing Solutions can help. With our decades of experience candidate sourcing and streamlining hiring processes, we can help you acquire top-performing candidates and then keep them. If you are looking to fill a permanent position, need a temporary assignment, or even a payroll solution, Equation Staffing has the resources to support your employment goals. Contact us today!

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