There is a LOT of work involved in recruiting and hiring talented people. One common mistake many employers make is failing to invest in proper onboarding with newly added team members. Not to be confused with orientation, onboarding is a longer process that ensures you start new employees off right. A strong start to the job plays a large role in their effectiveness, ability to create strong working relationships, and overall longevity with your company. Here are 5 onboarding tips that should be part of your process: 

1. Orientation
Orientation and onboarding are not the same thing. A proper orientation (even an informal one) includes things like a tour of the office and facilities, information on parking, an overview of benefits, and how to access things like employee portals and databases. You’ll need to communicate personal information too like computer log-ins and passwords and instructions for setting up voicemail and email signatures. Orientations should also cover introductions to key members of your team—and if you’re a small company, introductions to your whole team.

2. Training Timetable
Plan what your new employee needs to learn and who will be doing the teaching. Send calendar invites to everyone involved and provide them an outline of specific topics you’d like them to cover. This gives your current staff a sense that you trust them and helps your new hire quickly build rapport with the rest of your team.

3. Schedule of Milestones
Onboarding isn’t finished after the first day on the job—it’s an ongoing process. Creating and scheduling milestones that outline where your new employee should be over the next 30, 60, and 90 days is a critical part of keeping them around! As time progresses, they should begin taking on more responsibility and becoming more proficient at the job.

4. Teambuilding Activities
You spend a lot of time with your colleagues, so forming strong working relationships is a critical part of retaining talented people. It’s important to bring your team together every so often to make sure everyone is on the same page and help people decompress a little bit from the day-to-day stresses of the job. You don’t have to spend money for an event to have a successful teambuilding activity. We love spontaneous trivia contests and a once a month happy hour. When you have a new employee, it's a great time for a teambuilding activity. 

5. Scheduled Check Points
You need to have a pulse on how new people are faring on your team. The best way to do this is to schedule a few check points to talk about it. What is going well for them? What’s not? What would they like to be doing more of? These kinds of conversations are especially important for employees who desire career growth. If you don’t have a pulse on whether they’re happy, challenged, and competitively paid...you run the risk of losing them!

Happy Hiring!