The best employee onboarding process

This article is part of our Process 101 guide.

Your employee onboarding process sets the tone for your relationship. It makes sure your employee knows who you are, where you’re going, what matters, sets expectations, plus all the logistics, like performing background checks and ordering equipment.

With beSlick it’s easy to set up an employee onboarding template for use in your HR team. For each new member of staff you simply create a task from the template, assign the steps to the relevant people and track progress using the report function.

1. Write it down: it doesn’t matter what you write, what order you write it in, or even if you miss things, but just write it down. Now you have a starting point to improve upon.

2. Involve the team: you could perform an employee survey asking what the best things were about their induction, or what they think would make someone entering the business feel welcome.

3. Invite your peers to collaborate: ask other managers across the business to contribute, adding/deleting steps, re-ordering things, attaching templates for the pre-joining letter or presentations they share with new starters – after all, this needs to be a template onboarding process that can be rolled out to any person, at any level in any department.

4. Make the process visible to everyone: it’s no use having a complicated flow diagram locked away on a shared team site on your intranet that no-one ever looks at. Find a way of making your process known to everyone, and simple for them to follow.

5. Encourage feedback: processes are a moving target and should be continuously improved so that your new employee experience gets better and better. Get the team to share their favourite restaurants in town for that first day lunch. Ask for ideas on what other goodies to put on the desk with the biscuits – a cup of tea in a branded mug?

Step 1: Once employee has accepted, confirm the first day logistics

(What time to turn up, who to meet, where to park etc.)

Step 2: Add employee to HR systems

Step 3: Validate original documents and certificates (passport, qualifications etc.)

Step 4: Obtain checks (such as DBS, Right to Work etc.)

Step 5: Order equipment

This could include items like keys, fobs, laptop, monitor, keyboard & mouse, desk & chair, and mobile phone.

Step 6: Set up email address

Step 7: Set up access to systems

Don’t forget to consider both your third-party systems (e.g. SalesForce, Xero, SharpSpring) and internal systems (e.g. access to the website backend, SharePoint, G-Suite)

Step 8: Organise training

This should include training about your product/service and your company, but could also include specific training on the systems you use.

Step 9: Communicate to staff

Step 10: Assign work

Ensure their line manager has a copy of the job description and has an induction plan of what needs covering in their first week.

Step 11: Book HR induction

Your new employee will need to know what happens with payroll, absence, requesting holiday and health and safety in the office. You will also need to register them for benefits, including pension enrolment.

Step 12: Update the org chart

For example, via the intranet, or a new person board.

When a new employee joins your organisation, it’s your chance to show why you’re the most fabulous company in the world, so throw everything you can at it. You might be tempted to set parameters, such as a budget per head, but all this does is constrain people’s thinking.

Tell your team that anything is possible, and they’re empowered to make it happen, and you’ll see the ripples throughout your organisation. Your team isn’t stupid, they’re not going to run off and book a luxury cruise for everyone. But they might book a night out in an escape room with dinner and drinks, which as well as providing the ultimate onboarding experience:

• Keeps your wider team happy, motivated and feeling like their contribution matters
• They’re likely to post about it on social media, which positions you as a great company to work for and builds your reputation
• The new employee is more inclined to give you a top-rated Glassdoor review
• It’s a great team building exercise and demonstrates that anyone new isn’t a threat
• Demonstrates your company values at play

If you have ambition to be the best, the secret to success is onboarding a great team that want to make your vision a reality.