Tips on New Employee Orientation & Onboarding

• Stay in touch with new employees. The better the on-boarding process and follow-up, the more likely you will avoid employee turnover.

• Make sure new employees feel comfortable with their new job. Always have open channels for their feedback and be ready to assist them.

• Identify the employee’s strengths and determine what knowledge, skills, abilities and assignments will complement or enhance them.

• Identify areas where the employee needs to grow and improve to achieve job competencies.

• Schedule and hold a six-month performance appraisal meeting.

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• Give new employees a written job description so they understand their responsibilities

• Provide them with performance goals and objectives for their division and their position, or make sure their supervisor covers this

• Determine a training plan (e.g., compliance, supervisory, professional development), and establish a plan and timeline for training

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• Have the employee’s desk or other work area, and the materials needed to perform the job, set up when he or she comes into work.

• Make sure the employee has a working phone, computer, desk, chair and whatever else he or she may need for the job.

• Set up all computer protocols so the employee can sign on to organization’s Internet, intranet and specific software programs.

• Gather all the proper paperwork a new employee needs to fill out on the first day. (Outside of the usual Human Resources paperwork like department-specific forms—see the next tip about payroll forms.)

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• Make sure new employees have a tour of the office. It’s important for them to get a feel for the company’s atmosphere, and be able to find their way around.

• As you’re touring the company, tell new employees about the functions and services provided by the different divisions so they can understand their part in the whole organization.

• During the tour, current employees can meet the new employee and help make the new employee feel welcome and part of the team.

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• Make the company’s culture, values, mission and strategies clear by providing the new employee with a guidebook/handbook and annual reports that give a nice overview of organization.

• Discuss policies, procedures and other administrative matters, and review safety plans. Include workplace violence policy, sexual harassment prevention policy, workers’ compensation program, affirmative action program, leave policies and the like.

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• Give the new employee basic information about the company (e.g., history and mission, programs and services, working environment, and recreational and community engagement activities).

• Provide new employees with the information needed for them to learn the job. Giving new employees proper training can increase the morale of new workers and reduce turnover.

• It’s okay to use different forms of overview orientation tailored to the different needs of employees, based on their position (administrative vs. engineering, for example). Hold group job-specific orientation sessions if you have more than one person starting in a similar position at the same time.

• Be there when your new employee is introduced to his or her department head (if that did not happen during the interview process). If possible, designate a “buddy” to help him or her get acquainted with the organization.

• Along with making the new employee feel comfortable, make sure that current employees are comfortable with the new worker. Before his or her arrival, inform current employees that there will be a new employee, and tell them what department the newcomer will be in and what his or her job will include.

• Hold a small gathering to introduce new employees or take them out for lunch to make them feel welcome.

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• Confirm your new employee’s acceptance of the position.

• Make sure you know what paperwork is required and with whom the new employee will meet to complete it (e.g., Human Resources, payroll coordinator, benefits assistant).

• Stay in regular communication with your new employees via email or phone during the period between the acceptance and the start date; make sure they understand the conditions of employment and anything they need to do before their new job starts.

• Provide critical first-day information (e.g., when to arrive, where to park, where to report, what to wear, what documents to bring to complete, what the schedule will be).

Questions? Contact me today!