Onboarding is where a lot of employers get it wrong, or ignore it altogether. Doing so can mean all the previous attraction, engagement, hiring process can go to waste.
Successful recruitment has never been that easy. But it has been fairly easy to learn, test, apply, adjust – or as we like to say – optimise.
Knowing your target audience and where they hang out, while ensuring your compensation is competitive, leading with a differentiating and consistent employer brand. Using concise messaging that creates the right reaction, while providing an easy and intuitive application process. The candidate journey will focus on speed, clarity and objectivity all the way through….and before you can say “you’re hired” you’ve, er, hired someone and they’re on their way.
This is where some businesses breathe a sigh of relief. That empty chair will soon be filled, we may have the luxury of a two-day handover, the MD’s calmed down and is off our case now! If anything, this is where the real focus, engagement and energy is needed. In short, onboarding is so much more than just getting their bank details to whack them on the payroll. But this is all some employers do.
The black hole in the onboarding process
That gap between when a new employee hands in their notice at their current company and the morning they show up to work for you. It can be a week, or it can be anything up to six months. Successful new employers fill this black hole effectively, however big it is.
It’s all about engagement; planned, regular, informal. It can start with a mention in the offer letter. ‘Not only are we offering you a job with us but when you’ve accepted and working your notice, these are the initiatives we’re going to work on with you…’ It can be as simple as giving them all the social media channels to follow (if they aren’t already), then giving a shout-out about them as their start date draws near.
Having a mentor before you join can really make a difference. It gives them someone to talk informally to about aspects of the company and the job. They in turn will be tasked with regularly keeping in touch during the notice period. You can even invite them into the business at the end of the day, maybe when their team is heading to the pub. Informal sessions like this help cement the realisation that they’ve made a great career move. Doing this gives a chance to show the office environment; everything from the loos to the coffee machine.
Once the formalities of the offer letter and acceptance are behind everyone, check in again about their training needs, kit, tech, workstation, and ensure all are in hand, in plenty of time. Everything an employer does before the start date and carries through into the first day and first week, will have made the new hire already feel part of the organisation, engaged, enthusiastic, knowledge and motivated.
For sure, we need to have consistency with the employer brand. What we ‘sold them’ at the recruitment stage still needs to feel consistent and authentic when they walk through the door. But in doing so, added benefits appear. They will perform better from an earlier stage and develop a real sense of advocacy, which in turn makes them an unofficial part of the recruitment / referral process, if you want to capitalise on that.
Pre-boarding, onboarding, induction, whatever you call it, make it happen and reap the benefits in so many ways. If you think it’s time to re-think your onboarding process then talk to the experts, and we’ll tell you more. Contact us today or fill in this form for a FREE recruitment marketing audit.
