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The most talented, most experienced individuals may not succeed at your company if you can’t effectively incorporate them into your existing work infrastructure.

Onboarding is a critical human resources function, and setting up new hires for success means less turnover and less wasted effort put into the talent acquisition and hiring processes.

Taking just a few simple steps can help make sure that the employees you hire will stick around for a long time.

Have a Framework

All the important processes of a business need to be outlined, and onboarding is no exception. A plan should outline the paperwork that needs to be completed, the type of training that should take place, how a new hire’s progression will be tracked, training objectives and how the entire process itself can be assessed and reformed.

Maintain Open Two-Way Communication

It’s important to let new hires know that the onboarding period is an important time for them to discuss things they don’t understand. If an employee doesn’t understand part of their job or an aspect of the work environment, that lack of knowledge could plague their performance for weeks and months. It’s better to have any awkward conversations right away, while everyone involved is still going through a feeling out process.

Watch Productivity

Companies should be tracking the productivity of new hires, their department and the company from the employees’ first day. This helps a company to see if the new hire is meeting their goals, and how they are affecting the people around them. Tracking productivity also helps a company assess the effectiveness of its onboarding program, which should be boosting productivity by 10 percent or more.

Set Up Onboarding Goals

Laying out a series of onboarding goals for new hires can help them stay focused, and that is important when they are constantly being bombarded with new information. A series of goals that get incrementally bigger can help orient new hires, and it can build up their confidence as they display competence in front of their new peers. Successfully reaching each goal can also help new hires earn the trust of those around them.

When setting these goals, keep in mind that it typically takes new hires around six months to finally get up to speed.

Assessing and Refining the Onboarding Process

If you’re just setting up an onboarding program, you can’t expect it to be perfect right away. On the other hand, if you’ve had an onboarding program around for years, it’s possible that it has become outdated.

Human resources and department managers should be getting together regularly to see what part of the process are working, and which parts need to be reformed. The review process should include interviews from both employees who performed highly after going through the process and those individuals who found it difficult and unhelpful.

At Cornerstone, we work hard to ensure our contract employees fit into our client companies as quickly and effectively as possible. If your company is in need of a custom staffing solution, please contact us today.

 

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