As business leaders and industry trailblazers, it is imperative that companies empathize with their newest hires and do everything in their power to make sure their first day on the job leaves a positive impression of the company’s culture and values.
This is because the onboarding process directly reflects the company culture, and it all starts with the first impression. It should create a sense of belonging and rather than just a sense of working for the new hires. Moreover, it needs to go over and beyond just being a meet-and-greet and be both technical and relational in nature.
An onboarding process’s eventual goal is to aid the newest hire to reach the greatest level of success as quickly as possible. If your new hires imbibe the company culture thoroughly and are successful at the start, it translates to the firm’s long-term overall success.
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Through the adoption of forward-thinking onboarding processes, companies should seek to create a welcoming environment through the building of relationships.
Employee Retention and Satisfaction
Periodic studies have shown that over 50% of the people who leave their jobs leave within the first year itself. This points to the notion that if companies conduct ideally smooth onboarding processes, the chances of shepherding new employees through that tough first-year increase manifold.
Also, numbers put forth by Bamboo HR also heavily suggest that employees who felt their onboarding was effective were 18 times more likely to feel committed to their organization than those who found it ineffective.
And if that was not enough, a recent study by The Society for Human Resource Management also stated that nearly 70% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for a period of at least 3 years if their onboarding experience exceeded their expectations.
Retaining employees for the long haul should be an ingrained value in every company’s culture, the seeds for which are laid out right from the onboarding process.
Smooth Integration into Company Culture
It is fairly crucial that every new employee quickly becomes an integral part of your company’s social life. A particular meta-study of 70 separate studies found that feeling of belongingness and being socially accepted at work marked an important milestone in a new hire’s success.
Therefore, onboarding programs must emphasize a new hire’s seamless integration into a company’s culture. Newly hired employees should feel comfortable reaching out to fellow colleagues for help during the initial days.
While it is not hard to comprehend that workers who have a friend in the office are more likely to stay engaged, there is still a lot of improvement that needs to be actuated into the onboarding front.
HR Perception
Human Resources (HR) paints the very first impression of the company when onboarding new talent. It is during the onboarding phases that the new employees first witness the inner workings of your organization and draw conclusions and expectations for their coming days.
HR’s capability in ensuring a valuable first-day, first-week, and first-month experience for incoming talent goes a long way in impacting the company culture. From an employee’s perspective, effective onboarding develops positive perceptions of both your department and the organization as a whole.
And this is why onboarding is one of the most influential HR programs company-wide. It helps shape the perception of the employee in the right direction and makes him/her commit to the organization for the long run.
Since HR determines whether the working culture will be upheld across the organization consistently, the onboarding initiative crops up as the foundational basis for maintaining the right environment.
Role of Onboarding Software
Companies usually end up deploying user-friendly onboarding software in order to prevent the onboarding process from being a boring encounter. This valuable addition to the HR arsenal greatly enhances the orientation process and creates a streamlined and hassle-free experience for the employees.
Simply put, a good onboarding software benefits administration by essentially offering an all-in-one HR platform leading to a great first impression on the new hires. Memorable first-day experiences, and onboarding of new hires within a matter of minutes instead of days, make for long-term returns for the company.
Integrating the right onboarding software into your HR workflow will remove manual work like filling out lengthy forms and carve out time and space for more valuable things like face-to-face contact.
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And since all of the information is stored in a centralized location, it can be retrieved at any point in time with the click of a button. Such automation standardizes the entire orientation and onboarding process and ensures that the valuable experience is spread evenly across the board.
Conclusion
It is wrong to think of onboarding as a quick way to get forms signed and have mandatory training completed under time constraints. Even though operational tasks have to be completed when a new employee starts, a thoughtful and well-planned onboarding program can stand for so much more.
Right from the moment a candidate is extended a job offer, he/she starts forming opinions about the company at every step of the way, about how much they are valued and how much they can achieve in this particular setting.
And therefore, incorporating some necessary steps will drastically affect your company’s culture in a positive way. You’ll start to witness growing professional relationships and people will feel comfortable working in proximity to one other. Individuals who are working as a team toward a common goal, rather than fending for themselves at all times. When employee morale is at an all-time high, retention is an easy outcome, and subsequently, people will want to be a part of the culture you’ve strived to create.
However, all of it can be boiled down into one simple question directed inwards: What is the company culture you want to portray to any new person that enters this bubble?
For example, just by integrating the best payroll software and installing effective onboarding mechanisms, companies can easily streamline and automate so many administrative nightmares. And such moves stem from an inherent company need for lower staff turnover, high-performance levels, and higher job satisfaction.
