A properly managed work of employees determines the success of any business, and it takes more than one month to find the workers needed. But even a professional needs time to adapt when coming to a new team. It’s much better if the newbie joins the environment as soon as possible since the rest of the employees also need to learn to interact with the new teammate. This problem is usually solved by the onboarding.

What is onboarding?

Onboarding is a system that helps a beginner to get used quickly to the new workplace, to find out everything about corporate traditions and feel like him(her)self a part of a company.

Each company develops its own onboarding strategy, introduces its own features into the initiation ritual. For example, those who have been recruited in Twitter are expected to have a welcome breakfast with the CEO, as well as a personal e-mail account, a corporate t-shirt and a bottle of wine.

Why do we need onboarding and why is it so important?

Have you noticed how many companies operate in one niche? But one or two firms always take the lead, not just overtaking competitors, but becoming something unreachable outside the competitive race. This phenomenon is explained by the attentive attitude to the company's philosophy and competent building of interpersonal relations within the team around a common idea.

Onboarding is a kind of ritual of dedication. The new employee has the feeling that he has access to something special, sacred, inaccessible to others. He feels that he embeds into a large mechanism, where each “cog” is important, each “detail” works on a common goal, upon achieving which everyone wins.

Thanks to onboarding, a friendly environment is formed within the company, where work is based on mutual assistance, and team leaders are interested in the development of employees, disclosing their talents and potential.

Statistics show that the performance indicators of companies, who actively using onboarding, are 58% higher than those of competitors.

Why is the right onboarding strategy important?

But do not think that it is enough to communicate with subordinates in your own way, and organize corporate parties on holidays. A competent onboarding strategy implies the preservation of hierarchy within the company, strict adherence to subordination. Otherwise, thoughtless actions can lead to unexpected and pity results.

There is no need to reinvent the wheel. You should explore the experience of successful corporations, recruit a third-party specialist or hire an experienced employee. In that case, you can avoid mistakes and develop your own onboarding system, perhaps, sometime your competitors will level on your strategy.

Basic onboarding tools

One of the goals of onboarding is to minimize the personnel turnover within the company. According to the statistics, most of the layoffs accounted for the first 6 months of work. The task of the onboarding program is to reduce this indicator to zero.

The system includes several steps, the first one begins before admission to the staff, at the interview or when receiving a resume from the applicant. Onboarding tools are the welcome letters to new employees, personal workspace, acquaintance with colleagues, office infrastructure, work schedule, and job responsibilities. Those are brainstorming session and planners, where each team member can see the full picture of the work being done at this moment, and their roles in this process. These are refresher courses, coaching programs and corporate training.

Onboarding for each company owner should be a separate item of expenses, which should be considered as an investment in the future of your company. A competent approach will help to uncover talents and develop the potential of employees, save valuable staff within the company and grow your business to a new level.