Bringing a new employee onboard is an exciting time for an organization, whether to fill a newly created position or to replace someone who has moved on. But it also comes with some important steps to ensure a positive experience for the new hire. Explore our detailed guide to onboarding that outlines the what, why, and how behind this crucial process.
What is Employee Onboarding?
Let’s start with the what: employee onboarding refers to the process of familiarizing a new hire with the company culture, policies and other details. The purpose behind onboarding is to help an employee feel more comfortable with their role within the company and encourage them to become an effective member of their team.
Boarding a plane can provide a framework for the process. Upon arrival, you typically receive a greeting from a flight attendant or even the pilot, who welcomes you aboard and provides a positive first experience. The flight attendant can direct you to your seat and answer any questions you might have about the upcoming flight.
A new hire should have a similar experience, with someone greeting them upon arrival and serving as their point of contact for questions and concerns. Starting a new job is overwhelming, but proper support goes a long way in alleviating feelings of stress.
Your organization’s onboarding process should seek to achieve the following aims:
Provide guidance about the new hire’s role and responsibilities
Allow the new employee to get comfortable in their work setting, whether in-person or remote
Create opportunities to get to know teammates and each person’s role within the team
Offer insights into the company protocols and policies
Why is Employee Onboarding Vital for Your Business?
The main purpose of onboarding is to create familiarity in new roles while helping newly hired individuals to feel supported, valued and welcomed. Investing in your onboarding process brings many benefits, including reducing the time to productivity, or the amount of time it takes for someone to become familiar enough with their duties to perform them efficiently.
A positive first experience also sets the tone with your company, which can play a role in employee retention and loyalty rates. Employee engagement is another factor impacted by onboarding practices. Failing to onboard someone properly can cause them to feel confused or uncertain about how to perform in their role, resulting in a decline in engagement and productivity.
When your company delivers a smooth and consistent onboarding experience, each new hire gets helpful information they need to do their job. By contrast, a poor experience can encourage an individual to look elsewhere for employment or struggle to become an effective contributor to the company’s goals.
The Benefits of a Great Onboarding Process
As mentioned, a great onboarding process brings many benefits. Review some of the most common ones below.
Increase employee satisfaction and retention
Here’s a statistic that might surprise you: Great onboarding can boost employee retention by 82 percent. According to research performed by the Brandon Hall Group, companies with strong onboarding processes have significantly higher retention and productivity rates. Since turnover is expensive and time-consuming, it’s worth figuring out how to keep your team members.
Employees who are happy in their roles tend to stick around, so this simple process can lead to an increase in both employee satisfaction and retention.
Enhance and instill your organizational culture
The culture of your business influences the atmosphere in the workplace and how team members interact with one another. But if you don’t take the time to educate on the culture when bringing on new hires, they won’t know what to expect. Make sure to include discussions around the organizational culture in your onboarding process. By doing so, you can make sure new employees understand what’s expected and how to collaborate with their teams.
Improve training time and productivity
A strong onboarding process should include plenty of opportunities for training to help each new hire understand their role. According to Glassdoor, newly hired employees need close to 12 months to achieve their full productivity levels. But improving onboarding can decrease the time from hire to full productivity by up to 70 percent.
It makes sense to get your new team members up to speed faster, and doing so can help your bottom line.
Gather feedback for improved processes
The best source of feedback for the success of your onboarding process is the people who are going through it. But without a consistent process in place, you won’t be able to glean much from your new hires. When every employee goes through the same onboarding practices, you can ask what worked and what didn’t, using the information to improve the way you bring on new hires.
The Consequences of Poor Employee Onboarding
Failing to onboard new hires in a consistent and positive way comes with real consequences for your organization. Explore some of the most common drawbacks associated with poor onboarding practices.
Higher employee turnover
High employee turnover is a serious problem that impacts businesses of all sizes and across all industries. Poor retention is expensive and time-consuming, and it can cause employee morale to decline across all teams. When certain employees are constantly left picking up the pieces of high turnover rates, they may look for employment elsewhere. It’s not worth the risk – invest in onboarding and watch retention rates go up.
Confusion and lack of collaboration
When starting a new job, it’s easy for an individual to feel overwhelmed and confused. The goal of onboarding is to mitigate those feelings as much as possible, providing a firm grasp on the person’s role within their department and the company overall. By improving your onboarding process, you can reduce confusion while providing opportunities for collaboration from the start.
Costly mistakes and potential legal issues
Another purpose of onboarding is to demonstrate and outline the company’s commitment to a respectful and positive culture. But failing to do so can cause a drop in the overall culture, potentially leading to employees who don’t understand what’s appropriate. This can create legal issues for your organization, particularly in situations where discrimination or harassment are permitted to go unchecked.
Depending on the industry you operate in, a poor onboarding process can also lead to costly mistakes that impact the company’s standing. For example, financial organizations are subject to strict legal requirements. But if an employee doesn’t understand those requirements and how they pertain to their role, they could make errors that cost your company a lot of money in penalties and fees.
Longer training and lower productivity
A longer and less consistent training process comes with a cost. New employees will take longer to reach peak productivity, which has a direct negative impact on your company’s bottom line.
What Should Your Employee Onboarding Process Look Like?
We have a full onboarding guide with steps and a checklist on our blog, but here’s a look at what a great process should include.
Employee Onboarding Begins Before the Hire
Your process should begin before you bring on the new hire. Identify what steps you want to take when onboarding and create a detailed list for your hiring managers and supervisors to follow.
Pay and benefits
Make sure to assess the pay scale for each position you’re filling and offer transparency about how an employee can move up. You should also consider which benefits a new hire will be eligible for and when they can sign up, covering this information when they come onboard.
Consider interviewing and hiring practices
Before you hire a new employee, you should conduct interviews to determine which applicant is the best fit for the role. Decide whether you’ll host interviews in person or virtually. If the position is remote, a virtual interview probably makes more sense (and saves a lot of money).
Another aspect to think about is how you’ll make the chosen candidate an offer of employment. Do you have an offer letter template that’s ready to go? What about an acceptance letter or form?
Preparing for a New Employee’s First Day
After you have an accepted offer in hand, it’s time to start planning for the new hire’s first day at work. Create a detailed schedule for at least the first week. You can build in short periods of downtime during which the employee can review what was covered in the previous training sessions. Make sure they are meeting with someone throughout most of each day, so they know who to go to for each session.
Figure out what supplies and equipment the new hire needs to do their job and prepare each item. If they need access to shared drives or logins established, take care of these steps before they start. Scrambling to get someone access to a drive or file can make your onboarding process more stressful and impact the person’s feeling about the company overall.
New Hire Orientation
Make sure you orient your new employee to their team and other employees with whom they’ll interact. Complete all necessary documents, ideally online before they start, and go through the policies and procedures outlined in the employee handbook. Take some time to provide equipment training and show your employee how to get into their accounts.
Things to consider:
It’s valuable to put yourself in the new hire’s shoes and consider how they might feel during the first few days of a new job. It’s always overwhelming to begin in a new role, but proper onboarding can lessen those feelings and provide a more positive experience overall.
Assign a buddy to each employee, preferably someone on their team. This person can be the go-to for questions that come up and serve as a source of support during the first few weeks or months.
Ongoing Onboarding
While your formal onboarding process may only last for a few weeks, a new hire should have regular check-ins to make sure they feel confident in their role throughout the first year. Offer ongoing training opportunities and check in on how collaboration is going with their team. Ask for feedback so you can improve the onboarding process for future new hires.
How the Right Software Can Improve Your Onboarding Process
Managing all aspects of the onboarding process manually is a waste of time and resources, especially in today’s digital age. It’s worthwhile to invest in software that makes it easier to find and bring on new hires.
What is Employee Onboarding Software?
Employee onboarding software is designed to improve efficiencies throughout the process of bringing on a new employee. It often has tools that allow applicants to complete their employment paperwork online, as well as a centralized source for finding resources and information.
The Benefits of Employee Onboarding Software
ApplicantStack is a powerful applicant-tracking system that includes robust onboarding tools. These include:
Automated checklists: Assign tasks to users and new hires to create checklists and track progress
Electronic documentation: Allow for the completion of Form I-9, I-4, and other crucial documents electronically
Document storage: Keep all your company’s critical documents, including employee handbooks and signed forms, in a centralized location
Templates: Use existing templates or create your own to keep everyone on the same page
Reporting: Standard and custom reports make it easy to keep tabs on the onboarding metrics
Hire import: Applicant data flows throughout the system, eliminating the need for duplicate data entry on those you choose to hire
Reminders: Automatic reminders keep managers and new hires in sync, reducing the risk of tasks falling through the cracks
When you’re ready to amp up your onboarding process, try ApplicantStack to make sure it goes as smoothly and consistently as possible. You can try it for free, with no strings attached.
If you aren’t already background screening your job applicants, you’re probably at least aware of its heightened importance in today’s recruiting and hiring landscape. But what you may not be as familiar with is the intricate network of federal, state, and local regulations impacting background checks and the information employers use to make hiring decisions.
How can organizations like yours continue to find top talent while adhering to the required guidelines? By partnering with the right background screening provider.
With the help of our friends at Verified First, we’re exploring how a background screening provider can help you stay compliant while accomplishing your recruiting goals.
Compliance Requirements Employers Need to Know
With a myriad of regulations that impact background screening, it can feel impossible to keep up. Since these regulations can vary based on a candidate or employer’s location, industry, and even company size, it’s essential to stay current. Some laws restrict the timing of when you can run background checks while others regulate the type of information you can use.
Later, we will discuss how a screening provider can help you manage your organization’s specific industry and location screening requirements. But first, let’s explore some federal guidelines that pertain to all background screening programs.
Fair Credit Reporting Act
The FCRA is a federal guideline that protects the information collected by consumer reporting agencies. The rules imposed by the FCRA include:
Informing a candidate that a background check is being performed
Obtaining their consent before conducting screening.
Employers must also provide applicants with a copy of the report if requested.
Ban the Box and Clean Slate Laws
Ban the Box laws are statewide, aiming to remove barriers to employment for applicants previously convicted of crimes. Ban the Box laws, also referred to as fair hiring laws, impact when an employer can ask about an applicant’s criminal history or run a criminal background check. These laws have expanded to multiple states and individual cities in the recent past.
The EEOC enforces laws that prohibit employers from discriminating against applicants based on race, gender, religion, sexual identity, age, disability, and national origin. This means when making hiring decisions and background screening, you must comply with the federal laws that protect applicants from discrimination.
How a Background Screening Provider Helps Manage Compliance
For many HR professionals who feel overwhelmed by screening requirements, partnering with a background screening provider may be the best way to ensure compliance. Federal laws, such as those outlined above, are likely applicable alongside other state and local requirements. This web of laws grows even more complex if your organization is hiring in multiple locations.
A background screening provider has the knowledge and expertise to manage and navigate the required ever-changing federal, state, and local regulations so you can focus on finding the right candidates. Here’s how the right screening partner can help your organization maintain compliance and streamline hiring efficiency:
FCRA Disclosure and Consent
A background screening provider should manage disclosing background screens and receiving consent from potential candidates, as required by the FCRA. With the Verified First and ApplicantStack integration, you can easily order a background screening without having to leave the hiring platform, and send and receive electronic disclosure and consent forms from applicants. Verified First will also send a copy of the report to applicants, if requested.
If the candidate or job location is in a state with additional disclosure requirements, Verified First can provide the additional state-specific disclosures based on how the screening is ordered.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
The right screening partner can help support DE&I practices into your recruitment and hiring process. Here’s how a background screening provider can reduce organizational bias and help you comply with anti-discrimination laws:
Adjudication matrices that show search results relevant to the position
Fast and accurate screening conducted by unbiased specialists
Compliance and legislation monitoring
Adverse Action
There are guidelines for nearly every interaction a company has with their employee — from recruiting and hiring to promoting and even terminating them. These guidelines also apply to how you handle not hiring a candidate based on the results of their background check.
If your organization decides to not hire someone based on this information, you must comply with a process known as adverse action. The right background screening provider will help you handle the adverse action process, including:
A pre-adverse action notice, which allows candidates to review their background check report, provide necessary context, or dispute inaccurate information.
The industry standard waiting period, typically between 5 and 7 days. During this time, you can review the candidate’s response and make a more informed decision.
A final notice, which explains your final hiring decision to the candidate.
Why Verified First and ApplicantStack
Working with a background check provider can help your organization comply with local, state, and federal legislation when hiring and bringing on candidates. Partnering with a screening company can also help prevent applicants from feeling like they were unfairly treated based on inaccurate or incomplete information reported on their background checks.
Via a simple, patented browser extension, you can utilize the ApplicantStack and Verified First integration to streamline talent acquisition from start to finish. With this one-click integration, users can order, review, and manage Verified First’s background screening solutions all within the ApplicantStack platform.
Struggling to find the right person for an open position using your old recruitment methods? It’s time to consider gig workers.
The standard “9 to 5” work setup is no longer the norm. Before the pandemic, 36% of the U.S. workforce – that’s 57.3 million people – was part of the gig economy, per Statista. By 2024, that number is expected to increase to over half of all workers – almost 77 million people. With the labor market continuing to favor job seekers, many more people who got a taste of flexibility and independence are recognizing that their skills and experience might be better suited to gig work. And, your current recruitment strategy needs to reflect that.
So, what exactly is a gig worker, and why should you consider this growing pool of talent in your recruitment strategy? Let’s take a look.
What Is a Gig Worker?
Imagine an individual who opts for flexibility and control over their career by taking on short-term projects or tasks, rather than committing to a full-time position. This is the essence of a gig worker. Often referred to as independent contractors or freelancers, these professionals are increasingly making their presence felt across various industries.
People choose gig work for a variety of reasons. Some crave the independence to juggle work and personal commitments, while others view it as a chance to dip their toes into different fields or refine their specialties without taking on irrelevant roles or responsibilities.
Gig workers earn their income based on the projects they complete or services they render, without the specific perks that come with full-time employment. Some examples include freelance writers, rideshare drivers or consultants hired on a per-project basis. Gig workers generally don’t qualify for benefits reserved for full-time employees, such as access to an employer-sponsored health insurance plan or paid time off. But those who choose this type of work may seek other benefits.
The Gig Economy vs. Traditional Employment
The gig economy operates in stark contrast to traditional employment models. A gig economy worker isn’t an employee of the companies for which they provide their services. Instead, they’re hired for specific tasks and paid accordingly, often at rates they set themselves. While many will choose the gig life full-time, some decide to do freelance work alongside their regular employment as a source of extra income.
Employees, on the other hand, have a formal relationship with a company, receiving a salary, benefits and traditional job security. An independent contractor falls somewhere in between, hired for set projects and possibly receiving some benefits. The main distinction between employees and contract workers lies in their level of autonomy and control over their job, as well as their exception from labor law protections and other employee rights.
While some gig workers appreciate the freedom that comes with being their own boss, others might yearn for the stability and advantages that traditional employment affords. Understanding these differences is crucial when considering gig economy workers as part of your recruitment strategy.
Why “Gig” Work Appeals To Many
The gig economy offers numerous perks for both workers and employers. Workers often enjoy higher pay rates and better work-life balance, as they can decide when and how much they work. Meanwhile, employers can benefit from:
A pool of expert talent for specific projects without long-term commitments
Cost savings from eliminating employee benefits, office space and payroll taxes
None of the training or education necessary for full-time employees
The ability to tap into talent worldwide, potentially increasing diversity and round-the-clock availability
Of course, the gig economy isn’t without its drawbacks. Job security and benefits can be hard to come by. However, many gig workers find that the uncapped income, flexibility and professional growth outweigh these concerns. While it means developing a continuously revolving recruitment process and comes with its own separate set of costs, recruiters may find that a mix of gig and employed workers can be a boon to their company.
Adapting Your Recruitment Strategy for the Temporary Workforce
It’s essential to adapt your recruitment strategy to effectively find and manage gig workers as the gig economy continues to expand. To help you navigate this evolving landscape, here are some actionable best practices for hiring freelancers:
Leverage digital platforms: Utilize job boards, social media and any gig platform like Freelancer, Upwork and Fiverr to reach a broader audience and connect with potential gig workers.
Do your research: Thoroughly vet any freelance worker before hiring them. To reduce the likelihood of attracting scammers, look for workers who have an excellent reputation and a proven track record of success (real reviews from real clients).
Offer competitive compensation: Analyze industry standards and offer competitive pay rates to attract top talent.
Provide clear project guidelines: Make sure to outline the scope, goals and requirements to minimize misunderstandings and provide a smooth working relationship.
Be transparent about expectations: Clearly communicate project range, deadlines and compensation to ensure both parties understand their responsibilities.
Provide consistent work: Gig workers appreciate clients who can offer a steady, reliable supply of projects, building a commitment to a long-term working relationship.
Streamline the hiring process: Use tools like ApplicantStack to manage and track your gig recruitment efforts, making it easier to find, hire and onboard gig workers.
Maintain open communication: Arrange regular check-ins and establish feedback channels to keep gig workers engaged and ensure their needs are met.
Offer skill development opportunities: While gig workers may not seek advancement within your company, they often appreciate the chance to learn new skills and refine their expertise. Consider offering cross-training or workshops related to their field to help them grow professionally.
Build a strong reputation: Gig workers are more likely to work with clients who have a solid standing for treating freelancers fairly and valuing their contributions. Encourage reviews and testimonials from satisfied gig workers to establish trust with potential hires.
Incorporating gig workers into your talent pool can be a strategic move for your business. ApplicantStack can play a crucial role in streamlining your recruitment process and effectively managing your relationships with gig workers. With its intuitive tools and features, ApplicantStack enables you to recruit with ease, ensuring you make the most of the opportunities that gig economy work has to offer.
The importance of the onboarding process cannot be overstated. The steps your company takes will set the tone for the overall employment experience for each new hire. A positive onboarding experience can also lead to improved job performance, increased efficiency, and better satisfaction, which all play a role in engagement and retention. If you’ve been using an unstructured approach and want to improve it, this post is for you.
What is Employee Onboarding?
Employee onboarding is the process of assimilating the new hire into your organization. It includes transactional operations and person-to-person engagement. When building onboarding process steps, include the following:
Paperwork – gather tax forms, contact details, direct deposit, benefits, eligibility online, certifications and licensing such as CDL
Planning – create a plan that’s organized and deliberate with frequent check-ins
Introductions – connect new hire with team and broader workforce
Questions – make it easy to ask questions via virtual channels
Shadowing – video conferencing or other means for live but not necessarily in-person, on-the-job training
Team building – offer formal and informal ways to build rapport and common cause
Office equipment and software – procure and set up equipment
Meeting participation – set up Slack, Teams, calendars, video conferencing, etc.
Face-to-face – meet regularly but not necessarily in person
How Onboarding Can Make or Break the Employee Experience
The quality of onboarding influences everything that comes next! If your hiring process was effective, your new hire starts with high expectations. They are eager to dive in. Effective onboarding meets the expectations of an employee who had a great recruiting process. It continues to shape the employee experience.
Best practices for onboarding include creating a process that:
Is structured
Is personal and tailored to the new employee
Establishes brand loyalty
Helps the new hire be successful
Improves collective team morale
Unstructured employee onboarding can dampen employee engagement quickly. A too-short onboarding process can leave the new hire unprepared to perform their job.
The purpose of onboarding should be setting new hires up for success and decreasing the time it takes for them to become comfortable in their new roles. This only works if onboarding processes are designed strategically with the end goal in mind. But onboarding has become even more challenging with the rise of remote and hybrid work.
The Aberdeen Group (a market research firm) reports sobering statistics about the state of onboarding:
31 percent of new employees have quit a job after less than six months
53 percent of employees said they could do their job better with improved training
Only 32 percent of employers have a formal onboarding program
6 percent of self-labeled “disengaged” employees said they got poor training or no training at all
5 percent of new employees said they didn’t understand what was expected of them until they had worked 90 days or more
In 2019, Gallup reported that only 12 percent of employees strongly agreed that their employer does a great job of onboarding. In the study, researchers identified five common onboarding problems:
No one takes ownership of the process
Onboarding is too short
Onboarding doesn’t reflect the company culture
New hires don’t see a future at the organization
The onboarding process is unremarkable
Employee Onboarding Begins Before the Hire
Well before you can onboard a new employee, you need to create a position listing that generates interest and encourages top talent to apply. Think about what a potential new hire would want when creating job descriptions and establishing parameters.
Consider Benefits and Pay Scale
Compensation and benefits are two of the top priorities among jobseekers. If your organization’s benefits are lackluster, you could lose out on talented individuals who seek employment elsewhere. Low pay is also a reason to walk away from a potential position or offer. Make sure your positions are competitive in terms of what employees receive and how those benefits compare to what they could get working elsewhere.
Review Interviewing and Hiring Practices
Consider how your company will conduct interviews with top candidates and handle other steps in the hiring process.
In-office vs. Virtual Interviews
Interviewing is a key step in the hiring process, as it allows those involved to get to know the potential employee and what they would bring to the role. Similarly, an interview offers the candidate the opportunity to understand the expectations, culture and work atmosphere. You may choose to conduct interviews in person, especially if you’re hiring for an in-person role. But if you’re seeking candidates from various locations or hiring for a remote position, a video interview can certainly suffice.
Offer and Acceptance Letters
When you find your ideal candidate, the final step is making an offer. It’s best to provide an offer letter that outlines pertinent details in writing, such as the position title, expected work schedule, compensation, and benefits. Your offer letter template should include next steps and a place for the individual to indicate their acceptance of the offer and include their signature.
Your Employee Onboarding Checklist
Proper onboarding doesn’t happen by accident. Like any HR workflow, you need a list of tasks and a way to make sure everything gets done. With the right steps in your process, you can ensure the onboarding process checks all the boxes.
Preparing for a New Employee’s First Day
After the offer is accepted, you can start the onboarding process to help your new hire feel prepared for their first day. A digital new hire portal is key for this step. A two-way system allows the manager and HR team to share documents, which the new hire can review, sign and return.
Carefully Plan the Schedule
Your next step in the onboarding process is creating a schedule for the new hire. This plan should outline who the new employee will meet with and how they will spend their time over the first few days on the job. Provide the schedule digitally and, if the new hire will work in person, print a copy and place it at their workspace.
What Equipment and Supplies will be Needed?
It’s also essential to plan ahead to ensure your new hire has what they need to succeed from day one. This step demonstrates the importance of every employee and their needs while allowing them to get up and running upon arrival.
Prepare the computer, mouse, monitor, workspace, and any other equipment and supplies they might need in advance of the first day. You should also prep any tech-related must haves, such as a mobile or desk phone, tablet, and access to shared devices and drives.
How Can You Go Above and Beyond on the First Day?
If you want to really make your new hire feel excited about their new role, go above and beyond to make the first day more meaningful. Produce a company-branded welcome kit that outlines key information about the organization and their team, along with details about benefits, protocols, and expectations. In-person employees may also feel extra special if you host a team lunch, where members of the department can get to know each other in a more laid-back setting.
What Communications Should Occur Between Acceptance and Start Date?
As soon as a new hire accepts an offer, communication can begin. Create a letter that welcomes them to the organization and directs them to a point of contact for questions or concerns. If your new hire does have questions, follow up with a phone call to make sure they got answers. You could even put together a video that welcomes the new hire to the team or collect encouraging, positive messages from their co-workers to share prior to their start date.
New Hire Orientation
The next phase of onboarding involves orienting the employee in their role and with the organization overall. Explore the steps involved in new hire orientation.
Welcoming a New Employee
Help your new hire feel welcome by having their workspace ready for their arrival. If you’re welcoming a remote hire, greet them with a video or phone call. Make sure their team knows when they’ll be arriving so they can say hello and help them feel excited about the new role. It may be worth assigning an onboarding buddy to serve as a companion, guide and go-to for questions during their first week.
It’s also helpful to keep your new hire informed about any in-person needs, such as where to park, any dress code requirements, and how to access the building. Establish their logins and credentials so they can get up and running right away.
Essential Paperwork and Documents
Of course, part of the onboarding process is taking care of business in the form of new-hire paperwork and documents. If possible, send these to the new hire in advance of the first day so they can complete them on their own time. Filling out a huge stack of hand-cramping forms can put a crimp in the flow of onboarding.
Some of the key documents to complete often include:
Tax forms
WOTC forms
ACA forms
Benefits enrollment
Direct deposit and payroll details
Emergency contact information
Safety instructions
Timekeeping instructions
Employee Handbook: Policies and Procedure Orientation
An employee handbook is a key element of any onboarding process, as it outlines the information covered and allows employees to reference it when needed. Take a few minutes to orient the employee to the handbook, focusing on where to find specific topics and details. You may choose to go through the entire document together, depending on time and how you want the meeting to flow.
Your company’s employee handbook should outline business objectives, expectations, and policies and procedures that apply to all team members. It can also include logistics of employment, such as pay periods and paydays, work hours and scheduling details, and any timekeeping requirements.
Team Orientation
Orienting a new hire to their team is just as important as orienting them to the organization, if not more so. After all, their team members will be the people they interact and collaborate with on a daily basis. Think about how you could help the new hire feel welcome in a positive and exciting way. You might schedule a team lunch or outing to help everyone feel comfortable and relaxed outside the office.
Orientation Checklist
Here’s a quick wrap-up of what to include in your orientation process:
Greet the employee (in person: in the office lobby or at the front door, remote: video or phone call)
Provide an office tour, pointing out key spaces: workspace, break room, restrooms
Review key documents (if you provided new hire paperwork in advance, you can collect the completed documents)
Review policies and procedures (employee handbook, benefits and enrollment options, safety regulations, rules around technology and equipment usage)
Answer questions (establish a key point of contact for questions)
Schedule a team get-together (lunch in or out of the office, outing outside of work)
Things to Consider
Starting a new job is overwhelming. Think about how you can make it less so for your new hire. For example, you might include 15-minute breaks throughout the day to allow them to decompress and go through what was covered during the previous training session.
Don’t forget to assign an onboarding buddy to your new employee. Having someone the new hire is familiar with and feels comfortable asking questions can make a big difference in the overall experience.
Ongoing Training and Checkpoints
After the first few weeks, your employee should start to feel more settled and established in their role. But the process doesn’t end after that happens. Explore some of the key tasks to tackle as the employee settles into their duties.
Have a Clear Plan for the First Few Months
One mistake that many hiring managers make is failing to create a plan or schedule beyond the first couple of days. It’s unlikely your new hire will know exactly what to do after meeting with team members and training for a week. Make sure to outline a clear plan for the employee’s first few months in their role. Taking this step will keep everyone on the team aligned while helping the new hire understand what they’ll be responsible for in the coming weeks.
Regular Training for New Role
Ongoing training and development are among the most-requested benefits, as many employees want to improve their skills and continue to move upward in their careers. Offering regular training can help satisfy this need in a way that also benefits the organization. A more skilled employee can take on new responsibilities and oversee other team members while remaining loyal to the organization. It’s a win-win, so think about how your company can offer additional training opportunities.
Team Integration and Collaboration
Depending on the culture of your organization, you may choose to spend extra time integrating the new hire into the team and encouraging collaboration. Businesses with more collaborative cultures tend to benefit from additional ways to integrate, such as spending time together outside of work and getting to know team members on a more personal level. Other factors to consider when deciding how to handle this are the personalities of members of the team, personal responsibilities that may take up their free time, and how different roles will work together.
Collect Feedback to Improve Processes
As you move through the steps in the onboarding process, make sure to request feedback all along. It’s impossible to improve a process if you’re not aware of what people like and dislike about it. If you feel you aren’t getting honest responses, consider creating a survey that allows people to respond anonymously.
Outline Potential Career Path for the Future
Another aspect of bringing a new hire onboard is looking at how they can move up in the future. For most members of the workforce, the option to progress is important. Outlining progression paths and opportunities can also boost employee retention, loyalty, and productivity.
Ongoing Onboarding Checklist
Stick to this checklist with each employee, even after the initial onboarding process is complete.
Schedule regular check-ins (set aside chunks of time regularly throughout the first 90 days to see how things are going and find out if they need anything)
Assign training for their job tasks (provide them what they need to succeed)
Identify paths for progression (employees who want to move up tend to be motivated by clear paths)
Request feedback (you can’t make improvements if you don’t know what works and what doesn’t)
Best Practices for Perfecting Your Onboarding Process
As you continue to refine your company’s onboarding process, you can incorporate these best practices.
Onboarding Process Should be Consistent and Documented
Regardless of role or department, every new hire at your organization should have a consistent experience when coming onboard. Make sure your managers and leaders have access to a checklist used across the company, and a clear understanding of the expectations when bringing on a new hire. Document each step in the process and maintain that documentation in the employee’s personnel file.
Regularly Collect Feedback for Improvements
As mentioned, you need feedback to understand where you can improve the process. Throughout every step of the onboarding process, make sure to ask new hires what they liked and disliked about the experience. You may find that certain steps aren’t as necessary, while others would benefit from expansion.
Utilize Onboarding Software for a More Efficient Experience
An all-in-one software solution can make a big difference in the overall onboarding process. Using this type of solution keeps everyone involved and provides a digital space to keep records. It’s even more efficient if your hiring software includes onboarding features, as the data will flow from the initial application to the onboarding process without the need for manual entry.
Good onboarding tech is invaluable. With onboarding software like ApplicantStack Onboard, you can import new hires from your ATS into your HR system once. The data flows from the initial application to the onboarding process without the need for manual entry. Within the Onboard module, you can build customized onboarding checklists for each job position or work location.
Elevate Your Employee Onboarding Process
Exceptional onboarding can be an important competitive advantage and the benefits will compound over time. If your company doesn’t have an applicant-tracking system in place, ApplicantStack can help your team streamline the onboarding process and provide a better experience for new hires.
Basic Onboarding Checklist
Before First Day
Send welcome email and new hire paperwork
Ask new employee if they have any questions and answer them with a phone call
Share company information
Company directory
New hire’s email address and login information instructions and login credentials for company software
Notice of upcoming company events
Employee handbook
Provide new hire paperwork–specify which documents need to be signed and returned along with the due dates for completion
Tax forms
WOTC forms
ACA forms
Benefits enrollment
Direct deposit and payroll details
Emergency contact information
Employee handbook review
Policies and procedures
Safety instructions
Timekeeping instructions
Set up all necessary equipment
Get the employee’s computer, mouse, monitor, etc., ready
Prep any tech-related must-haves (mobile or desk phone, tablet, access to shared devices and drives, etc.)
Job training
Send email with links to training documents or videos
Share schedule for the first week (or longer)
Outline projects and goals for first month (or longer)
Assign an onboarding buddy to be a companion and guide during the first week
Send email with parking and building access info, reminder of dress code (if applicable), and work schedule
Notify all staff of the new employee and the day they will start
Establish any necessary logins and credentials
Assign onboarding tasks to appropriate people and monitor progress with your onboarding checklist
Create schedule so each team member can meet with the new hire during the first week
Plan get-to-know-you activity with new hire and their team
On the First Day
Greet the employee
Provide an office tour
Point out key spaces: workspace, break room, restrooms, gym (if applicable)
Review key documents (if you provided new hire paperwork in advance, you can collect the completed documents)
Employee handbook
Benefits and enrollment options
Safety regulations
Rules around technology and equipment usage
Provide a welcome gift: company-branded water bottle, apparel, office supplies, etc.
Answer questions
After the First Day
Assign small projects to new hire to help build confidence
Schedule regular check-ins
Set aside chunks of time regularly throughout the first 90 days to see how things are going and find out if they need anything
Assign training for their job tasks
Request feedback
Maintain communication between HR, hiring manager and mentor to discuss new employee’s progress
Check out other posts in our How to Hire Employees series:
Did you know that 95% of job seekers who click on a job ad will never finish filling out an application? Since the cost per click increased 54% in 2021 and 43% the year before, according to Appcast, the cost of losing the attention of candidates has skyrocketed. In order to cut through the noise, a positive candidate experience is becoming increasingly critical to drawing and retaining top talent.
The Pillars of a Positive Candidate Experience
A successful candidate experience is built on several key elements. Together, these factors help create an environment where each job seeker feels valued, respected and motivated to pursue opportunities with your organization. More recently, these three pillars have become a focal point for many employers:
Candidate-focused job application: Write clear, concise and engaging job descriptions that accurately reflect the role’s responsibilities, requirements and career potential. Be sure to highlight your organization’s unique selling points and employee benefits. A well-written description not only attracts the right job candidate but also helps them understand how they can contribute to your organization’s success.
Inclusive hiring practices: Develop and implement inclusive hiring practices that promote diversity and eliminate potential biases, including using a dedicated talent board and diverse platforms to advertise a job opening. These standardize interview questions and train your hiring team in diversity principles. You can foster an inclusive environment that appeals to a wide range of applicants.
Post-interview follow-up and closure: Provide timely follow-up and closure to each potential candidate after an interview, regardless of whether you make an offer. Informing candidates of their status promptly shows respect for their time and effort, leaving them with a positive impression of your organization. Give constructive feedback if you can; they’ll appreciate the candor and it helps maintain an open line of communication for future opportunities.
Empowering Your Employer Brand Through a Positive Candidate Experience
Understanding the connection between a better candidate experience and employer brand is essential for success. A strong brand communicates your company’s values, culture and commitment to employee growth and satisfaction. Showcase these qualities and create a desirable image for potential team members.
To make the most of candidate engagement, incorporate it into your marketing. Encourage prospects to share their positive experiences with your company, both online and offline. Use testimonials, success stories and social media to showcase your commitment to giving candidates a great experience. This not only reinforces your brand reputation but also helps spread the word that your organization is an excellent place to work.
Measuring candidate experience is another part of continuous improvement. One way to gauge success is using candidate experience surveys. They provide valuable feedback on your hiring process and help identify stages of the recruitment process to enhance.
How to Implement a Candidate-Centric Hiring Process
Many traditional hiring methods are failing to deliver the desired results. According to Linkedin, 73% of hiring managers find it challenging to discover the right talent for their company. Many recruitment issues can be resolved by reworking strategies around candidates, rather than expecting candidates to adapt to outdated processes.
Here are some of the ways to achieve this goal:
Simplify your application process: Keep your application form short and user friendly, asking only the most relevant questions to avoid overwhelming job seekers. Appcast reports that in 2021, nearly 70% of job applications were submitted via mobile devices. Make sure your listings are mobile-friendly to make it easier for applicants.
Prioritize communication: Keep each applicant informed throughout the recruiting process, sending timely updates on their application status and providing clear next steps. You can reach candidates where they are, on their devices, by staying in contact via text.
Utilize technology: Use an effective applicant-tracking system to improve the candidate experience by automating tasks, optimizing the hiring process and ensuring a seamless application venture.
Personalize the experience: Tailor your candidate communication to reflect the applicant’s specific skills, background and interests. Show that you have taken the time to review their application and understand their unique qualifications.
Demonstrate your company culture: Share information about your company’s culture, values and commitment to employee growth and satisfaction in the job description. Candidates should envision themselves as part of your organization and have a strong incentive to join.
ApplicantStack plays a pivotal role in shaping a positive candidate experience, setting your organization apart from competitors. Quicker feedback, a personalized candidate journey and inclusive recruitment practices allow you to attract and retain top talent with ease. Harness the power of ApplicantStack to elevate your hiring and onboarding process and strengthen your employer branding, ultimately securing a diverse and highly skilled workforce that will propel your business forward.
Nearly 80% of U.S. employees worry that they’ll lose their job during a recession, according to Insight Global. Yet, 57% of the workforce reports still looking for better pay and benefits – something fewer employers offer during financial uncertainty. In times of economic turbulence, unemployment becomes a widespread concern among job seekers, affecting their decision-making processes and performance during job searches. This anxiety can arise from several factors such as economic instability, high interest rates, inflation and rising living costs, all of which influence job security perceptions.
A tight labor market further exacerbates this fear for potential employees, while employers may struggle to secure top talent amid increased competition and a rapidly changing work landscape. As the number of remote and flexible job opportunities continues to grow, job seekers may find it more challenging to secure stable, long-term employment. Understanding the causes and consequences of unemployment anxiety is crucial for both job seekers and recruiters to navigate these challenging times successfully and for the latter to create tailored recruitment strategies that address job seekers’ concerns.
Job Insecurity: Causes and Effects
Fear of unemployment is a multifaceted issue that stems from various sources. Some of the most common factors contributing to this anxiety include:
Job insecurity: The volatile nature of specific industries and the ever-changing job market landscape can make employees feel uncertain about their long-term prospects in their current positions.
Economic instability: Fluctuations in the economy, coupled with recessions or downturns, can lead to increased concerns about job security, as companies may downsize or implement hiring freezes.
Lack of job opportunities: In competitive job markets, job seekers may feel overwhelmed by the scarcity of available positions that match their skills and experience, further fueling their fears of unemployment.
Personal experiences: Individuals who have faced job loss (or know someone who has) can become more apprehensive about their job security and the future of demand for their job.
Media influence: News reports and social media discussions highlighting high unemployment rates, layoffs and struggling industries can heighten job seekers’ concerns about their own job security.
These worries can take a toll on job searchers’ mental well-being, leading to a range of adverse consequences such as:
Anxiety and stress: The uncertainty surrounding job protection can cause job seekers to experience heightened anxiety and stress, which can negatively impact their employment search efforts and overall quality of life. According to the American Institute of Stress, job insecurity is one of the top reasons people experience workplace anxiety.
Loss of confidence: Prolonged periods of job-seeking or experiencing multiple rejections can diminish self-esteem, causing previously hopeful individuals to doubt the worth of their abilities and qualifications.
Depression: The emotional strain of unemployment anxiety can sometimes lead to depression, further hindering job seekers’ motivation and ability to engage in productive job searches.
Performance issues during recruitment: The fear of unemployment can cause employment candidates to underperform during interviews or assessments due to nervousness or a decline in confidence in their capabilities.
By acknowledging and managing the fear of unemployment, job seekers and recruiters can work together to create a more positive and successful recruitment experience that benefits all parties involved.
The Employer’s Role in Addressing the Fear of Unemployment
To effectively address the fear of unemployment, employers should adopt a more empathetic and compassionate approach in their hiring processes. These efforts can include offering support and resources to job candidates and implementing initiatives to create a more secure and comfortable environment during recruitment.
Here are some measures hiring managers can take to ease any fears among job candidates and make the hiring process less anxiety-inducing:
Communication and support: Regularly communicating with candidates throughout the hiring journey can help alleviate their fears and provide reassurance. Offer resources such as resume critiques and interview coaching to demonstrate commitment to a candidate’s success. It’s also useful to stay in contact with applicants rather than leaving them wondering if (or when) they’ll hear from you.
Job stability: Highlighting the company’s resilience and long-term growth plans can give candidates confidence in the potential employee’s job security. Sharing success stories and the company’s employee retention statistics can also be reassuring.
Holistic recruitment strategies: Leveraging social media platforms for advertising and recruiting efforts can help companies connect with a wider pool of prospects. By showcasing the company culture and values on platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, managers can create a sense of transparency and trust.
Skills development and career growth: Promoting potential opportunities for professional development, training and career growth can help candidates to feel more secure about their long-term prospects with the company. Outlining clear career paths and advancement opportunities can help show applicants that there’s a future for them within the organization.
Inclusive benefits and perks: Companies should consider offering a comprehensive benefits package that appeals to a diverse range of candidates. Such a package may include child care support, mental health resources and wellness programs, in addition to more traditional benefits like health insurance and retirement plans.
By implementing these measures, employers can create an environment in which job candidates feel more secure and less anxious during the recruiting process. Focusing on transparency, communication and holistic recruitment strategies allows recruitment managers to effectively address the fear of unemployment and create a more positive experience for job candidates navigating the job market.
Enhancing Your Recruitment Strategy With Software and Technology
A well-planned recruitment method is essential for finding, attracting and retaining top talent. With rapid advancements in technology, hiring managers have the opportunity to improve their recruiting efforts by utilizing software and tools designed to optimize various aspects of talent acquisition. Here’s a deeper look into how technology can improve strategic recruitment:
Automation and efficiency
Technology can help automate repetitive tasks such as screening resumes, scheduling interviews and sending follow-up emails. By automating these functions, recruiters can save time and focus on more strategic aspects of evaluating whether a candidate is a good fit with the company’s culture and their potential for growth within the organization.
Enhanced candidate experience
A smooth and user-friendly application method can significantly improve a candidate’s experience and perception of the company. By using technology to make it easier for a job seeker to apply, you reduce the likelihood of losing top talent due to cumbersome application procedures. Make sure to assess whether applicants can use their mobile devices, as mobile applications have skyrocketed in the recent past.
Data-driven decision making
Advanced software and tools can provide valuable insights and data analytics that help companies make more informed decisions throughout the recruiting process. By analyzing key metrics such as time to fill, cost per hire and candidate source effectiveness, you can refine strategies and focus on the most successful channels for sourcing top talent.
Social media and online presence
Given the growing importance of social media and online platforms in recruitment, companies need technology that can help them effectively manage their online presence and engage with the passive candidate. Tools like LinkedIn Recruiter and Facebook Jobs enable a proactive hiring manager to target and connect with a potential employee who may not be actively seeking new opportunities.
Improved collaboration and communication
Recruitment software often includes features that facilitate better communication and collaboration among team members involved in the hiring process. With the ability to share notes, track progress and centralize candidate information, hiring teams can work more cohesively and make better informed decisions.
Diversity and inclusion
Technology can play a significant role in promoting diversity and inclusion in the recruitment process. Advanced algorithms and AI-powered tools can help identify and eliminate potential biases in job descriptions, resume screenings and interview assessments. By promoting a more equitable recruitment strategy, companies can attract a diverse range of candidates and foster a more inclusive workplace culture.
Remote and global recruitment
The rise of remote work has created new opportunities for companies to dip into the global talent pool and access skilled professionals located around the world. Recruiters can connect with candidates across geographical boundaries using video conferencing tools and virtual hiring events to conduct interviews and assessments, allowing them to tap into a broader range of skills.
ApplicantStack: A Powerful Tool for Your Recruitment Strategy
ApplicantStack is a comprehensive recruitment solution designed to streamline the hiring process and improve the efficiency of recruiting efforts. Through its wide range of features and integrations, ApplicantStack can help you optimize your recruitment strategy in several ways:
Customizable job application forms and questionnaires ensure that you collect necessary candidate information.
Integration with popular job boards and social media platforms broaden your reach and attract more applicants.
Advanced search and filtering capabilities help you quickly identify the most qualified candidates.
Mobile-friendly applications allow potential hires to submit their information from their devices.
Automated workflows streamline communication and following up with candidates, keeping them engaged throughout the process.
Analytics and reporting tools help you track key performance metrics and optimize your recruitment strategy based on data-driven insights.
ApplicantStack offers powerful and comprehensive tools for optimizing your recruitment efforts, allowing you to attract and retain top talent in a competitive job market. By embracing these technological advancements, companies can stay ahead of the curve and maintain a strong employee brand, ultimately leading to long-term success and growth. Additionally, providing support to potential new hires throughout the process can ease fears and keep everyone feeling positive about the future.
