Empowering career growth: 4 things to include in your onboarding process

HR leaders know a good onboarding experience is not just a formality; it's an investment in the success, satisfaction and longevity of employees within the organization.  But many organizations fall short when it comes to creating a positive onboarding experience. “Gallup finds that only 12% of employees strongly agree that their organization does a great job onboarding new employees. This failure gets in the way of the formation of an emotional bond between the new hire and the company -- a connection that can make or break retention” (Gallup, 2022). Onboarding directly impacts the engagement, productivity and the overall perception of the company, so how can you ensure your organization is offering the best onboarding experience possible?  

Use these 4 tips to help shape up your onboarding:

Leverage a digital onboarding platform to streamline processes.

Traditional onboarding processes involving stacks of paperwork and time-consuming manual processes, not to mention these practices are outdated and it’s time organizations keep up with technology. Digital onboarding platforms streamline the entire process, allowing HR teams to manage documentation, training modules, and employee information in a centralized, user-friendly interface. Through software integration, different HR tools can automate routine tasks, freeing up HR professionals to focus on more strategic aspects of onboarding.  

For example, implementing a cloud-based LMS can enable HR teams to create customized training programs, ensuring that new hires have access to essential resources, training materials, and interactive modules. This not only accelerates the onboarding process but also empowers employees to take charge of their learning journey.

Create personalized onboarding experiences for users.

All too often organizations treat new hires like they are the same, but the truth is, every new hire will have a unique experience, even if they are hired to do the same job. Create a welcoming and personalized experience for new employees by developing onboarding portals tailored to their roles and responsibilities. These portals can include welcome messages, introductions to team members, an organization chart and a curated list of resources to help new hires acclimate to the company culture. It’s also important to ensure your onboarding portal is intuitive. Employees need to be able to navigate the portal and find resources easily.  ‍

Incorporate feedback and survey tools into your onboarding process.

Continuous improvement is key to refining the onboarding process. Implementing feedback and survey tools allows HR teams to collect valuable insights from new hires about their onboarding experience. This can be a simple 5-minute survey taken before onboarding, after and after 30 days on the job. Conducting continuous surveys helps new hires feel valued and appreciated. Use this feedback to identify areas for improvement and adapt to better meet the needs of incoming employees.  

Give the onboarding process enough time.

In some organizations, onboarding is cut short. Depending on the demand of the job or the nature of the industry, onboarding can be as short as a few hours of orientation and filling out new hire paperwork. But if your goal is to develop and retain talent, your onboarding process needs to nurture your employees. This typically can’t be done in a day or even a week of onboarding.  

Effective onboarding can take three months, but some onboarding processes extend throughout the first year of employment. This extended process is where tools like surveys, employee mentorship and creating clear career pathways for employees can really help your organization stand out amongst competition when it comes to employer branding and culture.  

Conclusion: Onboarding is more than a checklist of tasks.

The process can make or break the employee experience. We all know the first 90 days of a new hire are the most critical and an extended onboarding process that leverages technology, personalization and employee feedback over time can help increase employee retention and satisfaction.  

Interested in learning what an extended onboarding program looks like? Register for our webinar hosted by Lisa Walters, Head of Training at Iowa Department of Natural Resources and Jen Meyer, Learnsoft COO. Together they will have a conversation about enhancing the onboarding experience and engaging the workforce.  

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