Poor onboarding leads to high costs and dissatisfied employees. Both can be avoided! Learn now from the typical onboarding mistakes and how to make it easier for new employees to start in the company.
A new job is exciting for everyone involved, both for the newcomers and for the existing team. To ensure a smooth start, the first four weeks are crucial. Because especially during the getting-to-know phase, many employees reconsider accepting the job. Often, the reason is a poorly organized onboarding process – and that costs money! Especially when the effort ultimately proves to be futile.
Poor onboarding ranks among the top three most common reasons for resignations during the probation period. – Survey by Softgarden eRecruiting GmbH
The solution: a well-structured onboarding that prepares your new employees well, welcomes them to the team, and does not overburden other team members at the same time.
But first, let’s talk about the hard facts!
Why is good onboarding so important?
Not only we at blink.it are convinced that a successful start in a job is fundamental for long-term employee satisfaction and company success. More than half of all HR professionals believe that successful onboarding reduces turnover and quick resignation rates in companies.
More than 92% of surveyed HR professionals believe that professional and social integration in the company was accelerated or improved by onboarding measures. – Haufe 4. Onboarding Survey 2020
Summary: A well-thought-out onboarding provides …
improved performance
better attachment to the company
less stress for everyone involved
higher employee satisfaction
Note: You can find more information on the mentioned points at Highflyer
You see: Onboarding is crucial not only for new employees to quickly acclimate to the job. It also counts for the entire company, after all, a replacement can lead to the cost of an entire year's salary.
And last but not least, good onboarding is also a strong argument for recruiting! According to the Haufe survey 2020, 70% of surveyed HR professionals could also improve recruiting and employer branding.
Avoid these 3 typical onboarding mistakes
There are some mistakes we continually face in onboarding, even though they can be prevented. Does any of these points sound familiar to you?
1. Poor to no preparation
The time has come: A new team member has been found and the first working day is approaching. In many companies, this seems to surprise everyone again and again; all involved are overwhelmed and it gets hectic. What does the newcomer need? Where should he or she go? What needs to be done? You can save this stress for both new employees and your existing team.
The mistake? Insufficient time is planned for onboarding, new employees are not introduced to the team, and there is a bad atmosphere. All of this naturally creates a poor first impression for new employees.
Tip: Create a fixed schedule with all parties involved before the first working day and plan the most important sessions in a kind of timetable in advance.
2. No explicit contact person
So that the newcomers know from the beginning whom to approach for which questions, you should designate a fixed contact person for the entire onboarding process. This way, it is clear from the beginning who is responsible for him or her. Ideally, this task should be taken on by an employee from the future team.
Tip: A fixed contact person not only provides newcomers with security for specific questions, but also facilitates faster integration into the team. As a result, it is often easier to internalize the corporate culture and internal procedures in the new job.
3. Too little communication and feedback
In many companies, the most important thing is forgotten: regular communication. After all, feedback is important not only for you as a future employer or the team, but it also needs to suit the new employees. To achieve this, it is even more important to communicate expectations and objectives clearly and to provide timely feedback when something is not working. But don’t forget to seek feedback from the new employee! You can take a lot from it for the future, even if things don’t work out in collaboration.
Tip: Plan fixed feedback meetings from the beginning! Ideally every two to four weeks and with different employees.
Finally, let’s talk about the actual contents of your onboarding. It ideally consists of live sessions and a supporting course – completely in the spirit of blended learning. How you make your next blended onboarding diverse is explained here:
Exciting Onboarding: 5 blink.it tips
Good onboarding when starting a new company is much more than just creating a knowledge base. After all, new employees should also get to know the company, its values, and the future team members.
Finally, we share our best onboarding tips that have proven successful for us:
Company quiz: Start before the actual onboarding with short (quiz) questions about the company and its history.
Media mix: Say goodbye to long documents and opt for a media mix of varied digital self-learning phases and joint sessions.
Stories instead of facts: Information doesn’t always have to be dry; try storytelling and creative ideas in your learning content.
Video diary: Actively involve new employees by having them briefly report on themselves and their learnings of the day in a video diary.
Active manager: To ensure newcomers get to know not only their direct teammates, management should also introduce themselves briefly via video.
We have also experienced: Especially during the Corona pandemic, good onboarding was not always easy. In the following article, we interviewed two team members at blink.it about what they liked about their remote onboarding and what they would improve: Successful onboarding despite home office – 2 examples.
