Personnel selection is a delicate, time-consuming and expensive activity, but which, unfortunately, alone is not enough to guarantee effective performance.
No employee, regardless of their potential, can do a job if they don’t know what to do and how to do it.
These indications are provided by the orientation / onboarding activity, too often underestimated
The importance of Onboarding for companies and new hires
Onboarding refers to the post-hiring process that involves the insertion of the new employee within the company. Onboarding is of fundamental importance for an organization and is closely linked to employee retention and involvement to ensure good performance over time.
To do this, the strategic objective of this phase is to provide the new employee with all the elements (knowledge, skills and behaviors) to be fully operational and become an integral part of the company, both at an organizational and corporate culture level.
It is a delicate moment that must be carefully planned to facilitate the integration of new hires and minimize the time needed to achieve full acquisition of the role, avoiding their replacement in the short term.
This is because it is precisely during the first few weeks that an idea of the environment in which you will be working is formed, of the colleagues with whom you will have to interact and, above all, you understand how much your expectations correspond to reality.
In fact, according to statistical data, when an employee goes through a structured Onboarding process, he will have a 58% more chance of remaining with the organization after 3 years (employee retention).
The onboarding program can last from a few days to a year, and usually the first part is done by the human resources specialist who is responsible for providing the newcomer with the tools and information to get up and running.
After the first phase, onboarding should be managed by the organization as a whole, in particular by colleagues and direct superiors of the newcomer.
In fact, for new employees, integration, socialization and above all a sense of belonging are greatly influenced by the behavior and culture of their colleague
Experts agree on the fundamental importance of the first impression that candidates have of the company.
The opinion of employees about the company begins to take shape in the first interactions you have with it and it is then difficult to change it, this has obvious consequences both in terms of productivity and on employee turnover. All the efforts and costs incurred for the research of human resources and for their initial training could be thwarted by an incorrect insertion, which can affect the performance of the entire company
All the efforts and costs incurred for the research of human resources and for their initial training could be thwarted by an incorrect insertion, which can affect the performance of the entire company.
Dysfunctional attitudes, disorganization and friction that are generated by the malaise of some employees, especially those whose integration has not been optimal, cause a waste of energy and resources by all the people working in a company and not just those who are carriers of the problem.
In fact, 93% of employees agree that a good onboarding process is essential to influence the decision of a newcomer regarding his stay in the company.
Despite this, as many as 29% say they did not receive adequate onboarding at the time of their arrival.
In fact, it is estimated that almost 10% of discharges could be avoided with adequate placement.
In addition, around 90% of employees decide whether to stay or change the company they are in in the first six months of work.
How to structure an effective onboarding program
Act strategically. The time that elapses between acceptance of the job and the first day of work is a very important period, you need to act immediately in order not to risk losing the resource, frustrating the work of the HR team.
In this phase of Pre Boarding, in fact, the candidate could be contacted by other companies and it is still in doubt whether having accepted the offer was the right choice.
Therefore, preparing a structured program focused on the employee and their involvement is essential:
1 Send a personalized welcome message.
2 Provide all important information about the company, tools and details on the first day of work (pc delivery, photo badges, etc.).
3 Share information on everyday life in the company: breaks, happy hours, dress code, welfare services.
4 Clarify the responsibilities of his job and create the agenda of activities for his first week.
5 Submit a questionnaire to learn more about the new employee (personal tastes, interests, etc.).
6 Automate bureaucratic processes related to hiring (payment methods, insurance policy, etc.)
A dive into the business reality and the importance of the Tutor
The first day must be dedicated to the analysis of the job description, the presentation of the team, a guided and complete tour of the company and the delivery of the welcome kit.
It is essential in this process to choose an internal reference tutor, ready to dispel any doubts of the new employee and answer his questions.
There are several ways to welcome a new hire: be it through a handwritten letter or a call from the CEO
The key thing is to make the new employee immediately feel an integral part of the organization and a potentially valuable resource for everyone.
There is no universally right way; each company has its own style, culture and habits and it is right that these are maintained in onboarding, without forgetting that the insertion process is sometimes a long and tiring path, which cannot be exhausted with a single moment welcome.
Given that the inclusion of a resource significantly influences its sense of belonging and its performance, it would certainly be desirable for all companies to become aware of its importance.