What is Onboarding?

What is onboarding, and how is it vital in a company?

Onboarding is the process where new hires acquire the necessary tools, knowledge, talents, skills, attitudes and behaviors to become contributing members who make a tangible difference to the organization. You could say it's a lot similar to training a new employee to learn and understand the systems of a company!

Employee onboarding helps new hires physically, mentally, and professionally integrate into the operations and culture of your business. Ensuring that formal training and processes lead to successful onboarding, which in turn can ensure that your company will operate like a well-oiled machine by the time they've successfully assimilated into your business!

But what's the difference between onboarding and orientation? Employee onboarding refers to any action that helps new hires understand how things work in their new work environment, get acquainted with the company culture, and feel welcomed and valued in their team. Orientation, on the other hand, is the first step of onboarding. It’s when new hires learn the basics of their environment.

Having an effective onboarding program has a broad classification of benefits for both the organization and the new hire, so to keep it simple, here are some (of the many!) benefits of onboarding:

• Onboarding new hires effectively can improve your company’s employee retention and reduce hiring costs.
  
  
• New hires reach full productivity faster. If new hires go through a well-developed onboarding process, they’ll be quicker to settle in their role and start producing value for their team.
  
  
• It can lessen the employee stress. Starting a new role can be stressful for new employees. So having proper onboarding can reduce the anxiety and stress that their new hires feel by welcoming them to the team and providing all the tools and information required to do the job. 
  
  
• An onboarding program creates a level of trust that will persevere during the employee’s entire duration with your company.
  
  
• Build awareness about employee benefits and perks offered to employees by the company.
  
  
• Onboarding provides businesses with the opportunity to help employees to become engaged in the business culture.
  
  
• Create a clear picture of the new hire’s roles and responsibilities within the organizational setup.
  
  
• Give new hires opportunities for growth in the form of rotational assignments, cross-training and platforms to showcase their ideas, skills and talents. 
  

Also keep in mind that having a well defined onboarding process is essential! It's important to set expectations and goals from the very beginning. Here are some ways to ensure that an onboarding process is streamlined:

• Create a welcome package and make sure to keep communicating with them and show that you’re looking forward to having them on board.
  
  
• Give the new hire a company walkthrough and introduce them to their colleagues.
  
  
• Provide the new employee with a checklist of all the onboarding activities you have planned.
  
  
• Ensure your new hire has enough basic yet meaningful work to do from the very beginning. Take note that the onboarding process doesn’t end after the first week is over. 

Onboarding is all about employee support. Statistically, employees who experienced effective onboarding were more likely to report or share that their company was highly capable and that their organization’s performance was strong.

It’s essential to employee retention and engagement that new hires know that the  company values them right from the get-go. A successful onboarding program not only helps new hires feel like they’re part of the team, but they’ll also better understand the process and how their role contributes to the overall success of your business!