Onboarding is necessary for new employees, with the fast moving digital age and startups coming up left and right, now more than ever.

With studies explaining a direct correlation between the employee onboarding process and retention. Why is it so hard to find a good experience?

Let’s first take it back to that very first day. When we’re talking about stressful situations, going to a job interview ranks pretty high on the list of things that make our palms sweat

You want to present yourself in the best possible way. You want to get a good look at the company that might become your future employer.

So now you survived the interview. You have a new job. You’d think the worst part is over. But depending on the company that hired you, you could be very wrong.

Because the next nerve wrecking step in this process is about to come.

The first day

From personal experience, I can say that at the end of the first day you can either be exhausted but relieved or exhausted and dismayed.

It all depends on the company that hired you and how well they have fine tuned their onboarding process. One of my first real jobs was at a call center that worked for a pretty famous charity.

Coming in I had little experience with telemarketing but I didn’t follow or support the charity in question.

I was going in blind.

Despite the fact that I knew nothing of the charity, they hired me.

The recruiter from the first interview and the manager from the second interview had told me experience didn’t matter.

I would be receiving on the job training.

The training turned out to be a fifteen-minute orientation video. Made in the early nineties, it was nothing more than a long commercial for the charity.

No real explanation of what I was going to do. After that, I got to sit next to one of my colleagues to listen in on her calls and see how the systems worked.

Half an hour later I was already calling people myself and feeling completely miserable because I was not prepared.

It’s safe to say that I didn’t stick around very long.

This is one of the dangers of a bad onboarding experience. Not only will the employee be miserable, but it leads to a high turnover of new employees.

Companies spend copious amounts of money and effort on recruiters and hiring managers.

Only for it all to go to waste because they haven’t invested in what comes after employee onboarding.

Benefits of Employee Onboarding

Onboarding benefits both parties, it prepares an employee for the work at hand and makes them feel welcome in a new environment.

It also helps them to become an effective and productive team member that is a valuable asset to the company.

A company has to make that first-day count. And keeping up with all the days until a new employee is completely integrated into the company.

First of all, employers need to stop thinking a new employee can hit the ground running. Even seasoned professionals need some time to start up.

To get comfortable and to figure out how things are run in any given company.

Let them get familiar with what it is they to do, with the systems and even with the jargon that is used in a company.

This should all be done before you set them to work.

It’s hard enough to remember all those little things that need to be ready before an employee walks in through the door on that first day. Things like badges, computers, and paperwork.

For example at one job I had to walk around with a visitor pass for a week

My manager had forgotten to get one for me in advance. It might not be the end of the world, but these things don’t make a company look good.

To make sure that the new employee has a good sense of what is expected.

What they can expect from the company in the days to come, preparation is required.

Few things worse than uncertainty, when your employee is already trying to find their way in a new situation.

Great onboarding can be done digital, using a service like Valker for example.

How to fix it

The company can use services like this it to check the progress of the new employee and guide them to desired results.

Employee onboarding a necessity, a way to reduce the first-day stress of a new employee.

It’s a valuable tool for any company to get happier and more productive employees.

Because of employee onboarding they will stick around longer.

Becoming full-fledged team members eager to stay.

Marketing Manager at Valker.io

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