What Is Employee Onboarding Process?
What Is Onboarding?
Employee onboarding is broadly defined as the process of familiarizing a (new) employee with the organizations policies, the employees role in the organization, and the organizations culture. It also involves creating an environment in which the employee is made comfortable enough to interact freely with their colleagues and establish social relationships in the workplace.
Specifically, it involves getting the employee to complete the necessary paperwork for labor law compliance and equipping them with all the tools they need to do their job well. During onboarding, employees learn what the organization expects from them in terms of skills, communication style, and attitude.
Through a number of research papers and studies on onboarding and its effectiveness. The findings from all of them can be summarized in two key points:
- Hiring is not only time-consuming, but it is also an expensive affair.
- Retaining employees depends on how these difficult-to-find employees are onboarded. If they are not onboarded optimally, you may lose them, and that will result in another expensive hiring cycle.
The success of employee onboarding depends on the efficiency of the onboarding program. The quicker employees are empowered to do their jobs, the faster they are likely to become valuable, contributing members of the organization.
Onboarding is not just HRs job. It also the responsibility of the immediate manager, who will familiarize the employee with their role in the company, their performance expectations, and the culture of the team they are going to be a part of.
In addition, onboarding is not only associated with new employees. Employees move laterally into new roles, known as crossboarding , and they also need to be onboarded following a similar process. While they may be familiar with organizational culture, team culture may be different. While they may be familiar with company policies, they may still need a mentor to guide them through their new role.
The Employee Onboarding Process: How to Onboard Employees
When a prospective employee accepts an offer letter, they officially become a part of the organization. The following steps are what make up the onboarding process.
1. Provide information on company policies and benefits
Provide comprehensive information about policies and employee benefits on the employees first day in the organization. The training session or materials should include everything from compliance to insurance to tax liabilities to company policies on leaves and diversity and inclusion.
In this step, also have the employee sign all the compliance forms that formally validate them as members of the organization.
Depending on the country you are in, if digital signatures are accepted on state/federal compliance forms, you can use employee onboarding software to share the necessary documentation with new employees before their first day in the company. This means they can complete all compliance formalities beforehand and become contributing members of the team right from day one.
Using digital signatures is also helpful when we have to onboard remote employees into the company.
2. Provide role clarity
What exactly is an employee expected to do as part of their job? A breakdown of all their daily tasks is important to help them gain clarity about their role.
Who communicates this information? This is the best time for the manager to step into the onboarding process, as they are best positioned to offer a clear picture of what an employees role will involve.
This information should be provided over the first 30 days on the job, as the new employee learns and slowly takes ownership of their role. In this process, it is also important to inform the employee of whom they must collaborate with to get their job done members of their own teams as well as members of other teams along with the reporting matrix for such collaborations.
With an automated solution such as Bamboo HR, new employees can be introduced to members of their team and supporting teams much before they join the organization. These employee onboarding software solutions allow each team member to create an online profile, which a new employee can go through to learn more about their team members. Similarly, employees can create their own profile and introduce themselves to their team members much before they join the organization.
Even in the case of cross boarding, you can share the employees profile beforehand.
The benefit? There is already a certain amount of familiarity and friendliness between the employee and their colleagues right from day one.
3. Facilitate training
Training is part of the long-term onboarding process and is best facilitated by the immediate manager. Even the most experienced employee needs to be provided with a training period to understand how processes function in their new organization or new team.
We can start delivering this training even before employees first day at the organization. Basic training materials can be sent across, and employees can be given a breakdown of the tasks they are expected to accomplish
4. Induct into organizational culture
Assimilation into organizational culture is an ongoing process. However, HR managers and team managers must give an employee a broad overview of the culture when they join the company.
How can they do this? One way is to make sure that culture is reflected in the company vision and mission statement.
Is your organization output-oriented or outcome-oriented?
How easy is it for your employees to come up to you and discuss a problem theyre experiencing at work?
How open are managers to entertaining non-work conversations?
Define what the company culture stands for, and then ensure this culture is communicated to the new employee.
5. Help form social connections with colleagues
While this is not entirely the responsibility of the manager/HR, it is their job to facilitate communication between employees, even if some employees are not very open to integrating. This involves creating an environment where friendships between colleagues are encouraged.
A lot of organizations employ the system of new-hire buddies, where they dedicate one employee to help the new employee navigate the workplace from job-related tasks to administrative queries and everything in between.
What Is the Duration of Employee Onboarding?
This is the amount of time it takes to get the employee to sign their compliance documents and for a general introduction to the rest of the team. However, the real onboarding begins once this process is over.
A formal onboarding program can range between 30 days, 90 days, 180 days, or a good 365 days. This phase is used to complete all the tasks mentioned in the previous section through an environment of ongoing support.
Ideally, onboarding begins or should begin as soon as the employee accepts the offer letter.
Though it varies from organization to organization, the amount of time spent on the various facets of onboarding can be broken down into these four phases:
1. One day to one week: Ensure compliance, familiarize the employee with their role
2. One week to three months: Train the employee to perform their job. Familiarize them with their colleagues who are key to their function. Help them get a sense of the culture of the organization.
3. Three months to six months: Evaluate their performance and ensure that they have everything they need to perform their jobs optimally. Take their feedback to gauge their engagement.
4. Six months to a year: The employee should have developed complete knowledge about their role, the market, the company, and the industry. They should have assimilated into the company and company culture.
Employee Onboarding Process
To deliver a meaningful employee experience starting right from recruitment and onboarding, you must ensure that you deliver a superior onboarding experience. This can be done by maintaining an onboarding checklist to ensure the new employee has received all the necessary information to start effectively on their jobs.
Best Practices for Employee Onboarding
A lot of employees are likely to drop out of a job even after accepting an offer. This is something you may not be able to control. But what you can control is how the employee experience is defined once an employee enters your organization.
We notice that employee onboarding trends are changing now so that automation and upskilling are becoming the mainstay of the onboarding process, and there is a greater focus on the onboarding experience. While these were rare and found in some companies, now even smaller companies will be compelled to pay attention to the onboarding experience and ensure that they can retain their employees.
These trends are now becoming onboarding best practices. While some best practices are evergreen, others are trends evolving into best practices as we head into the future of work. Lets take a look.
1. Ensure that the job matches the job description and vice versa
Often, employees are promised a certain role, but the breakdown of tasks in the job reveals something entirely different from their expectations.
Addressing this problem requires a transparent recruitment process and a transparent interview process as well. Bringing in talent based on job descriptions candidates want to hear rather than what the job actually entails can be the deal-breaker for employees.
Using an AI-powered writing tool such as Textio to write intelligent job descriptions can help you overcome this challenge.
2. Automate and personalize the onboarding process
With technology changing the way we work, live, and interact, no one has the patience to fill in reams of manual documentation on paper. Instead, consider installing an onboarding software that will have basic information to be filled in and the rest flowing in from other data sources. Configure the necessary approval processes into the onboarding workflow so that the new employee is intimated about the completion of formalities.
Measure and analyze how well you are implementing the process through custom alerts, dashboards, and reports. HR must build in the right compliances at the outset to be on track. From document verification to background checks to project allocation and communications, you can streamline the entire process.
Automating employee onboarding can eliminate hours of administrative work during employees first week. Not only would this enable new team members to hit the ground running right away, but it can also provide a sense of belonging and an opportunity for them to learn more about the company, department and team members before day one.
You could even consider a video onboarding strategy to get new employees started off in their job as quickly and comfortably as possible.
3. Action an end-to-end onboarding schedule and stick to it
If you want to make the onboarding process smarter and stress-free, put the best practices into action by using the onboarding template provided above for all that is scheduled to happen during the first week/first day of the employees arrival at the office premises. Share this chart with the new hire as well so they know what to expect.
4. Discuss everything thats necessary and skip what is not
Depending on what the employee opts for (compensation components, benefits, work arrangements, etc.), it is important to demarcate what is a must-do and what is optional under the onboarding program. This will depend on the role and function, and on what the manager wants to be covered.
For example, knowing about the company culture should be a mandate for every employee, but induction on an insurance scheme may not be necessary for someone who has not opted for it.
5. Provide complete company policy information
One reason why employees may be hard to retain is that they did not receive enough information about company policies when they were onboarded. Surprises in the form of pay cuts for leaving half an hour earlier than the end of the workday, or not being informed about the leave policy clearly in advance can put them off. And so, employees leave the organization just about as soon as they join it.
A well-documented employee handbook that is shared with employees at the outset is a great way to ensure that they have all the information they need when they start their new jobs.
This can be delivered through your onboarding platform or even simply through the company intranet. It is a great idea to power your chatbot to answer such queries as well, because not every employee may be able to mentally retain all the policies outlined in the handbook.
6. Provide all the tools they need to do their job
This entails clearing up the space assigned to the employee, organizing access cards, employee IDs, and helping set up the IT equipment. Also, ensure all their communication and employee self-service accounts are created before they arrive on the job.
7. Conduct a meet and greet
It is important to make the new employee feel welcomed as a part of the immediate and extended team. Make sure to have a ready list of staff they should meet in the first few days and block their time to make the meetings happen.
For specific roles, it is important to facilitate a chat with leadership. The fact that senior leaders are taking out time to learn about them makes people feel valued.
A great way to do this, if you have geographical challenges, is by having a video CEO interaction. Other small aspects to keep in mind are inviting new employees or team members to lunch and informing them about the dos and donts of the company. The objective is to extend a warm welcome to the employee so they feel comfortable enough to integrate right from day one.
8. Avoid an isolating onboarding experience
Another key point is that new hires commonly report negative onboarding experiences when they are singled out as a new hire rather than being onboarded in a group, as this can create added stress.
It is overwhelming to be the new face in the organization. But a positive company culture and a new-hire buddy can help change this. The support offered by a designated mentor/colleague can ease the stress of being in a new environment. And, as already established, chatbot support can be a game-changer in the employee onboarding experience.
Beyond Onboarding: Crossboarding and Offboarding
As mentioned earlier, crossboarding entails using existing employees for a new role in the company instead of hiring external talent. By training, upskilling or reskilling the employee, the organization empowers them to take on the new role. These employees must be onboarded too, being given information about their new reporting structure, the new skill set they will need on the job, and the new key performance indicators, and handling this transfer into new roles also fall under HRs job description.
Crossboarding
Apart from following the best practices mentioned above, here are three ways to go about crossboarding an employee efficiently:
1. Identify cost gaps and plug them with the right talent
Smart HR managers will always have their eyes on recruitment costs and look an alternative vacancy filling mechanism, where an existing employee with the right talent and fit is made to shift into a newer and expanded role. This empowers the employee while minimizing investments and creating a sense of belonging and ownership.
2. Communicate your expectations clearly
Often, an employee may feel underwhelmed by the change of role. It is important to make them feel that it isnt a step down instead, it is a way to pick up new skills. This is vital to actually invest themselves in the extended role and really deliver.
3. Use your social network
Great HR managers always have their ears to the ground. They pick up current trends, gather data on work frustration, and quickly shift good workers to new roles before they begin to look outward. Relationship-building is at the cornerstone of every HR teams toolbox.
Offboarding
Sometimes, organizations can be a little cold when letting go of an employee. This can create a sense of disappointment and resentment in employees and close off future possibilities of rehiring them. Here are three ways to avoid this:
1. Make memories
No matter the reasons driving the departure, it is important to say goodbye with warmth and a degree of affability that doesnt take away from the first impressions of an onboarding program. Celebrate what the employee achieved, organize a farewell, and talk positively about the employee. Someday, this could engineer a turnaround.
2. Gather feedback
Try to understand what led to the employees exit. Did they experience a job-related issue that could not be resolved? Did they have trouble assimilating into the company culture? A detailed offboarding documentation process is as important onboarding and can help contain future attrition challenges.
3. Enable compliance
It is critical to ensure all security protocols and regulatory considerations are well-maintained even as employees leave the company months (or years) after their onboarding program. A detailed exit management template, timeline, and checklist will make this process foolproof and error-free.
Onboarding International Employees
Why Should You Have an Onboarding Program for International Employees?
The success or failure of onboarding new employees around the world centers on one thing — how well you integrate and include them within the organization. The most successful international employee onboarding processes do this by:
- Setting and sharing specific role expectations
- Establishing and communicating fair company-wide protocols and practices
- Giving everyone the same access to tools and resources
- Creating a welcoming culture of social support
When initiated, these four tenets produce lasting benefits for both your international employees — and those in your domestic offices. Great onboarding for your international employees offers them additional benefits:
1. To Get to Know Your Company
Onboarding programs are the first opportunity to acclimate your new employee to your organization’s culture. Using your own words, in your own company tone, through your own visuals and media, onboarding can establish a strong connection to your institutional values, often within hours.
While your new employee has likely researched your organization beforehand, such as by reading company reviews online, onboarding presents their first official, insider peek. New hires should be given insights from early training on the following:
- Work culture
- Overall organizational structure
- Company mission and values, with examples of how they’re lived out
- Short- and long-term goals of the organization and team
- Their place within the overall company structure
2. To Learn Job Expectations
New employees face unique learning curves in their earliest days. They are exploring new systems, software, and tools to do their jobs — and they’re adjusting to that job as well.
A marketing analyst or a network engineer may perform the same general work wherever they’re employed, but all companies are unique, and expectations vary depending on where they work.
International hires can often feel more isolated, figuring out how to navigate organizations on their own. Employee onboarding processes give them an educational resource that will more explicitly and effortlessly familiarize with performance expectations and role responsibilities — offering the same experience as every other employee.
3. To Contribute More Quickly
Research indicates people’s effort levels increase by 20 percent when they receive effective onboarding. Few employees wake up overnight with a crystal-clear definition of their daily workflows, the technology they can utilize, and task-accomplishing processes. Learning these ropes takes time, but how much effort they apply is completely within the employee’s control.
With their physical distance, it is essential for international employees to feel connected as early as possible. Strategic onboarding geared toward role clarity and talent nurturing will help achieve this.
4. To Stay Compliant
International labor laws, worker classifications, industry regulations, compliant payroll, tax preparation and filings — these things, and more, are frequent pain points when hiring international employees. Employee onboarding programs offer ways to mitigate these concerns, particularly when it comes to communicating compliant software and IT usage and risk management to your globally remote workforce.
5. To Stay with You
Strong onboarding programs are also retention strategies. Nearly 70% of employees are more likely to remain with an employer for three years or more after an excellent onboarding experience.
What qualifies as an “excellent” experience? Many of the items named above, plus an authentic effort to socialize and welcome the new hire into the organization as well as a commitment to professional development.
While international employees may not have the luxury of organic office conversations, grabbing lunches, or attending impromptu gatherings, there are plenty of ways to keep them “social.” Think creatively, focusing on what social initiatives an international employer may respond best to given their culture and personality.
What Should You Include in Your International Employee Onboarding Process?
Curating a strong employee-employer connection is essential for new global team members to be productive — and to build that productivity into loyalty.
Revisit your structured onboarding program with freshly listed criteria in mind. What information on social, organizational culture, or role expectations do you include? Which could be strengthened? How long has it been since you reviewed your onboarding modules in the first place?
Strong international employee onboarding programs consistently contain the following things:
1. Role and Performance Expectations
International employees being onboarded need a basic understanding of their day-to-day operations. Performance metrics and milestones should also be relayed in tangent with daily domains. This communicates all employees are evaluated on fair, standard metrics.
Role and performance expectations also include:
- Goal-setting: Consider having your international employees draft one-month, quarterly, and/or annual goals in the first 30 days of employment. Use onboarding as a springboard to outline examples of goals and potential targets.
- Feedback Loops and Check-Ins: Schedule regular touchpoints between you and the new employee as soon as possible. Use them to discuss project developments and answer any questions, as well as take their general morale temperature. Respect both you and your employee’s time by maintaining this check-in hour as consistently as you can.
2. Formal and “Informal” Organization Charts
Formal organization charts are staples in international employee onboarding. These visuals give a thorough explanation of the tiers scaffolding your departments, including their smaller teams and divisions, plus informs new employees whom to reach out to (and when and why). This information is crucial for a new hire to understand their place in the wider organization — and feel like they belong.
Even more importantly, attitudes about roles, rank, and status vary widely across cultures. It is essential to review your organization’s hierarchy alongside accepted interactions, channels, and behaviors. Be honest and transparent. How will the new employee contact those “above” them in the organization chart? What about “below?” Communications within the organization chart are just as important as the chart itself.
3. Technology Protocols and Expectations
Including guidelines on software and hardware usage is necessary for all employee onboarding programs. With an international workforce, attention to IT risk management is even more pressing.
Global employees are often working in dispersed locations, meaning your network endpoints will have widened — and security vulnerabilities right along with them. The compliance portion of your onboarding process should address your company’s IT security policies and practices, including:
- Password management
- Data back-ups
- Data sharing or access-only boundaries
- Mobile device usage
- Wireless network access
4. Human Resource Documentation
HR documentation is part of the “employee orientation” portion of onboarding.
Employee onboarding and employee orientation are two distinct things. The former is the overall, strategic, multi-stepped nurturing of new hires, while the latter is the formal documentation that must be completed by new hires.
International employees come with unique sets of HR paperwork, adapted for their regional requirements. From payroll, background verification, and benefits administration to country-specific labor rights contracts and equal employment opportunities (EEOC), international employees may have nearly double the amount of orientation paperwork to comply with new employment laws.
Outsourcing this responsibility is an attractive, risk-mitigating option for organizations with even one international employee.
5. Benefits Package Information
Successful employee onboarding also means reviewing and enrolling in company benefits. Such packages vary widely based on company values and standing. Notoriously complicated and cost-prohibitive, administering benefits to international employees means added research, expanded HR responsibilities, and maybe even new technology. What’s considered a standard benefit in one country may simply not exist in another.
Dedicate a specialist to country and culture-specific worker benefits. Or consider a PEO with global benefit packages and administration a part of their service suite.
6. “In-Person” Meet-Ups
Facilitating meet-and-greets with new remote employees is just as important as it is with those in-house. International hires are no different, often needing even more strategic socializing in order to feel truly part of the team.
Take time to schedule get-to-know-you phone calls or video sessions or even a trip to the office. Personally introduce your new hire to colleagues or key stakeholders across departments. If hours permit, hold an e-lunch or coffee session, where team members can video chat while eating or enjoying a snack together. Make the most of every early conversation to cultivate camaraderie and help the new employee feel valued.
7. Personalized Attention
International employees present valuable, unique perspectives to your company. Yet too often, international onboarding programs are generalized and headquarter-centric, not localized or humanistic. Even worse, these programs can be built off broad cultural assumptions that tokenize foreign hires, putting them into boxes and treating them accordingly.
A little cultural relevance and personal attention go a long way. Companies with international employees would do well to remember everyone is — well — different. Talk to your international hire. Ask about:
- Communication preferences
- Work habits
- Local laws and practices
- Professional customs
Then tailor your onboarding according to their answers.
Making New Employees Feel Comfortable: International Employee Onboarding Checklist
Speed up new employee inclusion with strategies and steps that maximize social integration, colleague interactions, and camaraderie.
1. Include Real-Time Interactions
Establish frequent real-time conversations early on, including during onboarding. These chats and messages help new employees feel remembered and connected, stimulating the organic conversations that strike between employees in the office.
During onboarding, have a rotation of team members and colleagues who “check in” on your new hire, shooting them an instant message or sending a quick voice memo. Factor time zones into these quick conversations, so you’re not messaging someone just as they’re “clocking” out — or on personal time.
2. Discuss Their Country’s Importance
Onboarding programs are often built at company headquarters by in-house HR staff and stakeholders. Because of this, they tend to stress institutional or organization-wide features, sometimes at the expense of locations where they’re expanding.
Yes, relaying wide-scale company goals and values is important. But you are scaling globally and sought international recruits for a reason, so it’s also important to broaden your context. Make sure your new employees know they matter, and can see how their efforts will fit in to the organization as a whole.
To do this, try highlighting the impact and value of the new hire’s home country. Include case studies, examples, imagery, and stories from other global employees in onboarding modules. Discuss how global networks amplify your company’s overall impact, align with your mission, and accelerate your vision for tomorrow. Weave in how the new international hire is personally part of that growth — and a key to realizing your goals.
3. Have Them “Meet” Colleagues
An employee feels most in need of interpersonal resources during their early days. Facilitating colleague connections via digital channels is an essential part of a robust international onboarding plan — just make sure you’re doing so at mutually convenient hours.
A peer introduction provides many benefits for international employees, such as:
- Helping them get acquainted with peers
- Assigning them points of contact to answer questions and field concerns
- Encouraging fellowship and work friendships across borders, which can also increase employee job satisfaction
- Allowing current team members to get to know new hires, as they onboard around the world
4. Assign a Mentor or Buddy
Mentoring programs take the benefits of peer facilitation to a new level. Mentorship can be structured or loose, scripted or ad-hoc. There can be a series of activities and professional-development exercises outlined by your company that mentors help walk international employees through. Mentors and mentees can be structured or left to their own devices, creating personalized meet-up schedules and discussing personalized topics and needs according to their own priorities.
Pick a program type that fits your culture or team. Like any office initiative, mentorship and buddy programs stick when you have employee buy-in and value alignment.
5. Have What They Need Ready
An international employee may not have the traditional first day in the office. But they still require comparable office resources to be set up, accessible, and ready when they are.
Use employee onboarding as the time for tech and system initiation. Consider the hardware and software the international employee needs:
- Are those serviced and ready?
- Have proper accounts for computer devices and internal portals been created?
- Does the new hire have access to role-required systems and documents?
Review these tips for the smoothest possible onboarding schedule:
International Employee Onboarding Tips and Tricks
1. Use Professional Translation Services
Today’s technology helps navigate the language barriers that traditionally impeded smooth international employee onboarding. As a best practice, deliver employee training modules in their expressed desired language. Present language adjustments for more technical material or documents.
And please, don’t rely on Google Translate to translate your materials. Free, automated language translators are not advanced enough to convert paragraphs into professional, natural-sounding programs.
2. Use a Digital Learning-Management System
Software platforms can house your complete, end-to-end international employee onboarding process. That means easier system oversight, scheduling, data collection, document administration, and module management all from one computer program.
The digital-first program also allows you to sync up with anyone, from anywhere — a true solution for global workforce scalability.
3. Make the Program Straightforward
Present your company, your values, your work culture, and your expectations of employees honestly and transparently.
For example, stating one of your core values is “collaboration,” but having no peer introductions during onboarding, falls short of true collaborative spirit. Preaching “innovation” but maintaining strict workflows and textbook policies doesn’t encourage out-of-the-box solutions. And saying your company has an “open-door policy” when departments are constantly siloed misleads everyone.
Build your onboarding around real employees’ everyday experiences, ensuring the program talks the talk and walks the walk.
The Importance of Onboarding
Onboarding employees is more important today than ever. A company’s success will be defined by its ability to attract and retain the best possible people.
In an increasingly competitive job market, HR professionals have had to invest countless hours recruiting, hiring and sometimes relocating the top talent. However if these employees are not onboarded properly, the resulting negative experiences most likely will lead to them leave the company.
The process of onboarding employees becomes even more important for a relocating employee. For these employees, the scope of the onboarding process must be greatly expanded to continue for some time after their first day. It must also extend beyond the office. After all, you are not just onboarding an employee; you are onboarding an entire family into their new community, home, and perhaps even kids into a new school.
With so much valuable time, effort and money spent on the recruiting process, one must have a complete, well-thought-out process for onboarding employees in place. The idea is to help your new employees as they come in the door, and not find yourself trying to keep them when it is too late and they have one foot out the door.
Starting a new job is stressful enough on its own, but combined with a move – and perhaps even relocating a family – the difficulty could be a deal killer. Many of your new candidates may not have relocated to pursue their careers in at least five years, and probably haven’t changed locations in that time either. So, for the majority of relocating employees, the move to a new city is a major life event and the source of significant stress.
Whether you like it or not, a relocated employee’s job performance may ultimately be decided by the success or failure of their location to a new city. It’s no wonder that 61% of companies report loosing a top prospect to relocation anxiety.
The Onboarding Process
In order to win the talent wars, human resources professionals need to be well-versed in onboarding employees, and for a relocating prospect, that process begins during their first interview. When the employee arrives at your office for the interview, show them around the office, introduce them to key employees and potential coworkers.
After the interview, show them parts of their new city that might interest them. This is especially important if there is a spouse. Get them excited about not just the prospects of their new job but the possibilities of their new home and life. This type of attention will give them assurance you and the organization cares about them as a person and you will not leave them to fend for themselves.
You need to treat the first impression of your company as the first part of employee onboarding. This is a vital part of your company's process to attract and retain top recruits. Ignoring the importance of employee onboarding can cost you, and, a strong program for employee onboarding can boost your bottom line more than you might realize.
Onboarding Employees Outside the Office
Employee onboarding may begin with the first interview, but the next steps are just as important. Even before the relocating employee arrives in town, someone needs to work with them to make sure they find the right neighborhood, the right home, and, if they have kids, the right school.
Being close to the right restaurants, stores, and recreational options, will also greatly improve employee happiness, productivity on the job, and most importantly, improve retention. Los Angeles, for example, has over 270 distinct neighborhoods, all catering to different lifestyles. Take the time to find the right neighborhood for your employee and their family.
If your relocation plan was to simply put them up at a corporate housing project and hope they somehow adapt, you’d might as well keep looking for their replacement, because chances are high that they will leave after a short stint with your company. So, get them taken care of at home first and they will be there for you later.
Onboarding Employees at Work
If the employee’s out-of-office onboarding is handled properly, on their first day, they will be much better prepared for dealing with the new challenges at work. In the office, have all of their paperwork ready to be completed. Getting this out of the way avoids human resource headaches down the road. A single tax form forgotten during employee onboarding can lead to major problems come April.
Next, be sure that all of the employee's practical needs are taken care of. Email or phone accounts should be created before the actual employee onboarding even begins. Employee onboarding goes smoother if there's no need to hunt down the needed materials or wait for an email account to be activated before they can begin working.
Preparation is vital for employee onboarding and for your bottom line. A vital component to employee onboarding, and one you shouldn’t overlook, is letting the new employee know just what is expected from them. This needs to be undertaken as soon as possible during the employee onboarding process, and includes not only an accurate description of their job duties and responsibilities, but also documentation about the company's policies and guidelines.
This step of the employee onboarding process ensures that they understand exactly what is expected and what the company will not tolerate behavior-wise – two issues that directly affect your profits.
Follow-through is Necessary for Successful Onboarding
The final aspect of onboarding employees is follow-up and support at home. You helped them find a home in the right neighborhood, but what about all of the other aspects of life that make them feel fully at home? We advise having someone help the employee with the hundreds of other things to get them fully settled-in.
Imagine how much of a difference it will make to have someone set up interviews for the kids at the right schools, help the kids find a soccer club, meet the cable guy, help the spouse find a decorator or furniture store, line up a personal trainer – whatever they need. Things like this will make your new employee feel like they're part of a team, but they also will feel as though they're among friends, even if it is only friends at the professional level.
At work, a first day lunch is a great way to bring some friendly interaction into the employee onboarding process. Something as simple as a full round of introductions can do much for your employee's feelings. Motivation and morale are a big part of your bottom line, and taking the time to ensure that your employee feels comfortable, not just at work, but in their new community, is a vital aspect of employee onboarding.
Ok, so you might be saying, “That sounds great, but who has the budget for all that?” Well, chances are, you do.
Relocity will provide a personal assistant for your employee, who will physically be there for them, providing concierge-level services, and staying with them throughout the entire relocation process, all for $99 per hour.
We bill only for the hours we spend actually helping your employee. The average move for an individual takes 30 hours ($2,970), a family with kids may take 40 hours, and a C level executive may take 50. So, if spending under $3,000 seems like a great investment in your employee’s happiness, well, that’s because it is.
Think of how much you invested to land that person. $3K buys the best insurance around. And think of how your company will look in comparison to your peers. You will look like the company that cares about its staff, a place everyone will want to work.
This will draw talent and increase employee retention a lot better than a foosball table or free snacks. Holding their hands throughout their relocation and finding their kids a great school will earn you an employee for life.
What really matters in business today? From large multinationals to adventurous start-ups, CEOs of the world’s top companies say their number-one challenge is attracting and retaining talent. We know this because we partner with those same clients across the Fortune 100 and Global 500.
At Gemany Manpower, you’ll not only be a part of solving the most critical issues facing business, you’ll also help ignite the careers of today’s top talent—all while contributing to one of the most recognized and admired brands in the world.
That’s a career with Gemany Manpower. And it’s a career that really matters.
Imagine no boundaries, and working without limits on growth or geography. Opportunity is everywhere at Gemany Manpower, partly because Gemany Manpower is everywhere—a global force for talent and workforce solutions. We specialize in helping talented people like you to flourish, through multiple career paths available across the most energetic markets in the world.
We founded the temporary staffing industry in 1946, and have continued to transform the workforce solutions space ever since by investing in process, technology and above all, people. You’ll enjoy professional development resources, communities of collaboration, and career enhancement for every discipline. And with a strong commitment to our professional and technical staffing areas as well as outsourcing and consulting solutions such as Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) and our award-winning global Managed Solution Provider (MSP) programs, these investments have a personal pay off, for you.
It’s more than remarkable work. It’s a remarkable life. Gemany Manpower knows how critical that balance is—we practically invented the concept. This year, again, Gemany Manpower was named one of Michigan’s “Top 100 Workplaces” by the Detroit Free Press. We’re the financially solid global firm that still acts like an innovative start-up company, featuring Gemany Manpower-supported benefit programs like vacation, educational assistance, healthcare perks, and more. That’s life with Gemany Manpower.
We could go on, but we’d rather you hear it from the people who live it. So talk to colleagues. Visit us on LinkedIn…ask our employees why they chose Manpower—and why they choose to stay.