How to build an onboarding strategy

Onboarding is a very crucial process for every company. Starting a new job always comes with a little bit of stress, and the idea is to make employees feel at home. They are arriving in a new environment, meeting new people, and not everyone easily connects with people. With that in mind, today we want to talk about the best ways to build an onboarding strategy and create a better experience for new employees.

What’s the idea of onboarding?

When we talk about onboarding, we are really talking about setting new employees for success. That first impression, and the way they experience their job position will dictate how they feel about the job. Their productivity and efficiency will directly depend on how they assimilate to the new position.

Preboarding as a strategy to reduce anxiety and stress

The first day at work is always a stressful experience. The new person feels like under a magnifying glass, having a feeling that everyone is observing them. There is also the added pressure of understanding the job, and a lot more. A good way to reduce the levels of stress and anxiety is to organize preboarding.

Preboarding happens before day one. The new employee comes to the office simply to get to know the environment, talk to people, see their working area, and just feel relaxed. There is no stress of working in an unknown environment. Preboarding is just about bonding and having a friendly day at work. This is a fantastic strategy that will make new employees feel at home on their first day of work.

Pace the onboarding process to match the employee’s learning tempo

Have in mind that you, as an onboarding coordinator, or a manager, already know everything about the position. Things that may look obvious to you are completely unknown to a new employee. It is crucial to pace the onboarding process and only provide as much information as the new employee can handle. Do not throw everything at them, or they will feel frightened if they cannot keep up with your pace.

Create a buddy program for new employees

One of the best strategies you can use is a buddy program. Assign an office buddy to every new employee. They will shadow the person for a week or two and slowly learn the job. This also takes away a lot of pressure from new employees’ backs. They are not thrown in the fire from day one, they actually have some time to slowly take ownership of their part of the work.

This is how you build confidence with new employees and motivate them.

Make sure to teach new employees about the platforms they use

The number one mistake businesses make is if they don’t provide enough training to the new employees, but they expect them to do a quality job. For example, if your company is using callback software, make sure to explain to the new employees how it works. Once they understand the platforms, they will feel more comfortable doing their job.

Use employee’s experience from previous jobs

Another situation to explore is if the new employee already worked at a similar position, but had different ways of doing things. For example, a lot of companies use callback software today. The new employee could have worked on creating or updating customer profiles, but they didn’t have experience with lead engagement software. Just because they don’t understand one part of the job does not mean they will not learn it quickly.

If you are using the buddy program, their buddy must bridge that gap and help them learn new functionalities they did not experience before.

In the same manner, you could hire a new sales agent. They have a remarkable success rate, but they never worked with advanced sales management software. If they don’t understand how to use this software, they will feel like they don’t know the job, and they will lose confidence.

That’s why it is so important to spend time and teach them all the little details. Once they align their way of doing things with company requirements, they will become very productive.

Set achievable goals for new employees

You should never expect too much out of the new employees. Now, we need to carefully discuss what is considered “too much“. If you are hiring a new regional manager, you have certain expectations of them. They need to tackle a lot more responsibilities than a call center agent.

With that said, you need to set achievable goals for the first few months. If they feel like they are overwhelmed with job tasks, that will only cause more stress. You don’t want to make new employees feel like they are not fit for the job. Once they spend a month or two, you can change gears and add more work. However, it is crucial to create a sense of accomplishment. Employees should feel that they are doing a good job. You need to give them a boost of confidence before you start giving them more work. This is really your bread and butter of how to build an onboarding strategy that can help you convert traffic into leads.

Get employee feedback

Whatever your onboarding strategy is, it is crucial to get employee feedback. This is their chance to speak up, let you know about their first weeks, and how satisfied they are. Have in mind that a new employee might feel scared to tell if they had a bad experience, so reassure them to be completely honest. The idea of the feedback is to make sure they have everything they need to become independent. We also spoke at the beginning about everyone having a different learning pace. Some employees handle things faster, and some need more time.

That’s why it is crucial to set your expectations based on the employee’s capacity.

That’s how to build an onboarding strategy that will drive results

This is everything you need to know about how to build an onboarding strategy. Setting up employees for success is important because they make sure your business is running efficiently. Invest in an onboarding strategy, and you are investing in the future of your company.