An employee’s first day and first several weeks on the job have a significant influence on whether they embrace the companies values and whether they stay for the long haul. This is why setting up an intentional and well-designed onboarding process as part of talent management is critical for companies who want staff to represent their company values.
Focusing on company values has become an important trend in modern businesses. Employees that embrace company values have shown to be more engaged and committed to a company, reducing staff turnover or disappointment in job performance.
Each company is different, and new staff will not know what type of business they are working for unless management thoughtfully puts the effort into assimilating new staff well
Here are three tips to create a better onboarding process to ensure that new employees embrace company core values.
Tip #1: Recognize onboarding as a process
The onboarding process should not begin or end on the new staff member’s first day at work. The onboarding process should actually begin during recruiting. Finding the right hire in the first place who is already a good fit for your company culture will put you on the right foot. Not only that, but give your potential hires authentic and upfront descriptions of what values your company holds before they agree to the job. If both management and future hirees have communicated their expectations, onboarding in the office space will be smoother.
Onboarding is not just a quick orientation covering responsibilities, job descriptions, and a quick office tour. It should be warm, intentionally designed, and hopefully covering the span of at least a week if not longer.
Tip #2: Be team players
Let’s be honest. Your business probably will not reach its full potential if everybody is out for their own interest and there is little camaraderie among colleagues. Employees stay committed to a job if they have positive relationships at work. These relationships are built from the first day and first several weeks of employment.
A key ingredient to a proper onboarding process is giving a warm welcome and introduction to the new employee from seasoned staff. Encourage other staff to be involved in this process. Make sure the new employee has someone to share lunch with on their first day. Many company CEOs will even schedule coffee dates with new hires within their first month. This space for connection is a great opportunity for other staff leadership to discuss and demonstrate company values.
Tip #3: Measure your process
Providing a warm onboarding process is not just for the ‘feel-good-vibes.’ It is a very intentional and strategic approach for making sure your employees represent your company values. Like any other strategy your business takes on, the onboarding process needs to be analyzed. Almost half of all businesses fail properly examine their program success.
Without proper investigation, you cannot objectively know how your employees feel in their first days of work or if they fully understand your tech platforms, etc. You will also fail to understand the true relationship between your onboarding program and staff values, turnover, engagement, or productivity.
Measuring your onboarding program with HR software is necessary to understand its effectiveness at achieving goals and opportunities for improvement.
Brooklin Nash writes about the latest tools and small business trends for TrustRadius. When he’s not writing, you can find him reading YA dystopian fiction (with guilty pleasure) and cooking.
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