This is lesson 4.2.2 Creating the tools to make onboarding easier. Onboarding is an important process but it can get complicated. Creating tools help lead you through the process and this is good whether you hiring a lot of employees every week, or whether you just hire a new employee every year, or maybe even every couple of years. Having a process makes sure that you don't forget anything and that your new hires always feel like they're welcomed and they're excited to be there You should start with your human resources or HR team. They may have resources you don't even know about and they certainly have the expertise to help you through the process of creating a new onboarding structure for your unit or department or team. If nothing else, you will need to connect with the HR team to be sure that you know what legal payroll benefits, other structural details you're new employee will encounter. A stop in the HR department is a must for every new hire. So it should be for you as well as you build your onboarding process. But what if your HR department hasn't have anything, or you don't have an HR department? So whether you are working within a structure built by your HR team or you're working just within your own department, onboarding is an important step for employee engagement. Take a look at these two people here. They obviously didn't just appear on this path out of nowhere. Neither do your new employees. Depending on your organization's hiring practice, you may not meet your new hire until they show up in your office, but that doesn't mean you can't begin the onboarding welcome long before that day. Ideally, the on boarding process actually begins during recruitment, as the organization puts its best foot forward to show the new hire why she would want to work for your organization. And that same employee brand message that you used to recruitment should follow through the on boarding process and into the everyday workplace. But even if you have nothing to do with the hiring process your onboarding process can start the moment that you have the contact information for your new hire. It can happen via email or a phone call, whatever you want but you can get started early. Talk with your HR team about what if anything a new employee might be able to do before they begin. Some places have laws or restrictions that say you can't start anything, or certainly can't require anything before an employee's first day. So talk with your HR team about what makes sense. A note from you, a welcome from your team can make an employee feel really excited about starting in your organization. But let's take a structured approach to this. You really need a checklist. This checklist will be pretty bare bones that we're talking about. But you should add to it and adjust it as needed for each new hire so that you can have something that you can go back to all the time. So you're going to create a checklist that you can use for everyone or different types of new hires and then something you can adapt to each individual. So, your checklist should start with your first contact with the new hire. Again, that might include the hiring process, but for some of you that's going to be after the hiring process is done. Let's just focus on that first contact you have after the new hire has accepted your offer, and you have a start day on the books. So, first contact. This is your first chance to make a first impression. Make it count, think about how you present yourself in your workplace. This through your organizational culture, and your own team culture, and craft your message to re-enforce those cultures. Make notes about the specific things you would like or are requiring the new employee to do, and be explicit. You can give specific instructions in a separate contact, if you wish, but make sure that all the information gets to the new hire. Send an email or a text, or use whatever communication device necessary to get in contact with them, and just say hi, and welcome. Taking the time to write out an old fashioned thank you note maybe even signed by your team can also be a great welcome. Send some organizational logo materials too if you have them. That could be great. Finally. Keep things on your checklist. Keep notes. Keep ideas. What worked? What didn't? So that next time you have a new hire you won't have to be recreating the wheel and starting things all over again. The week before the new hire starts send more information. Be specific. Where should they park? What bus should they take? Where are you going to meet them on their first day? Should they come to your office or can you meet them in the lobby so they don't get lost? Give information of what will happen on the first day or even the first weeks. The new hire has no idea about what they're going to be doing. Include contact information from you and one other person in case you can't be reached. Check in with other departments to make sure things are ready. Do they have a computer? Do they have a spot on the assembly line? Do they have an office or a cube? Do they need specific tools? Make sure the appropriate meetings are set for the new hires first week too. So that they have things to do and that all of those contacts everything you need to be doing are on your checklist. Again, so when you do this again you won't have to reinvent the wheel. It's their first day. Give the new hire your time. That is the most important thing you can do. Plan time to meet with your new hire and put it on your calendar so you aren't distracted by other things. Even if the organization have other plans for your new hire's first day, try to meet with them, even if you just have to go down to the lobby and say hi as they come through. Do your best to meet with them so that you can make a good first impression. Go over the needed HR policies and paperwork if you need to but not first thing. Make the new hire feel welcome, introduce them around, and then give them a clean, comfortable work space to fill out any paperwork, maybe as a break from meeting new people as you go through the day. Plan out the new hire's first day pretty much completely, including lunch with you if that's possible, even if you both bring in your own lunches. They won't know what to do. So make the plan for them. Give them some breaks throughout the day so it doesn't get too overwhelming and maybe even give the new hire her own checklist. Have some things already checked off for them, that always makes them feel good. But this way she knows what's coming, and she knows what she needs to do over the next month. Having some things on her to-do list, helps the new hire with sense of independence as well. This first week doesn't have to be done all by you. We'll talk about that more on lesson three but make sure that there are both meetings and work time for the new hire. Think through what the new hire can do in that first week. Is there a project or a piece of a project that can be done? What an accomplishment that would be. Make sure to check in with a new hire daily, but explain that daily check-ins won't always be necessary, unless you do daily meetings with all your team members. Schedule a time on both your calendars at the end of the week for a formal check-in, to see how things are going, what questions she has and what's on tap for next week. This first month is still important. Continue to add things to new hires' calendar, though maybe not as many. Any project that could be done in one month would be great for the new hire. That way, they feel like they really contributed something to the team in that first month. Schedule a check in with the new hire at the end of the month. Again, see if there are questions. And you should be asking questions too. This new person may not be sure what to ask, or may not be comfortable asking yet. So make yourself a checklist of things to go over with the new hire, so you don't forget, and put these things on your overall checklist so you don't forget next time. These first 90 days are really important. Schedule monthly check-ins, or even weekly for these first 90 days to talk about what's going well and what isn't. And be specific, it is never helpful for a new hire to hear, I'd like you to be doing more. More what? Check in with HR. Many organizations have a 90 day point for a formal review period, and it may be the end of a probation period. So be sure you have talked with the HR team so the the team knows how the new hire is doing and you do any paperwork you need to do. Checking in with HR may also help if they are continuing to do recruiting for you, so you can help them refine what it is you're looking for in new employees. Remember that these first 90 days are the most important for getting the new hire to feel engaged, so think about giving them projects that have meaning. Ensure that the new hire, that you don't expect them to be perfect and the organization wants them to succeed, and you're open to questions. Make these first 90 days count, and make sure the new-hires met all the people that will make their lives easier over the course of their career. So it's been the first year. Keep scheduling check-ins. At least schedule one formal one in that first year. It's easy to forget that the new hire is still a new hire. If the new hire is doing a bang up job you may forget that this upcoming spring project maybe actually the first time the new hires ever seen that project. Even though you'll know it'll be back next year. Check-in, be available, give specific feedback. Make it meaningful for the new hire and keep up the feeling of an active, supportive work culture. And then, celebrate. Celebrate that new hire's first year. Even if your team doesn't normally celebrate work anniversaries, the first year anniversary's a big one. So gather your team together and celebrate. Thank everyone for helping bring in the new hire, and thank the new hire for staying in your team. Remember, look at your overall checklist. What went well? What did you forget? What do you need to add? What things can you make sure that are on your checklist that might apply to everyone, and what things do you need to keep on your checklist but might only apply to individuals as you hire them. Keep the checklist somewhere where you won't forget it because you will use it again the next time you have a new hire. Even if you hire people all the time this checklist will keep you organized as you won't forget anything and you won't let anything or anyone slip through the cracks. So tools and and checklists are really only as good as the individuals who use them, and you need to make sure that the tools are able to be individualized for each new employee that comes in. In the next lesson we'll look at some individual characteristics and some considerations that you should think about as you're creating your new onboarding process.
