What are the common challenges and pitfalls of onboarding new hires and how do you overcome them?

It is tempting to believe that you can describe the culture, or even share a 20 slide presentation which explains it. You can’t. Create opportunities through which your new joiners can experience the culture. They need to see and feel it for themselves to really understand what is going on.

Put pen to paper 📝 and start with the first day. First impressions matter. How can you demonstrate your vision, mission and values from day one? When your new employee leaves the office after day one, how do you want them to feel? ✔️Informed - information about where they are going, where they will park (if driving), and who will greet them into their new office. ✔️Welcomed - Connecting socially with the new team (perhaps a welcome breakfast) having their workspace set up and IT needs taken care of, getting any badge or credentials that are needed, being walked around the office and introduced to others in the organization. ✔️Valued - Provide a written onboarding plan with information and milestones for the weeks and months ahead.

This kind of conversation has to begin with recruitment, making sure that you are asking the right questions so that the new team member knows what they are walking in to. In high volume roles however this becomes more challenging, and you need to rely on your EVP in the market and socials to work for you in attracting the right people. Once they are through your door, onboarding needs to be built contextually, ensuring that culture, vision and values are talked about with regard to strategy, structure and their role. It doesn't have to be a formal presentation at all, in fact some of the best moments are when it's given to the managers and peers to explain things in their own words, but it does have to be intentional.

It's not uncommon for there to be a significant gap between the job description and the day-to-day reality of a position. To prevent potential dissatisfaction down the line, it's crucial to address this issue early on. If certain expectations were communicated during the hiring process that were not met, it's your responsibility as a leader to rectify the situation and collaborate with the hiring department to prevent it from happening again in the future. While it may be uncomfortable, it is better to address dissatisfaction early on rather than risk disengagement or turnover.

Ideally, your recruiting and interviewing team will have had some conversations with the new hire regarding the company's culture and values before their first day. It can also be helpful to provide new hires with a copy of their job description as part of their onboarding process.

That is the reason why building trust from the very beginning is so important, to make the trainee feel happy and proud to work for the company is a key element for successful onboarding Training.

Frame your thinking so that you are prioritizing the most important things that they need to do to build their credibility with others in the organization and their confidence in their new role. Your priority number one should be setting them up for success.

Sequencing tasks and assigning priority levels to each is a great way to get new hires ramped up quickly. Providing context on why each activity is important and how it contributes to their job, success, and outcomes is crucial. Simply providing a name and job title for new hires to meet with is not enough. To ensure success and help new employees acclimate, it is important to provide them with detailed information. I.E.: "Schedule a meeting with Reggie, VP of Sales, during your first week. Ask him to share how he envisioned and implemented a new sales methodology for our inside sales team last year and the results." Just keep in mind it's important to let people know when new hires are going to reach out!

30/60/90 day check-ins are a great way to keep your new hires engaged. These meetings also allow them to share feedback on their experiences as a new hire, which you can use to improve the process going forward.

When welcoming a new employee, it's vital to make them feel like part of the team. If they can't quite crack the code of communication or don't know how to get involved, they might end up feeling like the odd one out. Plus, if everyone's always swamped or their schedules clash, it's tough for anyone to make meaningful connections.

Totally agree with this but the company needs an established culture of "curiosity and openness" and a history of "questions being asked, idea shared and positive feedback given"

This issue really is about whether you are earning trust with your new employee. The key to ensuring your new employee trusts you and your business is to focus on consistency and efficiency. It's important to remember that they are still evaluating whether this is the best use of their time and energy. Inconsistencies in information and inefficiencies that cause them to waste time can hamper the establishment of trust.

To ensure a program's success, it's essential to have a sense of ownership. This means that all information related to the program should be gathered in one place. Siloed feedback makes it difficult to make necessary updates. Additionally, leaders should communicate any changes in need as early as possible to provide ample time for changes to be made to the program. It's important to articulate the significance of these steps to achieve program success.

One of the more annoying things for onboardees is to have to go through material which is outdated or irrelevant. And it quickly shows! Once they have meetings with their buddies or managers who may contradict the material, that will not be a good first impression on your new hires. So make sure to have this feedback loop in place! Ask both the onboardee but also manager/buddy/stakeholders if there is anything inconsistent. Make this a habit after every single onboardee finished their program.

When on boarding contract staff for multiple locations or across state lines, it is imperative that your onboarding team have specific information. Here again, failure to have complete and accurate requirements will extend the process, frustrate the new hire and potentially let down a client.