With vaccination calendars progressing, businesses are starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. However, let's face it, working from home is here to stay. This means new hires, onboarding and employee engagement remain top concerns and should be revisited to adapt to these extraordinary times.
The onboarding is essentially the first impression that a new hire will have of your organization and its culture. The process will give away a lot of information, from your company performance management to your employee satisfaction.
Internal communications touch on all these, and more, by connecting employees, upholding your company's values and sharing business results.
The following are 3 key steps to guarantee a successful onboarding, particularly when working-from-home policies are still largely in place.
1. Start onboarding prior to their hire date
Congratulations! You have selected the ideal candidate who you know will be a good fit for your company.
As soon as possible, start making the employee feel valued and a part of the team by providing a welcome kit, which will include all the necessary information for a quality onboarding like a comprehensive overview of their benefits and wellness package, an organizational chart and the details of the covid 19 measures taken by the company.
Consider providing a template image or video to be used on their LinkedIn, or other professional platforms, when posting about their new role.
2. Centralize information
This tip benefits your current and future employees alike. Going through a plethora of platforms or tools to find information is a thing of the past.
Centralizing your documents, procedures, training tools and learning aids is crucial to your team's time management.
Prepare a guide to help employees navigate through internal documents.
To ease your new resource into their job be sure to have that document readily available and accessible to them on their first day, along with all accesses required for their onboarding.
In order to give your new recruit a preview of what the process entails, send them a personalized onboarding plan highlighting important milestones.
3. Include current employees
Your employees are the heart and soul of your company. Next to your company values, they are what will help your new-to-role develop a sense of belonging.
Ask your new hire to provide a short bio including some fun facts and share it with your employees. Suggest they schedule a 15 minute one-on-one where they can get to know each other. You could also include their LinkedIn profile and invite your team to connect with them.
Invite your new hire to join internal committees or attend social events.
Your various internal communications will help bring awareness to your company mission, values and goals while ensure all employees feel connected.
A close collaboration between your Communication professionals (or agency) and your company management team is sine qua non to the success of your onboarding plan.
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