Your hire has thoroughly impressed you enough for you to give them the job, now it’s time for you to return on the promises you made during the interview process and job specification. The onboarding process is extremely important to engage new recruits and convert them into loyal, productive and involved employees. A positive onboarding experience can provide your new recruits with a good look into your company culture and increase job satisfaction and a sense of loyalty to the organisation.

A worrying 34% of employees have reported no onboarding programmes in place in their organisation. This mistake can be hugely detrimental for a new hire’s morale and they can suffer from the lack of guidance. A survey found that 72% of new hires want to receive one to one support and guidance from their managers. If you want your employees to excel and go above and beyond for you, you must invest the same energy into them. Here are five ways to impress new hires during onboarding.

One to one support

One of the most important things to make sure your recruit feels is secure in the job and not afraid to reach out for support. You can make this normal practise by introducing an open communication policy from the onset. Allow your recruit to receive one on one contact time with their direct manager and the ability to request a meeting when they deem necessary. This way, they can receive guidance in their role and feel that their manager is getting invested and involved with their progress. These meetings can be mutually beneficial as manager satisfaction increases by 20% when they are allowed the time to coach and get to understand their team members.

Set expectations and KPIs

When starting a new job, new hires naturally want to impress you and perform well. But to do so, they first need to know what their role entails and how they can achieve this. This ties into the previous point of providing managerial support as an effective manager can guide them in the right direction to meet their KPIs. Managers can outline clear job duties and set reasonable workload expectations. In addition, they can monitor progress, give rewards and offer support to enable their team member’s personal and career growth.

Company culture

Onboarding is extremely important for cultural integration into the workplace. It can create an optimistic attitude towards the employer, a positive candidate experience and allow for quicker workplace integration. You can set out your company’s values to your hire before they start the job to allow them to acclimatise at their own pace. Expressing your company’s brand identity can allow your hire to understand the tone and voice of your brand better and therefore feel a sense of community once they start adopting these values and promoting the brand as their own.

Introduce to colleagues

Take the time to introduce your new hire to the rest of the company so that you break down the initial barrier and make it easier for them to socialise with other employees. This way, they will feel more involved with the company and more willing to stay. In addition, it’s useful to set individual meetings with your new hire and the heads of other teams so they receive a more well-rounded view of how their work contributes to the smooth running of the company. It also places a value on the work they do and allows them to feel that they are important to the company and worth the time of employees in managerial positions. If they feel the company values and invests in them, they are likely to do the same back.

Feedback and suggestions

Encourage open communication between your hire and their manager. You can do this by requesting follow-up feedback on the onboarding process itself, the work they enjoy doing most, the work they least enjoy doing and so forth. Do not reprimand them for their honesty, instead, try to cater your managerial style around their strengths and weaknesses. If they feel they cannot open up to you or be honest, this will see job satisfaction suffer and consequently, a lower retention rate with new hires.

In addition, managers can mentor and uplift their hire by rewarding them for their excellent work or their hard-working ethic. Similarly, managers can inspire change in a positive way by presenting their hire with helpful and constructive feedback to improve efficiencies. Empathising with the fact that your hire is new to the company, IT systems, people and maybe even the job role can go a long way in inviting your hire to open up to you about their professional goals and queries. This will, in turn, lead to a more positive employee experience.

Hire engaged candidates

BMS Performance source talented candidates to fill a variety of roles in sales, marketing, IT, engineering and graduate sales. We utilise a 6-step recruitment assessment that ensures we only offer the most engaged and bright candidates for the job. Register your vacancy with us today or contact us to find out more information about how we can help you.