
Alexander Heinle
Alex is a marketer at Zavvy. On this blog, he mainly shares insights gained from discussions with selected experts and from helping our customers set up and improve their onboarding or learning programs.
Did you know that 88% of employees believe their company fails to do a great job with the onboarding process?
And that a positive onboarding experience makes employees 69% more likely to stay with a company for three years?
Conclusion: you need a solid onboarding process not to lose your employees to your competitors.
A robust onboarding process is an often overlooked cornerstone on the path to success as a company. Besides boosting employee retention, it also ripples positively into productivity.
This article will guide you through a successful employee onboarding process.
You'll walk away with a ready-to-use employee onboarding checklist.
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An onboarding plan outlines the steps of integrating a new employee. The whole process can take from a couple of months to a year.
We suggest using a 90-day plan to help your new hires gain confidence and feel ready to work independently – and smash it in their new roles!
Ideally, the onboarding plan starts before the employee's first day to make them feel welcome and soothe their nerves.
If you had a new hire start tomorrow, would you know how to best onboard them?
A thoughtful onboarding process is needed for your business to reach the top 12% of companies doing a great job at onboarding. And it comprises quite a few steps: preboarding alone comprises 75+ tasks at Twitter.
With a detailed onboarding plan in place, you don't need to sweat it.
Save time by automating it!
Even if you're busy with deadlines and stakeholder meetings, you're just a few clicks from giving your new hires an excellent onboarding experience – over and over. It will look like you've spent hours preparing for their arrival (don't worry, your secret is safe with us!).
Since the process is so complex and involves many stakeholders, it's paramount to keep track of every step.
Besides informing the new employee of the agenda, you need to ensure that every participating person – the manager, team leader, and mentor – knows exactly what you need from them and when.
A smooth onboarding process helps your new hires:
Besides, it helps avoid common pitfalls from you as an employer – such as forgetting to order a new laptop or requesting access to the relevant software.
Here's our suggestion for a comprehensive plan to include in your onboarding programs.
Download our new hire checklist and sample onboarding plan for new employees to easily create your custom onboarding process.
As a rule of thumb, each activity relates to one of the five C's of onboarding.
Tip: If you edit the onboarding checklist template, verify that the task falls under at least one of the five C's: compliance, clarification, culture, connection, and check back.
✔️ What are your products and services?
✔️ What is your company's competitive position in the marketplace?
✔️ What is the mission of your company and product(s)?
✔️What is your market brand?
➡️ Check out our Work From Home Policy Template: A simple structure and best practices for your hybrid or work-from-home policy.
➡️ Get compliance in check with Zavvy's ready-to-use Data Security training template. It covers topics like phishing, password management, GDPR, and more.
A successful onboarding starts with preboarding.
You only have one chance to make a first impression – so make it a good one!
Tip: Encourage team members to engage with the post and express their excitement.
Tip: Ideally, the onboarding buddy embodies the company values and knows your new hire's role.
Tip: Going that extra mile can make a difference and turn your employees into avid promoters of your workplace. And happy employees translate into lower turnover and higher revenue.
Tip: The plan should be in the hands of your new employee as soon as possible.
Here are some examples: a podcast, a free online course, or even a game, depending on what your employee is learning.
💡 Discover 11 best practices to boost new employee engagement.
As the first month has passed, you and your new hire should have completed most of the housekeeping. Now your employee can dive deeper into their tasks. Here's where role-specific training takes a more significant portion of the onboarding tasks.
During the last month of the onboarding, the transition from new hire to core team member should take place.
The advantage of a 90-day onboarding process is that your employee won't feel thrown into the deep end of the pool and expected to know everything.
➡️ Ditch tedious checklists for an onboarding experience your employees will remember with an automated onboarding workflow.
Employee onboarding is an investment in your people – and, thus, your company.
A great onboarding plan should be comprehensive, but it doesn't need to be complicated from an admin perspective.
Use an automation tool to create an onboarding experience that stands out and delivers information and integration beyond what a dull spreadsheet can convey. It will pay off in more loyal employees – and save you time to focus on your zone of genius. Win-win!
Zavvy lets you create an automated onboarding process that still gives a memorable onboarding experience with a human touch. Many of our clients appreciate how easy it is to use – even for employees who aren't tech-savvy:
Time is money – and we're pleased to see how one of our clients, Storyblok, has saved 15 hours weekly while scaling the company!
Imagine what you could create with 15 extra weekly hours.
If you want to experience getting your people productive faster while saving a lot of time, reach out for a free 30 minutes demo!
You can use it for inspiration – our advice is to edit it and make it your own. Use it as the basis for planning your automated onboarding workflow.
Usually 3-6 months – but sometimes a whole year. The duration of the onboarding process depends on factors like the role's complexity and the amount of training needed. What resources you have access to also matters. Many companies have way too short onboarding processes, resulting in a lack of confidence and productivity.
The four phases of onboarding are:
Whether you keep it to 3 months or an entire year, don't forget to include these in your onboarding process.
Upskill your team every week with the best contents and personalized recommendations.
Did you know that 88% of employees believe their company fails to do a great job with the onboarding process?
And that a positive onboarding experience makes employees 69% more likely to stay with a company for three years?
Conclusion: you need a solid onboarding process not to lose your employees to your competitors.
A robust onboarding process is an often overlooked cornerstone on the path to success as a company. Besides boosting employee retention, it also ripples positively into productivity.
This article will guide you through a successful employee onboarding process.
You'll walk away with a ready-to-use employee onboarding checklist.