5 Ways You Can Onboard Your Next Hire And Set Them Up For Success

You’ve made the hire – congrats! Now, there’s a great deal of work ahead to help the new employee on your team achieve their goals and enjoy working for you. In an industry as competitive as Ireland’s tech scene, you’ll want to do everything you can to make your new employee feel comfortable, secure in their job goals, and be welcomed into the team.

 Here are tips from Talent Partners to ensure you’re prepared for the new person’s start date and how you can give them the best experience possible:

1. Draft an orientation plan ahead of time so you’re well-prepared for the new employee

 After you’ve made the offer to your preferred candidate and they’ve accepted the opportunity to join the team, the real preparation begins to ensure he or she can successfully transition into your company. To do that, set aside a few hours before the person arrives to draft a detailed plan of action for you (and for the new hire) to ensure all bases are covered the new employee has a positive initial engagement with this company. This can include putting together documents, trainings, and getting access to documents and programs that the person will need to succeed in their role.

2. Introduce your new hire to the team so they feel included

 This a simple an effective, but oftentimes overlooked, element of the onboarding plan. We have got to ensure new members of staff feel connected and part of the team and what message does it send out if colleagues are too busy to meet with them. For tech employees, this is doubly important as they need to learn the proper software and processes in place to function.

 To help onboard the person to make them feel welcome, draft an email cc’ing the new hire’s email and have it sent on their first day on the job. This will instantly connect them to key teammates and give others a sense of the person’s background, job function, and more. We know of some client company’s who email out the new employees bio a day before they start which gives some insight into their life inside and outside of the work place and allows company employees to find some common ground with the new hire.

3. Space out trainings over the first few weeks so that the new hire isn’t overwhelmed

 A new employee will no doubt have to master many processes and functions in their new role. To ensure they get caught up to speed in those first few weeks on the job, you’ll want to put together a comprehensive schedule of training sessions for that person to go through.

 What’s especially important to do, however, is to make sure these trainings aren’t all in one day or jam-packed within the space of the first week. This will only cause the new tech hire to feel overwhelmed. Plus, the person won’t likely retain the information as well as if trainings were spread out over a week or two.

4. Schedule regular meetings with the new employee to see how things are going

 As a hiring manager, you want to make sure you have open lines of communication with your new hire. Therefore, try and get meetings on the calendar with the person at regular intervals so that the person can update you on how they’re feeling as well as ask any questions or bring up any concerns.

 Beyond 1-on-1 check-ins, you can also establish an open door policy with the new hire so that they feel comfortable coming to your for help at any time.

5. Get feedback from the new hire to set others up for success

 As part of your regular meetings and daily interactions, find out from the new hire what they liked and didn’t necessarily like about their onboarding process. Ask them to be specific in their responses and make sure you take copious notes.

By doing this, you’ll get important information to help improve the experience for future employees, creating an even better onboarding process for years to come.

There are no big secrets here, but hands up how many companies have worked really hard to secure a new employee only to then see them leave in the first few months of employment. It happens and there is never a winner there.