Hiring is important.

It may even be one

of the

important areas of

a business.

Without hiring, a

company cannot

scale

It cannot

grow

It cannot

Produce

revenue

It cannot

compete

It cannot

SURVIVE.

But, there is one aspect of a business that is equally as

important as hiring:

Onboarding.

Too often, onboarding is a process that many

companies decide to

figure out as they go.

They wait for questions to get asked, respond with

inconsistent answers, give new hires a quick office tour, have them sign on the dotted line, and send them off to work.

This scenario is flawed.

Onboarding needs to be

purposeful.

It needs to be

PLANNED.

It needs to be

THOROUGH.

It needs to be

MEASURED.

It needs to be

CONSISTENT.

It needs to be

SUCCESSFUL.

If it isn’t, you’re setting your

employees up for a rocky path.

www.hrbartender.com/2012/recrui4ng/employee-­‐turnover-­‐caused-­‐by-­‐bad-­‐onboarding-­‐programs/  

25%of companies said their

onboarding program did not include any kind of training.  

60%of companies indicated

they don’t set any milestones or goals for new hires.

The result?

Turnover.

And when those unhappy employees explain that they are leaving, employers pour a lot of money

into trying to get them to stay.

But what if companies didn’t

do that?

Imagine the difference that

could make.

So, what can you do to help your onboarding program?

We’ll tell you of the most critical elements.

One of the biggest mistakes employers

make upon the initial offer is that…

Hiring and onboarding

get looped together

This is especially true of a new hire who is relocating. Amongst the

chaos of interviewing, moving, and actually starting their job,

onboarding gets lost in the mix. This is a critical mistake, and one thing you can do to alleviate this

from happening is to:

Answer their questions! WHAT SHOULD I BRING?

DO I NEED MY COMPUTER?

SHOULD I COME EARLY?

HOW EARLY?

WHAT SHOULD I WEAR?

WILL ANYONE KNOW WHO I AM?

This will take a lot of stress off of their plate. The more information you

can tell them – the better. This will allow them to get prepared ahead of time so they are in the right frame of

mind on their first day.

And while onboarding and relocation need to be treated as

two different areas, they should be complementary of one another.

In other words…

Even though relocation and onboarding are

separate processes, they need to be a part of the

same system

“How do I do that?!”

Your company can do this by ensuring that those in charge of these processes communicate

with each other. Employees should be receiving information that is

consistent across the board and is relevant to them at the time they

receive it.

Ensure that managers in charge of each area have set up a “home

base” for employees to go to. This home base should be a place (an

online wiki, Relocation Management Software, HR

platforms) where they can go to access documents or store any

information that they might need.

For Example:

Organizes questions, documents, and any

information they might need to know into one organized

area.

You can also create pre-made documents or

guides that HR departments can re-use that answer questions

ahead of time.

You should always try to have this

mindset:

minute

This will help you

remember that the

moment you get the

green light from your

candidate, they are

considered a part of

your organization.

Vetted Information that cannot be easily

obtained anywhere else

Hyperlocal information:

Commute Parking

Neighborhoods Where to grab lunch Public transportation

Local schools

information about:  

We’re going to let you

in on a little secret.

If you don’t provide

employees WITH this

information, they will turn to the internet.

You can’t control

what they find there.

And as we all know:

Not everything on the

internet is true (so try to prevent employees from looking!)

GIVE THEM VETTED ADVICE AND KNOWLEDGE FROM YOUR OWN EMPLOYEES.

THIS WAY, YOU can CONTROL THE INFORMATION

new hires receive.

And you can do this in a visual way!

By providing results in a visual format, it will

help employees digest information in a more

engaging way!

What’s the first question your new hire is going to get asked by their friends and family after day 1?

“How was your first day!?”

“How was your first day!?”

Your company’s grade for the day

“How was your first day!?”

Your company’s grade for the day

(make sure it’s a good one!)  

“How do we get a good

grade?”

1. Make sure

everyone knows the new hire is coming

There is nothing worse than getting awkward looks and

confused stares on your first day, so make sure the rest of the team knows about your new hire and

what their role will be.

One way we do this at UrbanBound is by putting up signs in the office with information about our new team

member and a welcome sign at the front door!

2. No paperwork!

Try to present new hires with paperwork ahead of their first day in

the office. You can have them come in before their start date or do some of the paperwork over email, that way

the first day isn’t filled with mundane tasks. You can also block out a few hours throughout the week to go

through paperwork gradually, as not to bombard them right off the bat.

3. Have something

waiting for them at their desk

It doesn’t have to be anything extravagant, just something to

make them feel welcomed! At UrbanBound we give new

hires a card from our leadership team, an UrbanBound water

bottle, a t-shirt, and chocolates.

4. Treat them to lunch

Lunch doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just something to get new hires out of the office and talking with other members of the team - at UrbanBound

we always go to this tiny dive restaurant down the block and it has

turned into tradition, it’s a great initiation for new hires!

5. Remember their family

“Research confirms that the failure rate of new executive hires is close to 50 percent. Most of these frustrating and expensive

failures are more the result of personal or family dissatisfaction than job-related issues.”

If your new hire relocated with a family, send them something – flowers, a card, anything!

Let them know that they are equally as important to the success of this new endeavor as your employee. And, it

wouldn’t hurt to continue reaching out to them for the first few months - if you are

hosting an event, going to dinner or drinks, volunteering, invite spouses to come along! Encouraging families to build relationships

and networks is going to make a big difference on whether or not they begin to

identify with their new city as home.

according to Forbes:

“90-day onboarding programs are rare. What is more common are one to two day onboarding programs primarily focused on educating new staff members about legal

and policy-related rules. . . as a result, firms are losing talent—HR industry studies show

that a great amount of staff turnover (possibly as high as 20%) can happen within

the first 45 days of employment. (It costs between $3,000 and $18,000 to replace

quitters.)”

www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2013/07/19/how-­‐not-­‐to-­‐lose-­‐your-­‐new-­‐employees-­‐in-­‐their-­‐first-­‐45-­‐days/  

91% of millennials

expect to stay in a job

for less than 3 years

If Millennials don’t feel like there is room for growth, they’ll look

for employment elsewhere - and soon. If you end up training and onboarding an employee just to

have them leave in a few months, it can get extremely expensive

and time consuming.

Training & onboarding a

new hire can cost

anywhere from

25%-200% of annual salary

•  Measurable and attainable goals •  Resources necessary for success •  Something to be working towards •  Benchmarks to gauge progress

Set up what success looks like in the first 90 days by giving:

If employees have something to work towards and a new skill to acquire, it will give them a

benchmark for how well they are performing.

GIVE new hires A CLEAR PATH TO WORK TOWARDS

If they don’t hit goals, reevaluate where skills need some nurturing

and plan accordingly for the following quarter!

The 90-day mark is a great time to give employees an opportunity to let you know what they’ve liked or not liked so far. Let them tell you what they want to work on, where they need help, and what you can do as their employer to help them. The main influencing factor for the current

generation in the workforce is the opportunity for growth, so by starting

employees out with a jam-packed 90-day plan, you are setting them up for success.

As you can see, onboarding needs to be

given as much attention as every other area of your

business.

Strong onboarding programs will help retention, performance, growth, and structure. Make sure

that you have processes set in place!

Happy onboarding!