Online Induction >> Employee Onboarding Software
Published 26/11/2022

Employee Onboarding Plan: Guide and Setup

A positive onboarding experience encourages new hires to stay in a company other than being attracted by competitors. As an employer, you want your new team to set up and start working on the goals and prepare for pretty effective onboarding. A good onboarding plan improves employee retention. Well, what is an onboarding plan? It is a document prepared by the management that outlines all activities from the recruitment phase to giving feedback.

This will commonly be part of your overall employee onboarding process, help prepare you for delivering your onboarding checklist and be part of your overall HR onboarding strategy.

Components of the onboarding plan

1) Know your team

The plan should have a relationship-building element that unites the existing team and new hires. Relationship building improves employee moods and makes them more subsequently productive. Daily interaction with the new hires takes the pressure off and sets their expectations high.

2) Know the company culture

Besides knowing workmates, new hires need to know the company culture. The seriousness with which new hires have for a company depends on whether they feel their skills are aligned with the organization.

The employer should factor employee education into the company's past, current affairs, and plans. New hires should know company owners, shareholders, core values, mission, products and services, and customers. This information helps new hires decide whether to stay or keep searching for new opportunities.

3) Know the role

The last element of the onboarding plan is educating new hires on their new roles. It is optional for new employees to know exactly what they are supposed to do because others are fresh graduates. When the two above steps are covered, the employer can easily know the duties the new hires can perform. Before starting the role, the manager should prepare a plan with objectives and a timeline for jump-starting new hires into their roles.

Best onboarding tips and practices

- Pre-onboarding

This is prior preparation for the onboarding process that eliminates errors. It helps arrange the workplace and prepare existing employees to wait for their new counterparts to welcome them.

- Assign buddy

A buddy is like a caretaker employee responsible for guiding the new hires on day-to-day activities. Assigning buddies is the cheapest and simple way to incorporate new hires into the company.

- Schedule a meeting

One-on-one meeting with new hires and existing staff encourages interaction and boost expectations and morale.

- Adequate training

As an employee, never throw your recruits into the fire as soon as they join the company. Despite the new hire's job position and skills, it is equally important to train them. The training should be aligned with working so they can master the applied techniques.

- Draft employee benefits

The motivation to wake up daily for work is salary and the related benefits. Unless you reveal what new hires will benefit from the company, they will lack the motivation to go the extra mile.

- Provide an opportunity for growth

Employees are not after working for salary and allowances; they need to work in an environment that supports their career growth. New employees are more likely to stay in a company that has programs in place to regularly train them on emerging issues in the job market and values upskilling.

- Maintain work ethics

New hires are likely to retain in a workplace where ethics are highly observed. New employees are disgruntled when they realize the company practices nepotism, racism, tribalism, and criticism.

- Customize onboarding for specific new hires

New hires are chosen for what they will offer to the company; for this matter, they need to understand their roles. An onboarding plan becomes incredibly important when customizing the onboarding process to fit every category of employees.

- Help new hires envision their future in the company

Trust and loyalty are not built by words without actions. As a manager, take the new hires through the company's successes and show them how others have benefitted.

More than recruiting new hires to the company is required to retain them. Having a well-laid onboarding plan determines their stay in the company. When new hires are satisfied with the company's culture, they make long-term decisions; otherwise, they continue searching for other opportunities.

View our Onboarding Plan

See templates, forms, content and check lists and tools to build your own: