Many organizations regard the onboarding process as a Human Resources formality instead of a strategic investment in retaining their newly acquired employees. Exceptional leaders, though, believe that new employees are an organization’s future, so it’s wise to thoughtfully invest in their onboarding success.
What is onboarding? It’s the structured process that integrates new hires into a company. More than an orientation or first-day welcome, it ensures new employees not only become familiar with the organization’s culture and expectations but also receive the tools and resources to succeed. Onboarding benefits both the new hires and the company.
Onboarding expert Cody B. Loveland, a guest on The Leadership and Learning Podcast, said the goal is to connect new employees’ hearts to the organization so they immediately feel part of it. “We want to make sure they feel, wow, this was a great decision. I’m so glad I’ve joined this company.”
Leadership Tip
Consider your onboarding process as a strategic investment and find ways to improve its value to your organization.
Consider these actions you can take (from the podcast mentioned above) to achieve onboarding success with new hires:
- Make them feel valued – important.
- Make them feel valuable – respected.
- Make them feel validated – their work matters.
Avoid these actions as they will hinder employee retention:
- Decide it’s an HR responsibility.
- Hire new employees without involving their managers.
- Approach new hires with a “sink or swim” mindset.
Leaders are also wise to create a strategic onboarding process for employees who have been promoted. For example, a top performer who is accustomed to working alone gets promoted to a management position and now has responsibility for supervising others. Having an onboarding process ensures a smooth transition that’s effective and productive. The result? The promoted employee thrives in the new a role, which brings results for all.
Onboarding success goes well beyond introducing employees to their new roles. It integrates them into the soul of the organization and helps cultivate a long-lasting bond.
