Onboarding is a critical stage for new and transfer hires' successful performance in the future. In fact, employees' successes and failures are directly related to the quality of the onboarding process. That's why it is crucial to provide stellar training, making sure learning is taking place.

An ideal onboarding checklist should go along these lines:

  • Detail job responsibilities, duties, schedules, and payment information to new hires to avoid negative experiences
  • Submit a job requisition document to the managers in charge
  • Gather all the forms new employees need to fill out
  • Provide all devices and tools for new hires
  • Create accounts and logins for new hires
  • Plan and implement orientation sessions

Keeping these items in mind, move on to specific milestones, which we'll detail below.

Establish SOPs

Onboarding training takes time and going through preparations each and every time can be rather troublesome. That's why you should think of crucial onboarding practices: creating standard operating procedures (SOP), among others.

Some examples include training materials (documents), instructional videos, and short online courses. You can go one step beyond and create a project management checklist (use Asana, for example) so that all trainees can tick off the finished stages.

Personalize Onboarding

Now, here's a catch: people are different. Even though you should rely on SOP, you should also allow for customization.

Basically, this means that generalized organizational orientation should be complemented with a specific onboarding plan for each new employee. It's only to be expected that people are different; what may appeal to one employee may not be so prospective for another.

That's why you should offer different advancement opportunities and training programs to suit everyone's aspirations. 

Communicate Expectations and Prospects

All serious businesses know that building trust and loyalty from day one is the key to preventing troublesome retention rates.

To prevent this practice, make sure to communicate expectations and prospects clearly, keeping the abovementioned personalization in mind.

In simple terms, employees should know what is expected of them. Leave vague directions aside and be direct. Communicate goals, milestones, future plans, and offboarding for team members.

Assign a Mentor to Each New Hire

This is the usual issue with onboarding training — too often new hires are left to search for additional answers because the training doesn't cover all aspects as it should. That's why you should devise an efficient training program that lasts as long as it needs to.

While there are no set rules in this matter, many businesses go for a 90-day plan to be able to include all aspects of the job.

It is also a good idea to assign a partner to each new employee so that they know where to go for answers. For best results, pick an employee who isn't on the same team as the new hire. This strategy allows for integrating new people.

Provide Cross-Cultural Training

This step is not always necessary, but for businesses applying hybrid work models and hiring people from different countries (and sometimes even from different regions of one country), it is highly advisable.

This doesn't have to be a complicated task; simply provide basic guidelines and create opportunities for future team members to communicate efficiently.

Make Sure There's Plenty of Time for Training

Hectic work environments too often tend to scare new hires off because they immediately throw them into the fire. This is a huge no-go. You should absolutely make sure that onboarding training is not rushed, that goals are clearly set, and that new hires have plenty of time to adjust to expectations.

Also, allow for the possibility that some employees (depending on their respective roles) may need additional training, especially when they need to learn specific processes. Make sure to accommodate this to avoid employees getting discouraged.

Make Sure New Hires Are a Good Fit for the Company Culture

Much and more has been said about cross-cultural training and diversity and inclusion agendas, but one aspect often gets forgotten.

Namely, not everyone is a good fit for the company culture. HR professionals should pay particular attention to this aspect when deciding on new hires, as some candidates simply won't fit no matter how much effort you invest in training.  

Encourage Communication and Connections

Last but not least, be creative in discovering innovative ways to help new hires build meaningful connections. For this to be possible, to begin with, make sure to encourage communication (and set up proper communication tools while you're at it!).

Think about remote new hires. They can't attend team-building activities, so make sure to come up with creative ideas to help them connect. 

Hopefully, these tips will help you brainstorm ideas for your onboarding training. Customize all you want, but keep in mind the essentials. No matter what you do, however, never lose sight of people's differences.