Hiring and onboarding best practice
How to engage candidates from the first point of contact through to their first month as an employee
How employees perceive you as an employer begins right from their first point of contact with you or your recruiters. As such, it's imperative that candidates feel valued and engaged throughout the recruitment process.
One of the fundamental values of your recruitment process should be proactivity. Keeping in regular contact with candidates and ensuring they are kept well-informed makes them feel wanted and they will be less inclined to look elsewhere, ultimately reducing your drop-out rate.
This should include setting clear expectations throughout the process. You should be as clear as possible around timescales at each point of the process, whether that be for an initial response, or the turnaround times for first and second stage interviews. The prospect of a new role is a significant change in anyone's life, so the more you can do to reduce uncertainty in candidates' minds, the better.
Employers also need to recognise that candidates will be taking time out of their working day when attending an interview. Particularly in an era when workers are in more demand than ever, it's important to be as accommodating as possible. This might involve carrying out initial rounds of interviewing remotely in order to reduce the burden on candidates.
There's nobody better placed to judge your recruitment process than someone who has actually been a part of it. Therefore, you can glean valuable insight from getting feedback from the candidates you have been dealing with.
Whether from successful or unsuccessful candidates, this feedback gives you real-time insight into your hiring setup. This can help you make informed decisions around changes you can implement to make you a more attractive proposition as an employer to work for. Conversely, you can learn what aspects of your employer brand are resonating among your desired talent pool.
You should also offer feedback to candidates who have been unsuccessful in applying for one of your roles. Discuss the skills gap and any other areas for improvement, and if anyone came a close second behind a successful applicant, don't be afraid to let them know that.
In the pre-pandemic era when employers were very much in the recruitment market driving seat, recruiters were more prone to dropping and ghosting candidates when they were no longer of any immediate use.
By offering feedback where possible, you show candidates that you value their time and effort. You never know when you might want to get back in touch with them regarding similar roles in the future, and you don't want to develop a negative reputation among a candidate's network when you're inevitably going to recruit in that industry again.
Research has shown that a great onboarding experience can improve retention by 82% and boost productivity by more than 70%. However, it would seem few companies are nailing this, with research from Gallup finding that only 12% of employees agreed their employer has a good onboarding process.
If you want your new starter to have a positive experience and be up to speed as quickly as possible, onboarding needs to start well in advance of their first day. You can start by ensuring their workstation and assets are prepared and set them up with access to your HR system.
This allows them to seamlessly fill out any necessary documents and get more of a feel for their company and colleagues. You could then assign some initial tasks and objectives, so that the employee has a sense of purpose immediately when they join.
When the start date arrives, it is important that both HR and their line manager set aside time to accommodate the new starter. Acclimating your new employee should be your priority for the day, helping them find their feet, familiarise themselves with the working environment and meet their new colleagues and managers.
A thorough induction session is then key. From your business’ mission, products or services and history to a run-through of health and safety rules, company procedures, values and policies; a good induction can help your new recruit to start getting acquainted with your business and settle in.
While inductions are mostly handled by HR, an employee’s line manager also has a role to play in explaining any role-specific information, how their role fits into the business and any learning and development tasks that they need to complete.
Ensuring your employees are set up for success requires clear goals and objectives. Throwing them in at the deep end is likely to end in failure, so ensuring your new team member is able to ‘ramp up’ to meaningful contributions is key.
It is important that employees are immersed into their roles over a period of time. Starting a new role, learning new systems and understanding a new product or service can be overwhelming; so, don’t expect them to know everything there is to know within a matter of weeks. It takes time.
Importantly, make sure they understand the impact of their work and how it fits in with the departmental and overarching business goals.
In the early days of an employee joining your business, make sure they have clear goals and objectives to work towards. Work with their line manager to set out some goals for the first few weeks and let them know exactly what they will be expected to achieve.
The new hire should be trained on any systems and tools required to carry out their role within these first few weeks. Whether it is mastering a new CRM system or receiving key product or service training; getting your new hire up to speed ensures they can hit the ground running with all the knowledge they need.
Throughout an employee’s first week, set up informal meetings with each department. This gives helpful exposure to the functions and responsibilities of each team. Your new hire will then know what each department does, what the members of each team do and who they need to contact if they have a query.
This makes sure new recruits don’t get lost in and amongst their team members’ busy schedules. Keeping enthusiasm high is the goal here and providing your new hire with an idea of what to expect, what they need to do and where to be is essential.
Schedule regular intervals to meet with your new hire and provide them with a platform to feedback, ask questions and check-in with their line manager. Try to wrap up each day of the first week by spending a few minutes with your new hire.
If a new starter is working remotely either part or full time, these steps become all the more pertinent to keep them engaged. You'll need greater collaboration with IT and procurement to ensure they have all they need from day one. Ongoing stellar communication is essential to help them feel part of the team.
