Overseeing the onboarding process is usually the responsibility of Information Technology (IT), Human Resources (HR) and a hiring manager, and even with the combined expertise and teamwork of these entities, the process of efficiently transitioning a new hire into your company can be overwhelming for a group of individuals with other duties to fulfill.

Here, the payroll experts at Wise Consulting outline five ways to improve your onboarding process to save time, increase employee satisfaction and maintain workplace productivity.

Promote The Arrival of An Asset

Your newest hire is undoubtedly nervous in anticipation of their new job, and a smooth and positive onboarding process will increase their likelihood of staying with the company. Make your new hire feel welcome and show them that their arrival is met warmly with a small welcome gift or a desk already set up for them. Your workplace should feel like a welcoming and comfortable environment: introduce the new hire to each member of the office, go through the necessary steps of onboarding training with kindness and patience and be sure to have time scheduled to regularly meet with your new hire to ensure they are not facing any major hurdles or difficulties in their onboarding. In this way, the new hire will feel confident in their decision to join your company and experience greater overall job satisfaction. After all, everyone knows how important first impressions can be—they tend to stick!

Construct an Organized, Comprehensive and Automated Process

Effective and organized onboarding systems can improve employee performance by 11.5%, according to the Recruiting Roundtable. By implementing a system that is not only detailed and well-outlined, but automated to improve efficiency, you are likely to witness a distinct improvement in your employee’s overall productivity—just by ensuring their first day runs smoothly! An example of an automated process you can implement into your onboarding routine includes electronic forms and policy documents that your new hire can fill out prior to their first day. This will alleviate some of the boring and endless paperwork typically associated with the first day at a new workplace. In addition to digitized paperwork, consider online training videos and interactive, digital onboarding programs that can offer a new hire an engaging way to make it through the mundane yet necessary steps of the onboarding process.

Stay Consistent in Your Methods

New hires are 66% more likely to remain at a company if the onboarding system is structured. By keeping your onboarding program consistent across all new hires and optimizing your methods, you are not only likely to see higher levels of job productivity, but also significant improvements to your employee retention rates. It is important to remain consistent not only during the nitty-gritty of your onboarding training programs, but also in how you approach and articulate your company vision to your new hires. By consistently explaining your company goals and values, in addition to the specific goals and responsibilities you intend for the new hire, this will further cement their feeling of belonging at your company and increase the chance that you retain employees that share your same vision.

Consider the Value of Collaboration

The value of teamwork is limitless, especially within the workplace. By assigning each new employee to a mentor—someone who has worked at your company for a while and knows the ropes—you will notice that your onboarding program goes much more smoothly. If you have the numbers when it comes to staff, consider assigning your new hire with a team of people; that way, they can receive feedback from, and cultivate friendly relationships with, a variety of different employees with different roles. Consider how collaboration between new employees can increase efficiency as well; by hiring two people at a time instead of one, you can pair your new hires during onboarding training so you don’t have to go through the same routine twice.

Delegate Responsibilities, No Matter The Size of Your Company

Whatever the size of your company and your HR department, never feel that the hiring and onboarding process must rest completely on your shoulders. Delegating some of the onboarding tasks to your team, such as assigning mentors or teams to new hires as detailed above, can make the onboarding process seem less daunting for you as an owner while helping the new employees get to know the team. By delegating the onboarding tasks to create a system that works best for your individual business, you can remain on top of the responsibilities of onboarding, even without HR, IT or hiring departments.

Relieve Some of the Onboarding Pressures with the Help of Wise Consulting

When you consider all of the necessary paperwork, legal documents, training videos, desk setup, KPI’s and much more, the onboarding process can feel like a near-impossible feat for one individual to accomplish alone. Not to mention, if your company hasn’t adopted an organized, consistent and automated onboarding process, that will only make the process more difficult. Luckily, there is no HR dilemma that the HR and payroll experts at Wise Consulting have not seen before. Whether it’s handling the payroll processes involved in hiring a new employee, or ensuring all of the necessary paperwork is updated and compliant, Wise Consulting can help. If you would like additional information on how the payroll experts at Wise Consulting can help you manage your onboarding process with ease, contact us today!