How to Properly Onboard a New Employee

Question:

What is the biggest competitive advantage a company can have in the marketplace?

Answer:

Your Culture.

Culture is your biggest competitive advantage over the world of competitors that are lining up to eat your lunch and take your customers away. Culture has a magnetic force to attract (or repel) top talent.

Another Question:

What is the most memorable day in an employee’s work life with your company?

Answer:

The first day.  (The second most memorable is the day they leave).

Onboarding the Wrong Way:

I had a call recently with the team member of a client of mine that had joined the organization. I wanted to talk to her to find out how her onboarding experience was with the company.  She gave me a long list of things that went wrong… in other words, this was her first impression of how much the company cared that she had just joined the team.

She has been with the business for two months now.  Her onboarding experience on her first day is still very fresh on her mind.  Here’s how it went…

1. She did not have a place to sit.
2. She had to wait a week for her computer. IT has still not hooked her up to a printer yet. (It’s only been two months…  have some patience girl…?!)
3. She was not shown around and introduced to other teammates, where the kitchen is, or where the toilets are. (Maybe because they wanted her to eat her lunch at her non-existent desk and hold any biological waste elimination until she got home at the end of the day – that’s reasonable!)
4. With the above list, it should not surprise you to read that she was not introduced to:
   1. Company leadership
   2. The organization’s values
   3. The organization’s purpose, vision, strategies
   4. Her role and responsibilities
   5. How she contributes to the success of the company
   6. Other HR policies and procedures
   7. Safety and emergency procedures

In two months, she has not been told by her manager how she is doing in terms of feedback. (I guess if she is still getting her paycheck, she is doing OK… right?).  (By the way, according to Google, Millennials and GenZ’s need to hear that they are doing a good job seven times a day.)

Take this as a good reminder to review your onboarding process. It’s something you’ll want to have in check before you hire your next employee.

Robert Murray is a Vancouver, BC based Business Strategy Consultant, #1 Best Selling Author, International Keynote Speaker, and TEC Top Speaker of the Year for 2018. For further advice, insight and inspiration on how to unlock your inner leader, follow Robert on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Click here to get his weekly Tuesday Tune Up blog posts straight to your inbox.