The cost to hire a new employee is estimated to be six to nine months of their salary and with 50% of new hires turning over in the first 18 months of employment, implementing an effective employee onboarding program is vital to transitioning your successful recruit into your next superstar.
Most organization’s onboarding is purely administrative – processing hires into the company systems, setting up payroll and distributing company policies – and while these may be a necessity, taking a lean approach means rethinking how to maximize customer (i.e. employee) value while minimizing waste.
Day one should be about employee engagement – engraining your new hire into your company’s culture, purpose and way of life. Here are three simple ways to start delivering a more meaningful welcome:
1. Eliminate the “Muda” aka Waste
Too often, new employees’ first interactions are hours spent with admin filling in paperwork, requesting system accesses and troubleshooting the new laptop – activities that are unproductive for everyone. Instead, implement an onboarding checklist that is actioned before the employee even enters the office:
- Ensure all technology (laptops, tablets, mobile devices) is set up with software downloaded, printers added, and external websites bookmarked.
- Have system owners generate user IDs and passwords ahead reducing the lag time for new employees to be able to hit the ground running.
- Get rid of the paper! With the myriad of document management options available today (e.g. docusign, adobe, pandadoc), send your new employee all the forms they need to complete electronically and skip the need to stop by administration altogether.
2. Say Goodbye to Lengthy Orientations
Why is it that we count on outdated presentation decks and handouts to showcase what our organization is all about? Your people are ultimately the core of your success so set up time for new hires to meet directly with their teammates – not only will this help them bond but your current team can bring your company culture and work practices to life.
Be transparent. If you want your newest hire to be tackling your biggest problems and delivering results, then they need to be informed. Now is not the time for broad strokes but instead communicate precisely where your company’s been and where it is headed, who your competitors are, how you’re performing against your metrics and what project deliverables are coming up. The sooner that new employees can identify with your organization’s purpose and goals, the quicker they’re able to make an impact.
3. There’s No Time like Now…
To start investing in employee growth and development! Show that you’re committed to employees’ long-term success by setting expectations about the skills that they’ll learn to use and need as they progress within your company. A detailed skills matrix – part of Propel’s management toolkit – documents the competencies employees can be expected to demonstrate while driving a continuous culture of improvement within your team.
Propel has extensive industry success helping both service and distribution organizations drive efficiencies across their shared services. Get in touch if you can benefit from our proven lean methodology to help you eliminate wasteful practices and deliver value-driven solutions.
