Like customer onboarding, employee onboarding is crucial to ensuring high retention rates. Studies show that onboarding programs can increase retention by 25% and improve employee performance by 11%; in fact, employees who participate in a structured onboarding program are 69% more likely to stay with an organization for 3 years.

We find that companies routinely underestimate the importance of retention, so here’s the thing: companies sink $4,219 on hiring a single employee on average, and don’t forget about the losses and inefficiencies that you absorb when a hire is getting up to speed in their first few months. Given that you’re investing so much into hiring, you should definitely onboard your employees properly. After all, you want your new hires to contribute to the team and give you all they’ve got — not cruise along, and quit a few months later.

A Get-Going Guide

Here’s a step-by-step guide that you can use to nail your employee onboarding:

Step 1: Communicate with hires before their first day. Don’t give your hires the silent treatment in between the time that they accept your offer, and when they start work. Instead, reach out to them via an email or a quick phone call to let them know what they can expect on their first day.

Step 2: Company culture. Give your hire a copy of the employee handbook, and walk them through the benefits system. Also take some time to share about your company, and what makes it unique.

Step 3: Office tour and meeting the team. You want your new hires to be comfortable in their surroundings, so make sure you show them around the office and introduce them to the rest of the team. Don’t forget to point out where the washrooms, pantry, and water dispenser are!

BONUS: Assign each new hire a buddy, and have different departments set up welcome lunchesso new hires can get to know everyone.

Step 4: Paperwork. Between the I-9s, payroll forms, and non-disclosure agreements, there’s a ton of paperwork for your new hires to fill out. Just get them to do what’s absolutely necessary for the first day, and leave the rest to a later date. You don’t want to overwhelm your new hires with too much paperwork on their first day!

Step 5: Schedule training. Your hires will have to familiarize themselves with the tools and systems that your company is using, and depending on how complex said tools/systems are, this might be intimidating. Make sure you walk your hires through how to set everything up, and schedule formal training sessions if necessary.

Step 6: Feedback. Finally, sit down with your new hires and ask for their feedback. If they have any questions or concerns, this is where they’ll clarify them with you!

A Final Word On Onboarding

Many companies and leaders don’t assign much weight to onboarding, but the truth is that onboarding is an important activity that directly affects your bottom line. To make sure you’re not putting your customers off, or alienating yourself from your new hires, step up your customer and employee onboarding efforts today!

[Missed Part 1? Check out our focus on Customer Onboarding here!]