You have spent valuable time, effort, and investment (both financial and emotional) on recruiting new talent, and it is now time to onboard them.  While your “new hire” may have the skill set that you are looking for, they may have no clue where to begin! Successful onboarding requires a structured approach, open communication, and effort from both the new employee and your company. Mistakes are bound to happen, but by avoiding common new hire training mistakes, you will make the transition much more seamless. Here are the top 5 new hire training mistakes that can be easily avoided, from the smallest to the biggest:

Onboarding Mistake #5: impersonal communication (especially for remote new hires)

In the world of mobile technology, telecommuting and remote offices have become the norm. Unfortunately, when it comes to onboarding, this setup can be extremely difficult.
Fallout:When communication only happens over email or the phone, simple requests such as changes to a project or handing out assignments can be interpreted a million different ways. This can lead to costly mistakes and lower productivity as your new hire struggles to make sense of their new environment.
Fix: If you are onboarding a new, remote employee, opt for phone calls and video chat where you can both hear the tone of voice and immediately ask clarifying questions. You might also facilitate online communication through a social network among your team members. Additional social networking activities should be sprinkled throughout the orientation period. Read this article on New Employee Orientation for Remote Members of Your Team for more tips for onboarding remote employees.

Onboarding Mistake #4: Not spending enough time on culture assimilation

It is important to inform your new hire about company traditions such as casual Friday or where people all go to lunch together on Tuesday. No one wants to be the new person that has to figure these things out on their own as they go, and these items will probably not be covered in any training manual.
Fallout:Not clearly communicating your business culture and traditions can undermine your new hire training efforts. The challenge arises when your employee is blindsided by a cultural norm or tradition that they don’t expect (or worse – one that doesn’t fit their values). Not feeling like they “belong” in your business can lead to loss of productivity, low morale, increased absenteeism and high turnover. For example, if your office typically has a high-stress, last-minute-panic type of environment, don’t try to pretend that your company’s culture is calm and relaxed. Eventually, your new hire will discover the truth about your culture and they may not be equipped to handle it.
Fix: Make sure you set your new employees’ expectations to truly reflect your company’s culture. Be upfront about your company’s culture, expectations, and goals from day one by building elements that showcase your culture and traditions into your online training. Rather than forcing them to learn by trial and error, you’ll let your new hire in on how things work so they can easily assimilate and feel part of the team. We have found that online videos of the leaders of organizations talking about “what worked? ” and “what did not work for them?”,along with Q&A online discussion threads can be very effective in creating a scalable, yet two-way conversation.

Onboarding Mistake #3: Not providing follow-up or listening to feedback

Olympians did not become experts overnight and neither will your new employee. Just because they have completed their initial orientation, does not mean they’re ready to be shoved out into the world without a lifeline.
Fallout:Put yourself in the shoes of your new hire. Imagine that you just went through a 1-day new hire orientation program. Now that the orientation has ended, you are on your own. There is no support in sight and no plan to help you continue to get up to speed. You may feel frustrated and like you’ve been thrown to the wolves! According to an Inc.com article on employee onboarding, this can have a negative impact on employee retention, “When we’re talking about onboarding and an employee’s first ninety days on the job, what we’re really talking about is employee retention,” Thomas says. “Without a proper plan for bringing new employees on board, managers run the risk of miscommunication of goals and expectations, sub-par performance, lower morale, bad decisions, and potentially a financial loss in the form of employee turnover.”
Fix:The questions that a new employee has on day 1 are going to be different from the questions they have on day 20. Check-in with your new employee even after you have onboarded them. See how they are adjusting or if they have any questions, and make sure they are feeling comfortable and confident. Following up with the learners about their experience over the first 90 days helps you gauge the effectiveness of the orientation program and be able to improve it. Consider introducing simple online surveys on day 1, day 30 and day 90 to gauge new hire engagement and monitor these over a period of time as you roll out new initiatives for the new hires.

Onboarding Mistake #2: Not introducing people they will be working with

New hires need to know who to direct their questions to as well as the key people that can help them to succeed in their new role. This should not be limited to just the people in their immediate team and should also include people who can indirectly help them to succeed within your organization.
Fallout:If your new hire fails to make connections and build an internal network within your company, they will not be successful. In order to succeed, your employee needs to understand the politics behind how your organization gets things done. Without this insight, your new hire’s ability to navigate their way forward will be stalled – they will be less effective and less productive.
Fix:Technology makes online mentoring and shadowing cost-effective for organizations with offices anywhere in the world. For example, we often provide a “Getting to Know the Organization” module early on in the process, which explains what the various areas of the organization do and who their key players are. The follow-up activity to this module is an exercise in which the new-hires make contact with those key players who are most directly connected to the new hire’s job. A buddy system can be very effective as well.

Onboarding Mistake #1: Not having a structured new hire onboarding program 

AND the biggest mistake you can make is… not having a well-defined new hire onboarding program in the first place. It does not have to be elaborate, but a structured approach that aligns well with the stage of your organization and the needs of the new hires. Don’t leave new hire onboarding to chance!
Fallout: Approximately 35% of companies spend $0 on onboarding. But its not just about spending money; most of these organizations do not offer any onboarding at all. This sadly leaves their new employees critically under-prepared for their first 90 days and beyond. As a result, these firms are losing talent.

Source: Kaiser Associates, Inc., Stein, Christiansen How long is your organization’s onboarding program? 6 December 2013
Studies show that a large proportion of staff turnover, as high as 20%, can happen within the first 45 days. Keep in mind that it costs between $3,000 and $18,000 to replace quitters!
Fix: For most organizations who have limited structured onboarding programs, we have found that the key challenge preventing them from implementing such a program is typically the absence of resources and knowledge. Short of going out and hiring an onboarding consultant, there are simple new hire orientation best practices that can help move the needle. And guess what? Many of these best practices can now be implemented using software solutions! You can take advantage of specialized new hire onboarding technology, which comes ready with templates and professional services of experts and not just software. You will be surprised to find out how much you can accomplish in just 3-4 weeks by inserting your existing content and knowledge into these templates.
To achieve success, onboarding programs should deliver a more seamless experience that is integrated with your business processes. To get you started with designing your new employee onboarding program, read our article Run an Effective New Hire Onboarding Program With These 4 Key Pillars and get started with four organizing pillars:

1. Early career support.
2. Orientation to your culture and performance values.
3. Insight into your strategic position, intent, and direction.
4. Activities that enable your new hire to build beneficial relationships.

Source: Kaiser Associates, Inc. 14 May 2013

Remember, the ultimate goal is to help your new employee quickly and efficiently become a contributing team member, and that can only happen if he/she has assimilated the training and overcome roadblocks.

New hire orientation ideas are indispensable to drive employee engagement beyond day one. 

First impressions will be created on day one of your new hire orientation program. Introductions and hand-holding, but what’s next? What approaches can companies adopt? What methods are being used? Who can be leveraged in the organization for orienting new hires? These questions and other initiatives surrounding new hires can be addressed effectively with the help of a new hire orientation map.

TouchPoints of the New Hire

A new hire’s early experience is highly influenced by his peers, managers, subordinates, the HR team members, and the organization’s top management either directly or indirectly. This new hire orientation map depicts the various touch points for the new hire during the new hire orientation process. An onboarding manager’s approach and initiatives should take into cognizance all touch points. We look at some ideas.

New Hire Onboarding is a Two Way Street

Employers should be open to accepting ideas and opinions from the new hires.

• Organizations like Google, Zappos etc. have Chief Culture Officers whose primary function is to gather the thoughts of employees, especially new hires and work on assimilating them into their companies, based on its merit. The openness and team spirit showed by top management is an incentive for new hires to continue to stay with their jobs.
• Integrate feedback sessions, formal and informal into the onboarding schedule. Arrange structured meetings with peers, managers, HR and training managers who in turn, collect feedback and update the new hire of the status.

Help the New Hire Hit the Ground Running

Effective New hire onboarding has learning and training and employee engagement programs integrated into its structure. All new hires, fresh graduates, and laterals need some form of training to help them assimilate into their job and start contributing at the earliest.

• Informal Learning is more effective – Create a setup where the new hire is able to learn through observations and by participating in the group discussion with peers and managers.
• Learn at your own pace – While instructor-led training programs are effective, new hires must be provided access to various online resources so that they can learn at their own pace.
• Leverage Technology – Given the attention span of today’s younger workforce, an innovative approach to learning is a must. Enterprise gamification, for instance, is emerging as a popular method for onboarding activities and employee engagement. Cap Gemini’s enterprise gamification consulting paper highlighted the InMobi case study in which the Mindtickle Gamified social learning platform was used for new hire onboarding.
• Pay attention to sales – for a sales-specific onboarding checklist, take a look at this specialized resource to optimize their learning and ramp time. 

Engage the New Hire

Early engagement of the new hire is critical to the success of the new employee orientation program. Employee engagement is no longer just about motivation to contribute as an individual but to be aligned to employer business goals and customer requirements.

• Early engagement – Involve the new hire in group activities with peers.
• Frequently schedule team lunches with senior members frequently.
• Organize team building activities involving other team members as well.
• Aligning the new hire with the company goals and customer needs (if in sales and marketing) at the earliest is critical for their performance.

Look out for Leaders

Companies are always scouting for that special talent with leadership abilities. Onboarding managers and senior leaders should leverage the onboarding phase to identify this talent and fast track them into the organization’s existing leadership development programs.

The line of Sight – Career Decision, Not Just a Job

Popular question managers ask their new hires, “Where do you see yourself in the next 2 years, 5 years?”. An onboarding program provides an opportunity to gauge the long-term goals of the new hire at the earliest. Onboarding managers can team up with manager and peer-mentors during the new hire orientation program and help the new hire make a career decision.

Organizational Socialization

A study by SHRM Foundation titled Onboarding New Employees: Maximizing Success refers to organizational socialization as one of the approaches to onboarding. According to this study “Every organization has its own version of the complex process through which new hires can learn attitudes, knowledge, skills, culture, and behaviors”.  While onboarding researchers term this as organizational socialization, the basic idea is to ensure that the new hires feel welcome and are prepared enough to make contributions at the earliest. Employers of choice have recognized the possible role of peers, managers and top management in helping an individual contribute to a company’s growth – another testimony to Organizational Socialization.

So, what new hire orientation ideas does your organization implement after day 1? What has worked, and what hasn’t? Do share in comments.

Ask yourself, is your new hire training everything it needs to be to prepare your employees for today’s business challenges? If you have a feeling that your new hire training could be even a little bit better, consider these sobering statistics.

According to the Wynhurst Group, the cost of losing an employee in the first year is estimated to be at least three times their salary. What’s more, 22% of staff turnover occurs in the first forty-five days of employment. For any business, training is an investment in your resources, money, and time. If your training isn’t engaging, it will have a detrimental impact on your business. It could lead to lower employee productivity, high turnover, and lower customer satisfaction.

If you haven’t considered engaging your trainees with content created with thoughtful consideration of their onboarding journey, now is the time to begin. Let’s explore the benefits of an engaging new hire training program and how you can get started with creative, engaging programs and materials.

Benefits of an Engaging New Hire Training Program

Beyond the significant cost savings and the productivity gains, there are many benefits to investing in adding more engagement to your new hire training. With a more engaging new hire onboarding program, you’ll help employees deliver better results and be prepared to manage future challenges.

An engaging new hire training program can have numerous benefits to both your company and your new hires. These benefits include:

1. More Productive Employees. If an employee is properly engaged during new hire orientation, they are more likely to pay close attention to their work and ensure that all procedures and processes are being properly followed and that they are performing to the best of their abilities.
2. Loyal Employees. Investing in your employees by properly training them is extremely important when trying to build a long-term relationship with a new hire. If your new staff member feels like they have been properly trained and supported, they are more likely to feel emotionally invested in your company. This not only increases employee loyalty, but it also can aid in decreasing your turnover rate. Many companies fail at this initial step because they think that training only means setting up the new hire’s workstation.
3. Better Information Retention. When new hires are truly engaged in their training, they are less easily distracted and hence retain more information.  This is valuable because it means that re-training is less likely, and new hires who are more invested in their new positions are also less likely to add to your turnover rate.  While your new hire training does not necessarily need to be a carnival of entertainment, it should incorporate the unexpected – and that means providing a training curriculum that strays off the beaten path.

Ideas to Make Your New Hire Training Program More Engaging

Now that you see the benefits of engaging your new hire, it’s time to step up your training program. No more delivering training that causes new hires to nod off to sleep or miss most of the content because they view it as monotonous and boring.

A few ways to engage your new hires during training include:

• Start engaging your new hires early. Investing the time to engage your new employee beyond the first several weeks will help them feel valued and appreciated. A mistake that is often made with new hire training is that the introduction to company policy and the procedure is done within a small time frame. With all of the information that they need to absorb, it can be like trying to drink from a fire hose. New hire training cannot be adequately accomplished in a matter of hours or even one eight-hour day and instead should be done slowly and over time in order to properly engage your employee.
• Incorporate Quests and Challenges as Part of Your New Hire Training Program. Take your new hires on an online learning adventure.  By taking your new hire on an online learning adventure, you can create a landscape that will help your new hires feel involved in the material that they are learning and increase their enthusiasm for both the material and your company.
• Create Videos and Mix them in With Your Powerpoints. Videos have the power to engage all of our senses – it is the most powerful medium available to us. Although it can be more expensive to create video content, there are many ways to keep your costs low. If you are stumped on how to create fresh video content, you can even repurpose your old presentations into awesome new training videos.
• Create New Hire Mentorship Opportunities. New hires need to see and experience what they learn in practice. Assign your new hire a mentor who can guide them through the initial onboarding process. This mentor can be someone whom your new hire can reach out to if they have questions about company policy or who they should address specific questions to. The personal relationship with the mentor during the new hire training will make your employee feel more connected and invested in the company from the start.
• Establish Goals. Goals give your employees something to reach for. As they achieve one set of goals, new goals should be established. This step-by-step process helps them feel they are making progress and that inspires them to keep moving forward. Don’t forget to reward new hires for doing a good job. This may sound simplistic, but positive reinforcement is powerful.
• Foster Intrinsic Motivation. Use internal incentives to foster a more holistic approach to learning. Implement the principles of autonomy, mastery, and purpose in your training program to start building a better performing organization from the inside out.

If your new employee is engaged and encouraged to participate during their training, they will be more likely to retain the information that is presented to them and they will be ready to excel. A well-trained employee is one that is prepared to succeed in their position. The best way to help an employee become prepared to succeed is by engaging them during new hire training.

So often in the recent decade, we have read reports revealing the impact new hire orientation programs have on new hires and organizations working on arriving at an effective program for their employees. But the million dollar question is “Is the new hire orientation program a success?”

Like any process, new hire orientation programs requires consistent measurement and reporting. Organizations can only reliably measure the impact and effectiveness, i.e. whether the new hire orientation program has achieved its objectives if relevant data is being captured at appropriate stages of the onboarding program.

Just as there is no one new hire orientation program that fits all, there is no one way to measure the effectiveness of the program. Factors influencing can be company size, employee demographics, business objectives, but most importantly identifying what needs to be measured and when.

Look at the larger picture

Here’s a hint. Measure those aspects that directly contribute to your business goals. Establish a baseline, which is more or less similar for most organizations – Rate of employee turnover or retention, time to productivity and employee satisfaction.  Once the areas to be measured are identified, integrate methods for periodic assessments into the onboarding program.

Numbers say it all – quantitative data

It is human tendency to associate numbers with every process, onboarding is no different. But which of these numbers help us determine the success of the onboarding programs?

1. The headache of the modern business – employee turnover
This critical figure helps you identify the success or an employer as well as the onboarding program as it is directly tied to the business goals of the organizations. Organizations can compare figures of the year gone against figures obtained as early as 3 months after the onboarding program is completed to avoid early-stage turnover.

2. Headcount Vs. output – performance and effectiveness
Time to productivity should be measured both at an individual level and team level. Organizations often assess a new hire based on the time taken by him to contribute to the team’s performance against the average 6.2 months, as stated in the book “The First 90 days” by Michael Watkins. However, assessing teams can take the “headcount vs. output” approach. For example, let’s take this scenario. If Today your team of 8 (comprising of a few new hires) completed a task in the designated time effectively as opposed to last year, when a similar team of 10 was required to complete the same task at the designated time, then it is obvious that not only has the time to productivity improved vastly, but have contributed to cutting costs as well. A simple tool to capture this data is to use an onboarding software product that suits the needs of your employees. Automated systems help capture data pertaining to performance, onboarding checklists, training schedules milestones etc of the new hire.

The Human element – Qualitative Data

Modern day new hire onboarding programs have digressed from focussing only on forms and tasks to the emotional aspects of employer-employee bonding. Hence the need for qualitative data. Onboarding managers’ need to conduct periodic assessments with the new hires and assess both employee and employer goals at intervals best suited to the team and the organization.

1. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may – Not to sound poetic, but this is exactly the point
The simplest of tasks when compared to the Himalayan challenges coming ahead, assess the needs and wants of the new hire early, as early as the pre-onboarding phase or the first week of joining. This information can be obtained by simply asking a few questions to the new hire and consulting the hiring manager. It is critical to plan the coming months of the new hire.

2. Is your new hire engaged?

The answer to this question clearly indicates the effectiveness and success of your new hire onboarding program. But, how do you actually measure if an employee is engaged enough?

Put together a survey of questions that relate to the new hire understanding of the following topics,

1. the company culture and his job,
2. his role in the team,
3. His first likes and dislikes etc.
4. Alignment With company goals

The timeline of when these assessments have to be conducted pay a crucial role in determining the success and will depend on the needs of the organization. For example, some employers will need to assess early engagement levels as soon as 30 days into the onboarding program.

3. Have you met the expectations of the new hire and vice versa?

After an early assessment of needs and wants, it is important to take feedback from the new hire. Schedule an informal meeting a few weeks into the onboarding program to discuss the new hire’s satisfaction regarding what has been provided to him. This may also be a good time to put forward the company’s expectations for the new hire.

4. Have the objectives of the Training programs been met?

The progress of training programs needs to be reviewed and assessed periodically. An integral part of any onboarding program, training through formal and informal learning help new hires reach proficiency levels.  Scheduling formal meetings and collecting feedback regarding these training programs help onboarding managers decide on how effective the training has been and if the approach needs to be changed.

5. Is the new hire a team player?

While an individual’s performance can be categorized as quantitative data, a new hire’s contribution to the morale of the team, proactive participation in sharing team responsibilities etc. is rather a qualitative metric that is critical for the success of an onboarding program. A feedback can be obtained from the new hire’s peers and managers to determine the new hire’s assimilation into his team.

6. Do exit interviews have a point?

As a Manager what frustrates you more, the fact that your best employee has resigned or that you do not know the actual reason for his resignation. This may not fall under the realm of onboarding programs, but as exit interviews are not of much value, employers can adopt stay interviews which are conducted during the course of the employees’ tenure with the company and can help employers cater to the needs and in turn help retain the employee.

Regardless of the tools and metrics involved in measuring the success of new hire orientation programs, it is important that both qualitative and quantitative data should corroborate. An onboarding manager should deduce similar conclusions from both sets of data gathered and then in lies the success of new hire orientation programs. How are you measuring the success of your new hire orientation program?

Pre-Onboarding is a big miss when it comes to a new hire orientation program. Organizations have a tremendous opportunity to address their recruitment, retention, and productivity challenges by leveraging pre-onboarding.

Do you remember the moment when you received the final offer letter of your first job? Chances are that you are reliving the moment as you read this. A brand new job also generates similar excitement. It is this excitement that is omnipresent during the pre-onboarding phase- the phase between a new hire’s offer acceptance and her joining. Smart organizations can leverage this feel-good atmosphere to their HR advantage by setting the tone for the upcoming new hire orientation program. Is your organization taking advantage?

Sustain the Excitement – They impressed you, now it is your Turn

Pre-Onboarding  is a golden opportunity to sustain the euphoria of a new job. Questions and doubts abound at this stage for a new hire. Answering these questions and creating structures for addressing their doubts is a good first step to keep the conversation going and keep them excited. A new hire orientation program usually addresses this, but organizations have an opportunity to start early with pre-onboarding. By simply engaging with the new hire periodically during the pre-onboarding phase, employers can sustain the enthusiasm and eagerness of the new hires.

• Help them Search – New hires often search for information about their employers on the internet. Be proactive and help them look at the right places. Providing links to blogs, announcements, company policies, and procedures and newsletters via email would set the ball rolling.
• Bring them In – Guest level access to the organization’s enterprise social network could do wonders. If your organization does not have one, create a group on public social networks like LinkedIn as a means to introduce the new hire to the rest of the team.
• “I Belong Here” – Socialization is an integral part of a new hire orientation program; socialize early by inviting them to team building activities. If the location of the new hire is a constraint, arrange for online participation.

Manage Uncertainty – Will the New Hire finally join?

The latest Aberdeen report “Onboarding 2013 – A New Look at New hires” reinforced its earlier finding that organizations believe that about 90% of employees decide to stay within the first year. While this statistic has been the driving force behind organizations taking up new hire orientation program seriously, there are instances where a new hire, even after signing on the dotted line, decides not to join. Over the last few years, organizations have been witness to a trend where new hires do not turn up even after accepting offer letters. And this is where pre-onboarding can play a critical role.

From a new hire’s perspective, the pre-onboarding phase of new hire orientation program also brings about a sense of anxiety. Constant communication between the organization and the new hire can help contain this anxiety. By initiating a few simple actions, a new hire onboarding manager can not only counsel the new hire, but also deduce with confidence if they are at risk of losing the new hire.

• Schedule Interactions – Structured calls to discuss the new hire’s job and role will help orient the new hire towards the organization’s business objectives early on.
• Paperwork – The Aberdeen 2013 research suggests that getting the new hire to complete the tactical aspects (forms and tasks) in a timely manner helps him contribute to business driven projects at the earliest. This step may be boring, but initiating and completing it brings in a formal sense of belonging.

ROI – Help new hires get Productive at the earliest

In the book “The First 90 Days” Michael Watkins puts the break-even point of new hires at 6.2 months. According to the book, new hires consume value for the first three months and only then begin contributing. Research from Aberdeen also indicates it is because of this that only 62% of new hires meet their first performance milestone on time. Thus, pre-onboarding offers a wonderful opportunity to further shorten this 6 month period.

• Let the Training Begin – Incorporate learning during this phase. Utilize this time to share research in the form of published documents and white papers, in a consistent manner.
• Understand the New Hire – This transitional phase can be a good time to identify what resources can help the new hire when he starts working. It helps the managers identify the right mentor to be assigned and helps the mentor prepare for the new hire. Frequent interactions can help the onboarding manager identify the special qualities the new hire may possess. Identifying these qualities can help the onboarding manager map goals and targets for the new hire.
• Great Expectations – The new hire can also utilize this pre-onboarding phase to understand the expectations from the organization. This prepares the new hire and improves the chances of contributing productively to business objectives.

Is your Organization taking advantage of pre-onboarding? If no, why? If yes, what worked and what did not?