5 Onboarding Activities You Need to Try

For new employees, joining a new company is like visiting a different country for the first time. It’s a different culture, different mindset, and even a different language sometimes!

It can be overwhelming if they don’t have a welcome process, a guide, or a roadmap to their destination. 

Setting up a seamless onboarding process can make the difference between retaining top talent and scrambling to fill the gap they leave behind. 

By including onboarding activities in this post, you’ll kickstart productivity from the get-go, engage your new employees easily, and retain great hires. 

Let’s dive in and look at onboarding activities to set the foundation for your new employees’ future success within your organization.

1. Build a Welcome Process

Creating a welcome process is a key onboarding activity. Image Source. 

The first few days in a new job are always daunting. By designing a welcome process - from the moment they’re confirmed as hired, you can make your new employees feel excited and enthusiastic instead of intimidated. 

Start by creating an onboarding checklist that outlines essential tasks, such as setting up equipment, completing paperwork, and attending orientation sessions. Also, add personal activities such as a welcome lunch with the team, a tour of the office or company facilities, and an introduction to key stakeholders.

You can create an online onboarding portal where new hires can access all necessary information in one central location. This not only helps streamline the onboarding process but also ensures consistent and accurate information for everyone. 

Consider adding a welcome video from the CEO or other leaders, showcasing the company's culture and highlighting its mission and goals. And don’t forget to update your About page or Meet the Team page to include your new hire. 

By proactively welcoming new hires with these steps, you set the tone for their entire journey with your organization.

2. Create a Network for New Employees (Buddy Program)

One way to get new employees feeling anchored and part of your organization is to create a buddy program for them. 

This onboarding activity pairs new employees with experienced ones, creating a personal, informal network that fosters a sense of belonging.

Buddies serve as mentors, offer insider tips, and guide the new hire about their job while providing answers to questions that new hires may hesitate to ask.

This strategy not only promotes relationship-building and collaboration but also speeds up the learning process. 

A new hire will quickly grasp company values, norms, and practices through first-hand interactions with their buddies, reducing their time to full productivity. 

Also, this system helps flatten the organization's hierarchy, and new employees will feel free to express their thoughts and ideas.

This networking/buddy system works if you select reliable ‘buddies’. These are team members who exemplify your company culture, listen actively, and are good at what they do. They should also be from the same team or at least know about the employee's work to help them effectively. 

This process is also a great time to identify people with leadership qualities whom you can advance to leadership roles. 

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3. Create an onboarding kit

Make new employees feel like part of the team immediately by providing them with an onboarding kit. 

This can include items such as company swag, office supplies, and a personalized welcome letter. You can also include important documents and resources to help new hires get acquainted with their role and the organization.

Another idea is to create a ‘survival guide’ that includes tips and tricks or to-do lists for navigating the company's culture and work environment. This can include things like a list of common acronyms used in the organization, instructions on how to use various software or tools, and a breakdown of team workflows.

Make a combination of digital and physical items for convenience and tactile experiences. And make the onboarding kit more than formal instructions. It’s a chance to let your employees get a feel for your company culture and be a part of your organization instantly. 

4. Add Video and Training Courses

Incorporating multimedia into your onboarding process can make it more engaging and interactive. 

Consider creating short welcome videos from different team members, introducing themselves and their role in the company. These videos can provide new hires with a better understanding of the organization's structure and culture while also putting faces to names.

You can have a central hub, and video hosting platform, where you upload videos on our marketing strategies, updates, and other core news. This is a great place for new hires to explore the company without reading extensive text. 

Also, include training courses in the onboarding content. By providing new hires with these resources to do their job, you’re setting them up for success early on. 

Additionally, integrating an AI voice generator for narration in your videos can enhance the overall learning experience, making the onboarding process not only informative but also engaging for new hires.

5. Use Automation

Automation benefits employees as much as it does HR personnel and businesses. 

Typically, onboarding new hires is time-consuming. By leveraging technology, you can streamline the workflow so you can focus on troubleshooting and adding a personal touch to the onboarding process. 

For example, using a drip-email sequence, set up a series of welcome emails to new employees. You can provide them with the necessary documents and resources and guide them through various onboarding tasks. 

Also, you need HR software to make the process smooth. Onboard by HR Cloud lets you build checklists, collect signatures, and more so that nothing slips through the cracks. 

This tool will send automated notifications to all parties so everyone knows what to do regarding tasks, approvals, and more. 

This way, new hires can transition smoothly into their roles, having completed all the necessary onboarding activities.

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Best Tips for Effective Onboarding

So far, we’ve covered important activities to carry out during onboarding. Now, let’s look at general best practices and tips. If you remember the following fundamentals, you can devise a tailored process or setup that works for your organization. 

• Maintain consistency: You want to create a uniform process for every new hire. Doing so helps new hires understand what is expected of them and what they can expect from the organization. And it saves time and starts everyone off on an equal footing. 

• Avoid information overload: It's essential to provide new hires with all the necessary information about their role, but don’t overwhelm them with too much information at once. Instead, spread the information over a few days or weeks. 

• Connect individual roles to business success: Help new hires understand how their role contributes to the overall success of the business. This not only gives them a sense of purpose but also motivates them to perform at their best.

• Allowing sufficient time for onboarding: Don’t rush the onboarding process. Typically, it can take up to six months for a new hire to fully acclimate to their new role and environment. Acknowledge this and allow ample time for onboarding. This gives new employees the time to become comfortable in their new position. 

By remembering these basic principles of effective onboarding, you make it easy for your business and the new hires to be productive faster. 

Conclusion

In short, an effective onboarding process is critical to the successful integration and retention of new employees. It forms the first impressions and sets the stage for their experience within the organization. 

There are several onboarding activities that you can implement, such as creating a welcome process, assigning a buddy, and more. 

You can even build an onboarding process unique to your organization and thus more personalized. Just remember the key principles are consistency, providing enough time, and showing people how their contributions impact the overall business. 

By following these principles, you’re ready to create a seamless and useful onboarding process for your new talents.

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Author Bio

Syed Balkhi is the founder of WPBeginner, the largest free WordPress resource site. With over 10 years of experience, he’s the leading WordPress expert in the industry. You can learn more about Syed and his portfolio of companies by following him on his social media networks.