Onboarding is a set of processes that enables a new employee to settle down in their new job role. However, it can easily be misunderstood with orientation in which new employees are simply provided with the instructions to start working. During orientation, the employee can complete their paperwork and help them get acquainted with the organization’s policies and work culture.
Hence, orientation can be completed on the first day, while onboarding can span a few weeks as it requires the employee to settle down into their job role. It involves orienting their work culture with the company’s work ethics and reorganizing their individual goals with the company goals and objectives.
As a result, we are sharing ten of the most common onboarding mistakes to avoid, that HR and management make when recruiting candidates. We will also be providing simple solutions to these onboarding mistakes to ensure that you avoid them the next time you onboard new hires. Let us begin with the list.
Common Onboarding Mistakes to Avoid
We are sharing 10 of the most common mistakes which compromise the onboarding process, reducing its effectiveness:
1. Standard Approach
No two people are alike and hence, a one-size-fits-all approach to onboarding would not be right for all new hires. While there are some aspects of onboarding which are common to everyone, other aspects require a personalized approach.
For example, documentation and imparting HR policy knowledge would be the same for all new hires. But, depending on their role and teammates, the way they are introduced to their teammates can be tailored separately. While customizing the onboarding techniques can be a daunting task for HR, especially when the number of recruits is high, the results far outweigh the efforts put in.
Taking the extra effort to tailor the onboarding experience for the new hire will result in a much smoother transition to the new workplace, while also improving their overall engagement rate. Hence, you should delegate engaging tasks to the new employee on their first day, which will also help the new hire feel valued.
2. Unstructured Process
Similarly, the lack of a structured approach towards onboarding is another major mistake which HRs can make during the recruitment process. Onboarding new hires require good planning since you need to tailor it according to the candidate. Hence, it is essential to have a robust onboarding plan since the candidate is provided with an offer letter.
Your company should have a general onboarding plan with all the administrative tasks allocated to the relevant teams, while the HR management can personalise it for each of your new employees. Additionally, onboarding should also include the leadership under which the employee will be working.
Having their active participation also enables a streamlined onboarding approach as the candidate can interact with their seniors and get to know their work culture better, from day one itself. It ensures a cohesive work culture which provides a new employee with a challenging and engaging work environment, enabling higher job satisfaction.
3. Neglected New Hires’ Experience
Onboarding is not a first-day process. It requires robust planning and the right implementation to become an effective recruitment tool for HR. Hence, companies should undertake effective pre-boarding techniques which will ensure that your new hires have a comprehensive idea of their new company and its work culture before they start working on the first day.
Companies have started sending ‘welcome kits’ to new employees’ homes to engage them right from the moment they have become a part of the organization. Such welcome kits can also include company policy details, as well as a brief overview of their roles and responsibilities, and their reporting manager and team’s details. For example, it can inform the new hire how to input their biometric information into the biometric attendance system.
It will provide the new employees with a complete overview of their work environment and prepare them for their first day in the office. Hence, due diligence should be given to the overall candidate experience during your onboarding process, as it enables a new hire to feel valued to be a part of their new company.
4. Overlooked Technology
Modern technologies can automate several HR tasks including induction, pre-boarding, and orientation of the recruits. It is especially useful for organizations which hire employees in bulk, enabling them to finish administrative tasks quickly.
Additionally, with the help of automation, HRs can even improve the overall candidate experience, with the help of the latest technologies like Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). Similarly, automation ensures that all employment-related data of the newly appointed team member is accurate as they are filled either by the system or the recruit.
It eliminates any scope for human error since any changes made by the user need to be approved by their HR before it is accepted by the system. Additionally, searching for this information down the line also becomes easy with the help of dedicated software that can easily store tons of data online in a secure database.
5. Avoidance of the Culture Integration
It is essential that you help your employees understand the company’s work culture while they are a part of the onboarding process. While you would have hired an individual for their talent and skillset, it is critical to ensure that they follow the company’s work ethics.
While some people can easily adapt to their new work environment, most individuals would require handholding to tune themselves with their new company’s culture and work ethic. While you can start with training sessions to orient the new staff member, simple pieces of training will not suffice for a hands-on experience.
Hence, it is essential to provide a mentor with whom the new employee can understand the daily inner workings of their team and the company in general. It will also serve as an opportunity to bond with their team member, making it easier to retain them with minimal effort. Additionally, it also signals the recruit that the staff member that their company values them to provide a mentor to ease them to settle into their new role.
6. No Mentorship Program
Speaking of mentorship, many companies simply provide training to their recruits and expect them to perform their best in their role. While they may use a performance management system to assess their performance, without a dedicated mentor, your recruit will have a hard time, putting their training into practice.
Hence, you should provide them with a mentor, or at least a buddy system, to ensure that they have enough support to undertake their tasks with confidence. Having a dedicated mentor also reduces the chance of the recruit goofing up, assuring you of efficient processes.
You can also pair the buddy system with social events to further enhance team bonding among your staff. Similarly, the management and superiors must provide the recruit with adequate moral support and encouragement to boost their confidence in their new role. Their teams should also be notified of the newcomer in their midst to ensure they have a welcoming mindset and are more open towards their new team member.
7. Lack of Recruit Feedback
To ensure the success of any employee-related program, it is critical that you take feedback from your staff. The feedback can be obtained directly or with anonymous surveys.
Once the feedback is obtained, you should analyze it and make the necessary changes to the employee onboarding process, to ensure that your future recruits have a better experience. Along with gathering feedback, it is essential to follow up on the feedback to ensure that your employees understand the efforts that you have put in to tweak their onboarding experience.
It will complete the feedback loop, ensuring a higher overall satisfaction rate among your staff. You can also enhance the quality of feedback by helping the recruit structure their feedback by letting them know beforehand when they are required to share it.
8. Overwhelming Newcomers during the Onboarding Process
Another common mistake is to overwhelm the newcomer with the number of instructions. A streamlined onboarding strategy introduces the recruit to the company policies and other relevant information at their pace, while ensuring they get the basics covered at the earliest.
However, it is observed that HRs sometimes overwhelm their newcomers with information dumps, which results in a comparatively disengaged first day of work. Similarly, employee training should be undertaken with the help of a trainer.
Ad hoc training is not advisable for new hires as it paints a poor impression of the company being haphazard with its processes. Since first impressions usually last, it is essential to ensure that the recruits get a robust idea of the basics like the dress code, office timings, etc. while management introductions, corporate subscriptions, etc. can be stretched over multiple weeks.
9. Not Setting Goals and Expectations
Another simple yet costly mistake is unclear expectations. During employee onboarding, the recruiter should provide the newcomer with an overview of their daily job and responsibilities. Since onboarding is not a one-day task, it is essential to set checkpoints for the new employee to reach and make sure they achieve the goals.
It will gamify the onboarding process, infusing a fun element into the onboarding process. However, care should be taken to ensure that these goals follow the SMART process. Various issues could happen due to mismanaged expectations, such as the recruits being less productive than required, and lowered motivation and satisfaction, among others.
Setting clear expectations with the new employees also helps them to stay transparent regarding their work style and forge long-term trust with their team and supervisors.
10. Miscellaneous Issues
Apart from the onboarding mistakes mentioned above, multiple other issues can creep into the onboarding process. We have clubbed together these issues, as they can be resolved by making the onboarding process as meticulous as possible. Since onboarding highlights the company’s inner workings for new employees, they are likely to decide whether to stay or leave depending on your onboarding experience. Hence, it is essential to plan and deploy a successful onboarding program for your company.
As for the common miscellaneous onboarding mistakes, some of the most common ones are:
- Allocating the new hires a separate cubicle from their team.
- Micromanaging the new hires, making them question their abilities.
- Failing to deliver anything which you promised the new hires.
- Assuming the requirements of newcomers rather than gathering feedback.
- Avoiding the manager’s suggestions while delegating tasks to the newcomer.
Conclusion
Those were some of the most common onboarding mistakes to avoid. Since employee onboarding provides a new hire with the inner workings of their new company’s daily activities, it is essential that you ensure that the first impression of your organization is impactful, and will actively engage them. Hence, avoiding these mistakes will also ensure longer retention rates and enhance your overall employer brand.
