Onboarding Archives - Page 2 of 2

Giving new hires a proper welcome is essential to the foundation of an engaged and productive working relationship. First days and weeks are filled with new information and learnings for new employees, so developing a system for onboarding and orientation that adequately supports them is paramount.

Data by SHRM shows that providing a standardized and comprehensive onboarding and orientation process can boost employee productivity by 50%. Which is reason enough to want to ensure your new employees have a positive first impression of your company from the start.

Here, we’ll take a look at the difference between onboarding and orientation so you can properly implement each procedure to support your new employees.

Defining Onboarding and Orientation

You might be thinking, is there any difference between onboarding and orientation? It’s true that the two share many similarities but their key differences lie in their purpose. You can think of onboarding as the overall process (a pie, if you will) and orientation is a component of that process (a slice). Let’s define the two to understand the difference between onboarding and orientation.

Onboarding

Employee onboarding is the process of integrating and assimilating new employees into your organization. It involves providing the necessary support, guidance, training, and resources to help new hires adapt to their roles, become familiar with the company’s culture and values, and develop the skills and knowledge needed for success. The onboarding process begins the moment they accept the job offer, and it can last for several months. The onboarding process aims to facilitate a smooth transition for new employees, foster engagement, build relationships, and align them with the organization’s goals and objectives.

Orientation

Orientation, on the other hand, is the process of introducing new employees to their new workplace and providing them with essential information and resources. It involves sessions that may cover topics such as company history, mission, vision, values, code of conduct, benefits, HR procedures, safety guidelines, and initial training related to the immediate job responsibilities. The orientation process typically takes place in the early days or weeks of employment and aims to familiarize new hires with the company’s policies, procedures, organizational structure, work environment, and basic job expectations.

The Difference Between Onboarding and Orientation: A Comparison Table

Onboarding and Orientation Benefits

We know that onboarding and orientation bear the fruits of increased engagement and a boost in employee productivity. But considering the difference between onboarding and orientation, let’s examine their unique benefits.

The Advantages of Orientation

A physical (or remote) tour of the office allows new hires to get used to their new workplace.
Introduction to the company policies and procedures keep new hires informed of expectations and norms.
Q&A sessions help HR managers have a better understanding of new hires’ concerns and give them an opportunity to address them quickly.
Materials given to employees serve as a reference guide throughout their employment.

The Advantages of Onboarding

- Employee specific support and job training lead to increased job satisfaction.
- Company culture practices foster a sense of community, leading to higher rates of employee retention.
- Social interactions and team building promote employee buy-in, and result in a stronger sense of ownership over their performance.

Make the Most of Onboarding and Orientation

To make the most of onboarding and orientation, it’s essential to adopt a proactive and engaged approach. Follow these best practices to increase the impact of your employee’s first days, weeks, and months on the job.

Begin the onboarding process as soon as your new hire confirms their offer acceptance. Conduct orientation within the first few days of employment to provide immediate information and resources. Follow up with the remainder of a well-structured onboarding program that spans several weeks or months to support new hires as they integrate into their roles and your organization.

Dual approach

Recognize the unique differences between onboarding and orientation. Use orientation to cover essential information, policies, and immediate job-related training. Then, transition into onboarding to focus on long-term assimilation, skill development, and cultural alignment.

Clear communication

Communicate expectations, goals, and objectives clearly during both onboarding and orientation. Provide new employees with comprehensive information about your company’s vision, values, and performance standards, ensuring alignment and clarity from the beginning.

Pro tip: Download our employee onboarding checklist to ensure a clear and consistent onboarding process for your employees.

Mentorship

Pair new hires with experienced employees as mentors. This fosters a supportive environment and helps new employees navigate their roles, build relationships, and feel more connected to the organization.

Continuous feedback and evaluation

Regularly check in with new employees to provide feedback, address concerns, and gauge their progress. Encourage open communication and create a feedback loop that helps refine the onboarding and orientation processes for future hires.

Personalized approach

Tailor the onboarding and orientation experiences to individual needs as much as possible. Recognize that each new employee has unique strengths, weaknesses, and learning styles. Customize training and support to optimize their integration and development.

Pro tip: For an extra personal touch, check out these new employee welcome kit ideas for increased engagement.

Engagement opportunities

Incorporate interactive activities, team-building exercises, and networking events throughout the onboarding and orientation processes. This helps new employees connect with colleagues, build relationships, and feel a sense of belonging.

Ongoing support

Provide continuous support beyond the initial onboarding and orientation phases. Offer opportunities for further training, development, and mentorship to ensure long-term success and growth for new employees.

By following these best practices and leveraging the distinct benefits and differences between onboarding and orientation, organizations can create a seamless and effective process that sets new employees up for success in their roles and fosters a positive and productive work environment.

Increase Engagement with Omni

Understanding the key differences between onboarding and orientation allows you to leverage each process to best prepare your new hire.

Both employee onboarding and employee orientation are designed to facilitate the talent management process. When used together, they contribute to the success of your company and the talent within it. Rather than administering these practices through manual processes that require data entry, time consuming follow up communications, and lots of paperwork, consider leveraging Omni’s automated onboarding system to streamline and simplify your onboarding process.

With Omni, you can utilize our expert-built onboarding templates, employee communications, and automated workflows to provide a consistent onboarding experience that increases engagement and retention. All of our onboarding modules are highly customizable to serve the unique needs of your business and employees.

Get in touch with our team to try a 14-day free trial today.

You’ve put in countless hours reviewing resumes and interviewing in search of the perfect candidate and have found the right person to join your team. But the work of securing the right person for the role isn’t complete just yet. Your onboarding process is a crucial part of the recruitment journey, and can have a lasting impact on the culture of your organization.

It’s imperative to provide new hires with a great first impression as it sets the tone for their experience. With the right onboarding process, you can increase your company’s productivity, reduce costs, and reduce attrition for new hires.

What is Employee Onboarding?

Employee onboarding refers to the processes in which new hires are integrated into your organization. It includes activities that allow new employees to complete an initial new-hire orientation process, as well as learn about the organization and its structure, culture, vision, mission and values.

Who is Included in the Onboarding Process?

The employee onboarding process involves more than just your newly hired employee. As a tool to integrate employees into your company, HR, managers, and even your new hire’s colleagues all have a part to play in the onboarding process.

Human resources of course drives the process of onboarding, taking a main role in initiating programs, gathering information, leading communication efforts, and being the overall main point of contact for new hires.

Managers also play a key role in the onboarding process as they typically take the lead in getting new employees adequately trained and interacting with their new team members.

Employees both on the new hire’s team as well as across the organization are included in the onboarding process as they welcome and encourage new hires as they acclimate to their new role. Onboarding activities such as team lunches and all-hands meetings are an example of areas in which employees participate in the onboarding process.

Why is the Onboarding Process Important?

An intentional employee onboarding process is necessary to help new hires settle into the workplace, learn about the company, clarify career goals, and form productive relationships with their peers. Onboarding is the foundation for an engaged, productive, and positive workplace, and should be thought of as a tool to drive retention as well as positive business outcomes.

Onboarding doesn’t just matter to HR either; 69% of employees are more likely to stay at their company if they receive a quality onboarding experience. And for managers, employees that participate in a comprehensive onboarding process have as high as a 70% increase in their productivity. Companies that are committed to creating and maintaining a strong company culture regularly audit and measure their employee onboarding experience to assess its effectiveness, making continuous improvements and adjustments to best serve their employees.

Step-by-step Guide to a Successful Onboarding Experience

There’s a lot to cover during the onboarding process. To help structure and simplify your onboarding process planning, as well as create a digestible experience for your new employees, we recommend breaking the process into 4 main milestones: before the first day, on the first day, in the first week, and in the first month.

Also known as pre-boarding, the onboarding process starts the moment an offer is accepted and signed. As soon as you have confirmation of job acceptance, begin preparing new hire paperwork, drafting and planning communication with your new hire, and engaging with teams such as IT and management to begin preparing for the employee to join the company.

Communications

One of the primary components to building an engaging company culture is by creating a warm and welcoming environment for employees. This often happens through consistent and considerate communication practices. When your new hire joins the company, send them an email congratulating them on their new role, offer your support, and drum up excitement around them joining the company. Internally, communicate with the team to inform them of the newcomer and share some information about the role they will be filling. For some inspiration and guidance on writing a welcome email to new employees, download our Employee Onboarding Email Templates.

Be sure to make yourself available to the new hire both during the onboarding process and beyond to help answer any questions or share more information to better prepare them for their new role.

New hire paperwork

HR pro’s already know, paperwork is a huge part of the onboarding process. Begin preparing the necessary paperwork for your new hire as soon as their offer is accepted to allow time for them to review, ask questions, and complete the necessary documents for their onboarding. To help keep organized and avoid forgetting any important documents, download Omni’s Complete Onboarding Checklist.

Prepare existing employees

The onboarding process isn’t strictly HR’s business. Many other employees within the company play an integral role in welcoming and preparing a new employee for success in their new role. During the pre boarding process, connect with the new hire’s manager and team to align on any training that the employee will need, mentors that need to be assigned, team lunches to be planned, and email lists the employee will need to be added to. By preparing these details in the pre boarding stage, you avoid any delays once the employee has officially started their role, and present as a united front with their new manager and colleagues.

Equipment

Upon receipt of an offer’s acceptance, it’s a good idea to set the work streams for employee’s equipment in motion.This most often applies to liaising with your IT department to get email addresses assigned, computers procured, and any security clearances taken care of prior to your new hire’s first day. If this sounds like a lot to keep track of, that’s because it is! Onboarding checklists are HR’s best friend as they help keep you organized and prevent you from forgetting any of the various tasks necessary to complete your onboarding process.

On The First Day

When it finally comes time to welcome your new employee for their first day, the pre-boarding tasks of your onboarding process should be complete, and have set the stage for the rest of the onboarding experience. Now it’s time to further demonstrate your great company culture by providing a warm welcome and getting them up to speed on what their day-to-day will look like.

Cover the basics

It may sound simple, but the importance of giving your employees a lay of the land on their first day is invaluable to making them feel welcome and prepared. Be sure to cover the basics by showing them around the office, pointing out where their colleagues are sitting, and how to work the coffee machine. If you’re a remote company performing a remote onboarding process this may look like sharing relevant Slack channels, going over their calendar, and checking to ensure they understand how to use the equipment you sent them.

Make introductions

Whether in person, over Slack, or in a staff meeting, create an opportunity early in the day to introduce your new hire to the company. Since you’ve already prepped employees during the pre-onboarding process, your teams will be primed to expect this new employee and ready to give them a warm welcome. However you introduce them, be sure to make it fun and express your enthusiasm in having them join the company. Check out our guide to new employee welcome messages for best practices and examples to pull from.

Personalize the process

Amid the formalities of the onboarding process make room for opportunities to personalize the process. This shines a light on your unique company culture, and infuses some fun into an otherwise transactional process. There are countless ways to personalize your onboarding process such as creating a fun slide for your company staff meeting that shares a photo of your new hire with fun facts about them or preparing a new employee welcome kit filled with some of your new hires favorite snacks and company swag.

Check in

Your new hire’s first day should be informative and filled with introductions, training, and excitement, which may also leave the employee with questions about what they’ve learned. Be sure to set aside some time at the end of their first day to check-in with them to see how they’re feeling and provide any clarity or direction they may need.

After The First Week

A lot transpires during the first week of the onboarding process, employees are bound to have questions and you’ll likely have action items that need following up on. Take this time to provide continuous support, close any pending loops, and prepare your employee for the future of their role.

Check in

Support is the name of the game for an engaging onboarding process. Schedule a check-in with your new hire at the end of their first week to answer any questions or concerns they may have, and offer words of encouragement as they embark on their journey in their new role.

Tie up loose ends

At the end of your new hires first week, take stock of what action items have been completed, and any that are still pending for their onboarding process. Make sure to follow up by sending reminders and communicating deadlines on time-sensitive tasks such as tax documents or payroll details, and get recurring and important meetings on their calendar.

Prep for the future

At the end of their first week, your new hire should be relatively familiar with any basic systems you use as a company to communicate such as email or messaging platforms. They’ve now attended any standardized onboarding training, and are up to speed on the basics. Now is the time to look ahead and get them set up for more technical training they may need to perform in their role. This may require you to collaborate with their manager, and should be proactively scheduled so the employee has a good understanding of what is expected of them in the coming weeks and months.

In The First Month

The onboarding process begins before an employee’s first day, and extends past it as well. Maintaining your engagement and support beyond the first day or week of a new hire’s time at your company is essential to setting them up for success and productivity. This is the time to set longer term goals and motivate them for the future of their tenure in the role.

Plan for the future

Your employee and their manager will learn a lot in their first 90 days on the job, which makes it a perfect opportunity to connect and offer any feedback on their performance. Once your employee is settled into their role after the first week, put it on their radar that a 90-day performance review will be scheduled to help them find success in their role. This will provide them an opportunity to set goals, play to their strengths, and make any course corrections early on to promote success.

Keep the momentum

Now that your employee has moved through the majority of the onboarding process, keep up the momentum by scheduling 30-60-90 day check-ins to help maximize their productivity. This process will help break down large goals into smaller, actionable steps, identify a metric system for measuring success, and provide purpose and direction for your employee’s work. Check out our 30-60-90 Day Plan Template for a deep dive on best practices, as well as a customizable template to guide the process.

Automate Your Onboarding Process with Omni

As you can see, the onboarding process is anything but simple. There are countless action items to think about, tasks to follow up on, and paperwork to complete — even the most seasoned HR professionals require a strong system of organization to ensure a consistent and efficient onboarding process.

HR automation allows HR teams and managers to easily track, schedule, and follow-up on the various tasks and documents required during an onboarding process. With Omni, you can access customizable email templates to welcome new employees, schedule and automate personalized onboarding communications, track and follow-up on important onboarding documents, and eliminate cumbersome manual processes like data entry that are prone to errors and delays.

Omni frees HR from the many time-consuming tasks of the onboarding process, and provides a consistent and uniform experience for new hires, all in one, easy-to-use system.

Learn more about how Omni’s automated onboarding workflows can increase employee engagement, and give you back your valuable time to focus on strategic planning that drives business outcomes.

It’s become increasingly clear that remote work is here to stay. According to Buffer’s State of Remote Work 2023 71% of companies are permanently allowing some amount of remote work for their teams. Which means remote onboarding has become a permanent reality for HR teams supporting remote employees.

Since they can’t stroll down the hall to a coworker’s desk to ask a question, remote employees have unique demands that may differ from office workers and require technologies to facilitate communication, this also holds true for their onboarding. Onboarding is a critical part of building an engaged workforce, and onboarding remote employees requires a unique set of tools, technologies, and resources to adequately set them up for success.

Benefits of Remote Onboarding

Streamlined processes

Prior to remote work becoming the norm among many companies, Human Resource teams didn’t have a separate onboarding process for remote employees. There may have been unique instances where accommodations were made for remote employees, but there wasn’t clear value in building a remote onboarding process.

The switch to remote work allows for the opportunity to reimagine the onboarding process; one that’s built with remote employees top of mind. This is done through leveraging technology that allows for automation and eliminating older tools or processes that require too many manual processes. When utilizing HR automation tools such as Omni, HR teams can set up streamlined workflows and automatic reminders to provide employees with a cohesive and consistent onboarding experience that breeds engagement and boosts productivity.

Increased productivity

With lengthy commutes and stuffy conference rooms becoming a thing of the past, remote work has helped usher organizations into a more modern and productive workplace. Because remote onboarding takes place digitally, employees can access the materials they need from anywhere, at any time, allowing them to complete their onboarding at a time that is most convenient for their schedule and at their own pace. This alleviates HR of the need to host multiple onboarding sessions to accommodate competing schedules or spend hours creating hard copy documents. Remote onboarding allows HR teams to easily and quickly distribute materials, and empowers employees to learn to navigate digital tools and resources on their own, which can help them become more productive in their roles.

Improved communication

Remote onboarding requires HR and management to establish clear communication channels with new hires from day 1. In doing so, you create a system for new employees to access a direct line of communication to their manager or HR teams which promotes collaboration and helps foster strong relationships within your organization.

The nature of onboarding remote employees also promotes increased transparency among management and employees. When done well, remote onboarding provides a clear roadmap for new hires to navigate their onboarding process, and allows managers an eye into their progress that is often obstructed in traditional onboarding processes.

9 Effective Tips for Onboarding Remote Employees

1. Send a warm welcome

Onboarding is the first opportunity you have to show your new employees what it’s like to work at your company. It sets the tone for company culture and your rapport with employees, so it’s essential to create a friendly and welcoming environment. While you may not be able to host a welcome lunch or physically show a remote employee around your office, there are plenty of ways to make them feel welcome in a remote onboarding setting.

Setting the tone for a welcoming environment should begin before an employee’s first day, during the pre-boarding phase send an onboarding email to your new hire to share relevant information and check-in with them. Once they’ve officially begun their role, send a welcome message to new employees through email, Slack, or during a video call to highlight your support and excitement at their joining, or organize a new employee welcome kit to send to their home to get them excited to be a part of the team.

2. Give remote workers the tools they need to complete their duties

On their first day of work, office workers often have a desk, computer, and other tools readily available to them to get their work started. Remote employees typically require their company to supply the same standard office supplies to help them set up an at-home workspace.

Consider allocating a stipend for each remote employee’s home office setup. To make this process easier for your new hires, it could be useful to provide a list of office necessities, and communicate with them leading up to their start date to help them obtain the necessary supplies needed to kickstart their new role.

Be sure to send detailed instructions on how to connect to the company server separately, along with the contact information of a member of your tech support team who can assist the new recruit with any difficulty.

To successfully administer remote onboarding, it’s essential to give employees access to email, webcasts, internal platforms, and other technologies right away. This removes any barriers to productivity and conveys the value you have for new hires, helping to increase engagement.

3. Encourage a supportive team culture

Early teammate introductions for new remote employees are a crucial component of a remote onboarding program. During the first week, a virtual team meeting can give new employees essential information about how colleagues interact, what a normal day looks like, and how the overall company runs. To foster relationships and employee cohesion, schedule weekly or bi-weekly team meetings to discuss project updates and explore solutions to problems.

At the end of the second or third week, consider having a virtual lunch with the complete team. As a conversation starter, bring up issues like how team members are balancing work and life and dealing with the transition of working from home. These interactions help break the ice for a worker who is still getting used to their new position and, in the process, show how supportive the workplace culture is.

4. Provide a clear organizational structure

It is advantageous for a new hire to understand how their new company functions from an organizational perspective. Provide new employees with a clear understanding of how departments are functioning, collaborating, and what outcomes they are driving for the company. This information allows employees to establish new connections and easily communicate with the appropriate stakeholders for various projects, improving productivity and removing barriers.

63% of employers have remote workers, yet only 43% have remote work policies, so if your company is lacking a remote work policy, it’s time to create one.

In order to set clear expectations and avoid any miscommunication, review your remote work policy during your remote onboarding process and provide your new hire with a copy for easy reference. Your remote work policy may cover matters like the hours you expect employees to be available or remote meeting expectations.

As a manager, creating routines and realistic schedules benefit both you and your employees. Remind your new hire that keeping a harmonious work-life balance is a fundamental part of your business’s principles. Remote workers are more likely to allow themselves time to rest and contribute meaningfully when they are aware of what is expected of them.

6. Provide ample training

You have made an excellent hire based on the applicant’s qualifications, experience, and potential contribution to your business. Now that you’ve found someone with the skills required to carry out company goals, it’s time to provide them with the tools and knowledge they’ll need to execute.

Consider carefully what expertise your new remote employee offers as well as the role they are taking on and determine what training they would require to fill in any knowledge gaps. Training can span from the software your company uses to management and DEI training. Each employee will require a different variety of training based on their role. Consider using a new hire employee training template to keep track of training deadlines and employee progress.

7. Maintain a channel of open communication

Remote work can be isolating, so it’s crucial to maintain open lines of communication and provide people opportunities to ask questions and offer feedback. From the start, managers should seize the chance to establish a rapport with new team members. Plan frequent and routine video check-ins to discuss objectives, challenges and concerns. Discuss their professional priorities and goals as well as the job expectations in greater detail during your interactions.

Assigning a mentor during remote onboarding provides additional coaching and guidance, gives the new hire a sounding board, and shows the company’s commitment to professional development.

8. Gather employee feedback

Employee feedback is important for designing and executing great HR programs. You will learn what worked well and where you could have done better measuring the employee onboarding experience through methods such as new hire surveys.

Differentiate your surveys for remote onboarding and onsite to segment your data and learn what different groups of employees think of your employee onboarding program. It can also provide useful feedback to fine-tune your onboarding experiences for these two types of employees.

9. Utilize remote onboarding checklists

Onboarding checklists make it easy for HR and managers to provide a consistent and comprehensive onboarding experience. Leverage checklists to refer to every time you onboard a new employee, and customize the tasks to best support your organization’s needs. Digitize your onboarding checklist with Omni to build your own template of onboarding workflows and task sequences. Omni then automatically sends out tasks to your team and tracks everyone’s completion progress, taking the task off of HR’s plate so you can focus on more strategic matters.

Build Effective Remote Onboarding Programs with Omni

Remote work is here to stay, and businesses must modify their people operation programs that have been previously designed for office workers to support their remote workforce. Leverage the power of automation to build a remote onboarding experience that provides employees with consistent, comprehensive training to increase their productivity and engagement.

Omni’s fully automated HR platform allows HR teams and managers to create customizable templates that grow alongside your business, molding to each employee’s unique needs and reducing the administrative burden that comes with onboarding. Set up training modules, send automatic reminders, and build personalized communication practices to keep your new employees engaged and supported during and beyond their remote onboarding experience.

To learn more about how Omni can bring your onboarding experience to the next level, schedule a demo with our team.

Defining Onboarding and Orientation

Onboarding

Orientation

The Difference Between Onboarding and Orientation: A Comparison Table

Onboarding and Orientation Benefits

The Advantages of Orientation

The Advantages of Onboarding

Make the Most of Onboarding and Orientation

Timing

Dual approach

Clear communication

Mentorship

Continuous feedback and evaluation

Personalized approach

Engagement opportunities

Ongoing support

Increase Engagement with Omni

What is Employee Onboarding?

Who is Included in the Onboarding Process?

Why is the Onboarding Process Important?

Step-by-step Guide to a Successful Onboarding Experience

Before The First Day

New hire paperwork

Prepare existing employees

Equipment

On The First Day

Cover the basics

Make introductions

Personalize the process

Check in

After The First Week

Check in

Tie up loose ends

Prep for the future

In The First Month

Plan for the future

Keep the momentum

Automate Your Onboarding Process with Omni

Benefits of Remote Onboarding

Streamlined processes

Increased productivity

Improved communication

9 Effective Tips for Onboarding Remote Employees

1. Send a warm welcome

2. Give remote workers the tools they need to complete their duties

3. Encourage a supportive team culture

4. Provide a clear organizational structure

5. Share your remote work policy

6. Provide ample training

7. Maintain a channel of open communication

8. Gather employee feedback

9. Utilize remote onboarding checklists

Build Effective Remote Onboarding Programs with Omni

Get started today!