Anyone who has recruited for new talent understands how much work is involved. It’s usually a detailed and complicated process that touches many people across many departments and effective Employee Onboarding will help you retain the top talent you spent so much time and money attracting.
We help our clients take advantage of the opportunity to build loyalty, retention, and pride from the first online interaction, to the interview, to the employee’s very first day and beyond.
Whatever happens during the Employee Onboarding is crucial and sets the stage for that individual’s entire career with you and yet many organizations focus too much on systems and admin and not enough on the employee value proposition (EVP). Your Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is an expression of your organizational culture, and what sets you apart from the competition. We’ve all had Buyer’s Remorse at one point or another and it’s not a feeling you want your new hires to have. This is the most important time to highlight all the reasons why they chose to accept the position! Reassure your employees they made the right choice and start delivering on the employee promise from day one.
Everybody Wins
It’s critical to powerfully communicate your EVP to new hires, and to focus on their experience, ensuring they feel welcomed, included, and inspired by your brand and what attracted them to come and work for you. Your employee’s experience of their first week on the job can even influence the growth of your company. A Boston Consulting Group study found that companies who excel at onboarding experienced 2.5 times the revenue growth and almost twice the profit margin of companies who haven’t yet mastered onboarding.
When you place your EVP at the centre of all your onboarding activities, everyone (and everything) involved will benefit. Your new hires will get up to speed quickly, and feel that they’re part of the organization. Managers will be supported in integrating the new hire into the team and it makes it easy for them to hit the ground running. And, by including your EVP in all your onboarding activities, you’ll be enhancing your EVP itself – the way you welcome people into your organization will become what sets you apart as an employer.
Here’s How
There are lots of creative ways to embed your Employee Value Proposition in your employee onboarding protocol, in a way that underscores your organization’s culture, values, and mission. Our top three are:
- Your Printed Materials Can Get Better. Review and ensure your EVP is represented in all the printed materials that new hires get. From a copy of the Annual Report to a welcome from the CEO and information about their benefits package, highlight the benefits and align content to your EVP pillars.
- Systemize Your EVP Onboarding Language. Coach your people managers and HR team on how to onboard new hires in a way that clearly articulates and represents the company’s EVP. Heck, even give them cliff notes! When messages are consistent and clear, they resonate and can make an impact quickly. Remember that everyone can use a refresher from time to time, even your most seasoned leaders.
- Buddy Up. Establish a buddy, or mentorship, system. Pairing your new hire with other employees, is one of the fastest ways for new hires to see your EVP in action. A buddy can be a brand ambassador, able to answer informal questions about company culture and the organization, someone in administration to help with forms, benefits and perks, or a senior individual to help educate and navigate the new team member on the department structure and who to talk to, when, and for what. In fact, the more buddies, the better. We have seen up to three buddies being assigned to new hires to help them build informal networks and navigate through the system, putting new hires on a fast-track to becoming a productive, contributing team member.
How Do I Know My Onboarding Program Is Working?
Your employee onboarding program is working the way you need it to when your new hires feel empowered by, and connected to, your culture and EVP. That means they’ll know what they’re here to do, and how they fit into the big picture. We think it’s a great idea to check in with new hires through a short survey after their first week, their first month and, finally, after their first ninety days. The surveys will give you a sense of how your new hires are doing, and whether they have felt supported throughout the onboarding process. Effective onboarding means that new hires will quickly become ambassadors for your EVP and organization.
A new employee only starts once – don’t miss this important opportunity to make sure your new employees feel connected to your EVP, right from the very beginning.
Let us help you create an EVP-based employee onboarding strategy for your new hires – call us today at 647-308-2352 to learn more!