How do I make an onboarding plan

19 of February, 2021

Starting to work for a new employer can be seen as one step in a journey.  The journey begins before the employee even is hired and ends well after leaving. Each step is essential to ensuring your employee to get off to the right start, hence why an onboarding plan is so important for your organisation’s recruitment process.

You have hired your perfect candidate.  Now there is the ‘onboarding’.  Get it wrong and you could end with an early departure or at least a dissatisfied employee.

Who are the players in the onboarding process?

• Recruitment
• The new hire’s line management & team
• IT
• Payroll
• HR
• Facilities

How to prepare the onboarding plan?

Before even starting, the recruitment team should ensure the new employee has all the practical information they need for the onboarding plan. They must remain available even after the start date.  They were the first contact with the new hire and should be there for support.  This could involve other teams to follow up on, for example:

• Getting their access badge
• IT tools for presence and absence registration
• Phone, laptop, and any other equipment needed
• Where to find information on the intranet: policies relating to working time, etc
• Touring the building
• Information on health and safety
• The new hire should receive detailed information on pay and benefits: how are they paid and when; insurances; pension scheme; car, etc and know where to find information on the intranet
• Information on the appraisal scheme and about the HR function and who they can contact

What should the onboarding presentation include?

The new team, and most importantly, the line manager should plan the first days in detail prior to the start:

• A few days before the start date, send an email to the whole function informing them of the new hire, what they will be doing and asking everyone to welcome them
• Ensure they are added to team meeting invites and not forgetting social media groups as appropriate for outside of work contact
• Ensure they meet each team member individually, face-to-face. Coffee moments, lunches either one-on-one or teams are great moments to get to know each other.  A ‘welcome’ message on their desk is always a nice gesture
• Ensure they know the organisation and the key contacts of the team networks to feel integrated
• Organise a training and development plan so they can become familiar with the organisation, team members, and all the activities and projects they will be involved in. These should be booked as individual sessions and may take place over several weeks.  This allows the new hire to become comfortable with all new activities they will undertake, what skills, processes and company knowledge they need to acquire, what are their objectives for the coming year.  This is a lot of work, but essential to ensure fast integration – it will pay off.
• Ensure they are familiar with the basic culture and working practices of the team, including the presence and absence management
• The line manager should always be ‘available’ for the new team member to ask questions or raise concerns

What are the 4 phases of onboarding feedback

After 4-6 weeks on the job, line management and HR should take the opportunity to check how the onboarding is going.  Is the employee in a honeymoon period or are they in a nightmare?

Schedule feedback involving the new hire, their management and Recruitment:

1. How is it going so far?
2. Likes, dislikes, concerns?
3. Where do they need more support?
4. Feedback from management about what’s going well, what needs to be worked on (in a constructive way)

This feedback is not only essential for the new hire and manager, but also for HR to continuously develop its guidance to managers for an effective onboarding.

Every step of the employee journey is an opportunity for the company to make a mark, not only with that employee, but with all the contacts of that employee, family, friends, acquaintances: part of the creation of the employer brand.