The best way to ensure employee satisfaction is to get new hires off to a good start through a successful and welcoming onboarding experience. Paycor organizational development specialist Allison Flynn explains the “5 C’s of Onboarding” that proactive organizations should make part of their new-hire process.
1. Compliance
Compliance is the baseline understanding of your organization’s policies and procedures. This is the lowest level of an employee’s integration into your organization and is typically covered during a formal orientation with HR. Compliance can be seen as the “boring HR” part of orientation but is something every onboarding program should cover. Some topics to consider include company policies, safety regulations, confidentiality requirements, harassment prevention and departmental procedures.
2. Clarification
Focus on clarifying the new associate’s role and performance expectations. How does his/her role fit into organizational and team goals? What are his/her individual goals? What does your organization do, and how does it operate? These are all questions new associates have when they enter a new company, and covering this as a part of your onboarding process can help new hires get up to speed much more quickly than having them find out on their own.
3. Culture
New associates start becoming exposed to your company’s culture as soon as they visit your website or step into the office for an interview. You should immerse new associates into your organization’s culture throughout the onboarding program. Make sure they are very familiar with your organization’s mission, vision and values; company history, and the way associates communicate with one another.
4. Connection
Managers should encourage each new associate to establish interpersonal relationships and information networks within your organization. Ensure that new hires are aware of and connect with subgroups within your company. For example, Paycor has a Young Professional organization and a community service group; a representative from these groups comes to each of our orientation classes to connect with the new hires. Also consider assigning a mentor or guide for each new associate to help him or her navigate through the first few months on the job.
5. Check Back
Collect feedback to continuously improve your organization’s onboarding program. Managers should formally check in with new associates during their first 30, 60 and 90 days.
Some of these concepts are covered by your HR department, some by the hiring manager and some by a peer. Though some of the topics can be covered during a formal orientation, many of the focus areas should be reinforced throughout the first 90 days and beyond.
To learn more about onboarding, you can *view Allison’s entire webinar, Onboarding: Creating a Memorable Start or *download The First 90 Days Onboarding Checklist for a step-by-step guide.
Source: HR Specialist (Vol. 9 Issue 9)
