Onboarding new hires is a crucial moment in their company culture experience. Making sure your employees are welcomed and given all the information they need can be crucial for them feeling secure and confident enough to ask questions and successfully integrate into their teams. That’s why we asked entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question:
“What program or process do you use to make sure new hires are both onboarded warmly and gain the information they need?”
Employee Onboarding Processes
Here’s what they had to say:
1. Meet With the Founder
“Even though I spend time with every hire we make, I set up a two-hour meeting with every new hire the week he or she starts at BAM. In this meeting, I share an overview of my vision, what we’re aiming for and what core principles we uphold. It’s also a chance for an employee to give me feedback on impressions so far or ask me questions related to what they’ve learned or been told so far.” ~ Beck Bamberger, BAM Communications
2. Buddy System
“When we have a new hire come on board, I hook them up with a buddy. Someone that will ensure they meet the team, feel comfortable and be able to answer any questions they may have. The sooner my new-hire feels like an old-hire, the better for everyone.” ~ Colbey Pfund, LFNT Distribution
3. Employee Engagement Platform
“We painfully tried building and maintaining our own onboarding sites, directories and even wikis before finding a more intentional solution. We now use Igloo‘s intranet software as our central employee repository for onboarding, knowledge management, company news, and to share company policies and leadership updates. It’s been a true game-changer for internal communication.” ~ Nick Eubanks, From The Future
4. A Navigator and Welcome Committee
“We assign each new team member a navigator. This navigator welcomes them on their first day with a gift and will be their point person for all the questions that may come up. We also have a welcome committee that follows new team members for the first six months to fill in the gaps of anything missed during training.” ~ Ginger Jones, Jones Therapy Services
5. A 360-Degree Onboarding
“All new hires learn how to perform our core company tasks, usually performed by our analysts. No matter what department the hire will ultimately sit with, we aim to give them a better understanding of the mechanics of our business by getting them to step outside their comfort zone and ask for help. Once the week of onboarding is complete, they are able to contribute to broader company discourse.” ~ Ismael Wrixen, FE International
6. A Culture Handbook
“Employee handbooks are usually dense legal documents outlining all of your policies and procedures. We get people acclimated to the company by augmenting this with a digital handbook aligned with our culture. This outlines where to go to lunch, when people usually come in, who the cast of characters around the office is, etc. We send this before the first day, so they know what they come prepared.” ~ Tony Scherba, Yeti
7. Video Conference for Remote Workers
“We use a video conference to welcome remote workers and connect them with the office staff. It includes a presentation and time to get to know each other.” ~ Angela Ruth, Calendar
8. Basecamp
“We utilize Basecamp to communicate with one another. The program, which functions in the cloud, is also ideal for new hires. There are message boards for announcements and welcomes, and where projects are concerned team members can jump in at any point, seamlessly communicating and collaborating on various to-dos. Associated documents and information are organized and visible within projects.” ~ Stephen Beach, Craft Impact Marketing
9. Company Website Hub
“We built a company hub to allow new hires to feel at home right away. The hub includes our mission and values, company wiki, team members, a way for employees to leave positive feedback and more. There’s also a direct link, so that employees can contact from the day they are hired. The goal is to give them all the tools they need for success and keeping an open line of communication.” ~ Blair Williams, MemberPress
10. Confluence
“I run a remote team and when onboarding new members we use our cloud-based Atlassian Confluence wiki to make sure the process goes smoothly. We use our wiki to document our best practices and project roadmaps. We also have pages set up in the wiki that go over the recurring tasks each teammate is responsible for. This allows new hires to quickly get up to pace with the rest of the team.” ~ Brian David Crane, Caller Smart Inc.
11. Google Docs
“Give your new hires time to learn about your company, their role, the roles of other team members, etc. by giving them access to company documents. We created numerous documents to help with the onboarding process and uploaded them to Google Docs so that all new hires have access to them. This allows them to easily retrieve any information they need.” ~ Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms
12. Slack
“We use Slack to make sure new hires are onboarded warmly. It’s a great onboarding tool for remote companies. The new hire is introduced to the team in one of our Slack channels, and everyone has an opportunity to welcome them to the group by sending a quick message or GIF. And if the new hire needs information or has a question, they can post it in a specific channel and quickly get the answer.” ~ John Turner, SeedProd LLC
13. Microsoft Teams
“We use Microsoft Teams as an internal communication tool, and it also assists us greatly during the onboarding process. We add the new employee to the team, give them access to all the necessary information and let them know who they can contact if they need any help.” ~ Solomon Thimothy, OneIMS
14. Map Out the Week
“We’ve found that making a map of the first week’s activities as well as the goals we would like them to achieve sets a very good objective for the upcoming work that will need to be done. It’s important to onboard a new employee carefully and make sure you give them enough time to also adjust to the environment organically. It’s always a good idea to walk people around and introduce them.” ~ Nicole Munoz, Nicole Munoz Consulting
Image: Depositphotos.com