Common Onboarding Mistakes (and How to Fix them)
One of the biggest problems companies face right now—in very broad terms—is talent management. The great resignation has meant a lot more hiring than usual, so task #1 is usually figuring out how to attract talent in the first place. We’ve talked a bit about this in our people-first strategy series.
Once you’ve hired someone great, you naturally want to give them a great onboarding experience. But what does that mean? It’s more than just a box of swag on their first day. And being prepared with their logins—while important—is a very low bar.
What makes for a great onboarding experience?
As the employer, you want them up to speed quickly. From a people-first perspective, you also want them to feel supported and successful.
Feeling successful means knowing how they’re being evaluated, and what they need to learn or accomplish.
Feeling supported means they have the resources and connections to meet the expectations laid out for them.
Sounds simple, right? As always, it’s the execution that matters. Here’s what companies get wrong, and how to do it better.
1) Mistake #1: Being too open-ended
Have you ever tried learning a language through immersion? It’s effective, but can also be frustrating and isolating in the early stages. Amazingly, some companies do take this approach with new hires. They give them some basics like technology and systems access and release them into the wild.
Even if the new hire has a 1:1 or two in the calendar, they’ve got no clear idea what to learn first, who to build relationships with, and what their manager expects them to accomplish. It’s no surprise that this is a recipe for high turnover.
How to fix it: At the risk of stating the obvious, it’s to have a plan! Imagine you’re the new employee. What would you want in your first days? Perhaps a mentor or buddy to show you around and introduce you to key people. Maybe some goals? Who’s done this role before, and what did they need at the beginning?
One client we worked with made this into a game, with a treasure hunt. Their new hires are given some (not too difficult!) clues to decode that lead them to important resources and people. It’s a fun way to learn your way around!
A big key to success with this plan is assigning accountability. Someone has to oversee progress, and ensure things don’t go awry. You can automate certain parts, but staying people-first means humans need to talk to one another.
2) Mistake #2: Unclear 30/60/90 expectations
Personal anecdote time: I once worked at a really big organization where my manager didn’t schedule any meetings in my first 90 days, until I reached out to ask for a check-in. Then I showed up for that meeting, not knowing what criteria would be used, or if they were even aware it had been over 80 days since I started. The manager seemed distracted by other work, and I could tell my experience was not a priority. Needless to say, I wasn’t there for long.
How to fix it: If you’re following our advice on hiring and career pathing, you already have a solid grasp on what makes someone successful in any given role. Working backwards from that, you can plan out what boxes they need to check, and by when. This is both to validate their fit for the role, and to guide the learning curve for what they need to learn.
That validation goes in both directions: you want your new hire to have some early wins and feel good about their choice to join your team. Show them you’re organized and are invested in their success. (Exactly the two things missing from my experience above!)
3) Mistake #3: Short-term thinking
Some companies have figured out a decent onboarding process, but leave employees unsupported after that. They put a lot of effort into ramp-up training and orientation, but then have no plans once the new hire “graduates” into their role. It’s like sending a child to elementary school and then expecting them to just…figure the rest out on their own, somehow?
How to fix it: Continuing with the people-first approach, the 30/60/90 period is the perfect transition into performance reviews. Show them that your plan continues beyond just getting them up to speed, and how they’ll be supported and evaluated in the long term.
The 90-day check-in is the perfect time to do a mock-performance-review, and show them exactly how that works. That sample run also gives them a head start for their first actual performance review!
Putting it all Together
An unstated assumption across all three of the above fixes is that someone—usually but not always a manager—is building relationships with the new hires from the get-go. They’re not just checking off a task in the HRIS saying “so and so passed their probation,” but actually able to justify how they’ve progressed, why they’re awesome, and what the plan is going forward.
That’s the people-first approach, and it works. The extra effort up front more than pays off in fewer early exits, lower recruitment costs, and faster ramp-up times.
How to Get Started
Moving to a people-first HR strategy is not a small feat. It’s an investment and it will take time. Even if you have an entire HR team, they’ve already got daily ops on their plates. Hello HR provides expert strategic consulting and insight. We’re like a superpower both for leadership and HR teams!
Drop us a line and we can get the ball rolling with a free discovery call.
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