What is Onboarding? The secret to building an effective Onboarding process

Onboarding is commonly used in the work environment, especially during the process of welcoming new employees. In this article, 1C Vietnam will delve deeper into the concept of what onboarding is as well as explain the importance of onboarding for businesses and human resources.

1. What is Onboarding?

Onboarding is the process of introducing new employees to work in an organization. In other words, this is a process where a business will train and guide new employees to help them understand their tasks, work processes, and how to become an effective part of the organization.

Onboarding is not limited to professional training but also involves helping new employees understand the company's values, mission, vision and culture. An effective onboarding process will help new employees quickly become part of the team, increasing engagement and commitment to the company; Reduce churn rate and increase productivity.

2. Benefits when businesses perform onboarding

Now that we understand what onboarding is , what benefits can implementing onboarding in businesses bring? Some benefits of this process include:

• Employees quickly integrate: New employees can easily get acquainted and adapt to the working environment without feeling lost or difficult when exposed to new jobs.
• Increase commitment: The onboarding process helps employees feel appreciated and an important part of the organization. This helps strengthen their commitment and loyalty to the company.
• Reduce churn: New employees often have high churn rates if they feel lost or unsupported. The onboarding process helps minimize this feeling and increases attachment to the business.
• Increase productivity: With onboarding, new employees will have the skills and knowledge needed to work more effectively, thereby helping them achieve their desired productivity levels faster.
• Building a strong corporate culture: Onboarding helps convey company values, mission, and culture to new employees, from which they deeply understand and accept corporate culture.

3. Standard onboarding process for new employees

The standard onboarding process for new employees is a set of activities designed to help new employees integrate quickly and effectively into the new working environment. Below are 4 stages in the new employee onboarding process that businesses can refer to:

3.1. Stage 1: Pre-Onboarding

Pre-Onboarding is an important stage in building an onboarding process with the goal of retaining candidates and creating a positive experience before they officially join the organization.

Some commonly performed Pre-Onboarding activities include:

• Visit facilities and branches: Businesses invite candidates to visit the office so they can have a deeper look at the working environment and feel connected to the organization.
• Arrange informational documents about work, corporate culture and working environment for new employees.
• Check necessary supplies and equipment for new employees.
• Connect new employees with someone within the organization before the first day of work to answer basic questions, helping the employee feel comfortable and better prepared for the first day of work (e.g., procedures outfit decisions, information you need to know on the first day of work, places to eat,...).

3.2. Phase 2: Welcoming new employees (Orientation day)

The welcoming phase refers to the introduction and orientation of new employees. To ensure new employees clearly understand corporate culture and ways of working, large businesses often apply a welcome process that includes tasks divided into different departments such as:

• Human Resources Department: Complete paperwork, announce working hours, introduce history and organizational chart.
• Training department: Provides accounts and guidance on organizational culture and business goals.
• Manager: Discuss duties, responsibilities, standards, job expectations, introduce team members and other members of the company.
• Colleagues: Share experiences, provide support at work.
• Executive team: Helps employees understand the organization's mission, vision, values, goals, and describes the organization's culture.

Note: This process should be done over a few days or a week to avoid information overload for new employees.

3.3. Phase 3: Role Specific Training

The training phase helps employees understand tasks and grasp the knowledge needed to complete the job, and businesses can also use this phase to evaluate new employees' skills and develop plans. Training plans tailored to each specific role and their skill set.

During the personnel integration process, some common training contents include:

• Key responsibilities of employees.
• Job-specific tools and software that employees need to use.
• About the company's courses and learning account.
• Carry out assessment tests after the training process.
• Make sure new employees have enough information to understand their role in the first weeks and months.

Note:

• It can take several months for new employees to become familiar with the company's products, markets, or customers.
• The training process ensures that employee knowledge is accurate, meets business requirements, and helps employees feel supported and developed within the organization.
• It's important to always provide guidance to employees, giving them opportunities to respond and ask questions.

3.4. Phase 4: Ongoing Support

The final stage of the HR onboarding process is to support employees in transitioning from new employee roles to full-time employees. During this period, managers should provide timely support including:

• Give employees work goals so they have clear direction and achieve good results.
• Support employees in building a personal goal system so they can visualize and shape their work path, thereby improving work quality and productivity.
• Evaluate employee performance periodically after a month/quarter/year to determine their achievements and celebrate their efforts.
• Create higher motivation and dedication from employees when they have specific goals and receive recognition for their achievements.

4. Some notes about the onboarding process

The onboarding process plays an important role in helping new employees integrate and perform well in the work environment. The success of the onboarding process depends on businesses mastering the following important notes:

• Make sure new employees have enough time to integrate and grasp the job.
• Providing complete information about the business helps new employees understand the working environment and values of the organization.
• The human resources department plays an important role in the onboarding process, ensuring that it provides guidance, support, and helps new employees grasp policies, procedures, and related information.
• Set clear goals for new employees, help them understand their duties and job expectations, thereby motivating and guiding them to develop in their role.
• Make a good impression on new employees by creating a welcoming, welcoming environment and providing opportunities for them to get acquainted with colleagues and the work environment.

5. The secret to an effective onboarding process

After clearly understanding the concept of "onboarding", we will see that it is a long process that cannot be completed in a short time. At that time, businesses can apply some of the following suggestions to help onboarding activities be optimized and effective:

5.1. Welcome new employees in many ways

Instead of simply introducing new employees in front of everyone, businesses can use more diverse methods such as preparing food, drinks, gifts or having lunch together,... This creates interaction between new employees and colleagues, thereby enhancing solidarity within the business.

5.2. Highly-professional trained

One of the secrets to an effective onboarding process is to properly train new employees. Below are some directional methods that businesses can refer to and apply during the onboarding process:

• Create a clear training roadmap: Businesses need to determine the skills and knowledge needed for the new employee's specific position. Based on that, the business will build a detailed training roadmap from basic to advanced.
• Combine many forms of training: Don't just stop at traditional teaching, businesses should combine other training methods such as online learning, direct instruction or even training through games ( gamification).
• Continuous feedback: For new employees, comments and feedback from mentors or superiors are very important. This not only helps them recognize and fix mistakes but also motivates them to constantly learn.
• Training from colleagues: Businesses should place new employees in a work group with support from old colleagues. This helps them learn from real-life experiences and creates a friendly learning environment.

By applying the above methods, businesses can ensure that the onboarding training process will achieve optimal performance, helping new employees quickly integrate and achieve high work performance.

5.3. Develop a clear development plan for the future

To be effective with onboarding, businesses need to understand and meet the career needs of new employees. This requires businesses to have personalized training plans, taking advantage of and promoting the unique strengths of each employee. In this way, work productivity will be significantly improved.

Thus, understanding what onboarding is as well as the benefits and process of onboarding can help businesses come up with a suitable application plan for their organization. Don't forget to follow the articles on the 1C Vietnam website to learn useful content about business management.