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Did you know that new employees are 58% more likely to still be with your company three years later if they have undergone a structured induction period? According to the Society for Human Resource Management, this was the result of a study by the Wynhurst Group.
The induction of new employees - known as onboarding for short - lays the foundation for the collaboration. Onboarding is crucial for the first few years, both in human and professional terms, and is becoming increasingly important in times of a shortage of skilled workers!
To ensure that new employees flourish and feel at home in your company right from the start, we explain what makes a good induction period. You will also receive tips on how to efficiently train new employees while working from home.
An induction phase is necessary, as every company ticks differently. Newbies can learn workflows, processes, computer programs, contact persons and company rules best if they have a mentor at their side. After all, those who are well integrated after a short time will see more quickly how they can contribute to the company - and that is motivating.
On the other hand, if you leave your colleagues to their own devices during the induction phase, they will not only make unnecessary mistakes and take longer, but will also lose their intrinsic motivation and the fresh energy that most of them bring with them more quickly. Under certain circumstances, a lack of training or poor training can lead to the job being terminated during the probationary period or continued employment being rejected.
According to the Stepstone study "Onboarding in Focus", every third respondent has already quit their new job within the first year. The main reasons for quitting were the discrepancy between the job description and the reality of the job, but also the corporate culture. A structured and automated induction helps to prevent high initial fluctuation and demonstrates a corporate culture that values its employees. Especially when good specialists are in high demand on the job market, it is all the more important to integrate them quickly and well.
Also consider the cost to the company of finding skilled staff when turnover is high. According to the Harvard Business Review, the cost of employee turnover is estimated to be between 100% and 300% of an annual salary and it usually takes eight months for newly hired employees to reach full productivity. Good induction training for specialist staff therefore not only pays off for the new colleagues, but also for your company!
The shortage of skilled workers has forced many companies to rethink their approach. The process should be organized and planned, especially for companies that are growing rapidly - i.e. regularly training new employees.
According to the Haufe Onboarding Study, employers attached greater importance to induction in 2020. Almost two thirds of respondents (64%) provided new colleagues with a mentor and/or organized a welcome day.
In addition, 83% of the HR managers surveyed are convinced that initial fluctuation could be reduced through further professionalization and digitalization of onboarding.
Digital onboarding has grown by leaps and bounds during the coronavirus pandemic. The use of digital tools to train employees has risen from 6% in 2018 to 23% in 2020. Conversely, this means that more companies are relying on professional digital onboarding. This includes, for example, webinars for induction, digital "preboarding info folders", video calls with mentors, teams and managers or virtual get-togethers.
Nevertheless: 78% have not taken any additional digital measures and the majority consider their own onboarding to be in need of improvement. So there is still plenty of room for improvement here!
In a nutshell, the following points are probably the most important when onboarding new employees:
According to the Harvard Business Review, it takes eight months for newly hired colleagues to reach full productivity. Training new employees takes time and patience! As a rule, induction lasts from the signing of the contract to the end of the probationary period, in some cases up to a year. During this time, new hires go through four phases of induction, which can overlap in terms of both time and content.
The first step in bringing new employees on board begins before the first day of work and with the signing of the employment contract. Weeks or months can pass between signing the contract and the first day of work. A good pre-boarding phase is essential so that new starters feel that they have made the right decision and will be supported. What points should you not forget in induction phase number 1?
Important: You should draw up the induction plan based on the requirements in the job description, as this will help you avoid the main reason for premature dismissals: the discrepancy between the job advertisement and the reality of the job!
Think about what knowledge new employees need first, what training and information events are necessary and how much time should be planned for this.
Compile training materials for new employees in advance or prepare training videos for home office training.
Appoint a mentor to whom the new employee can turn to at any time with technical questions, for example about responsibilities or work processes.
Time the first few days so that technical information is also imparted - but only in doses, as the focus should be on getting to know each other. You then discuss the plan with the people involved and allocate tasks and responsibilities.
Provide new employees with important information before their first day at work (commute and working hours on the first day). Guides or information about processes, topics and projects give a good and secure feeling for the start in the new company.
Make sure that new colleagues find a clean, comfortable and fully equipped workplace on their first day at work. Preferably with a small welcome gift.
The goal should be to make the first week of work as pleasant as possible in order to take away the nervousness of new employees and give them a warm welcome from colleagues and superiors. A warm welcome leaves a positive first impression - and you only get one chance to do that! Very important: under no circumstances should new specialist staff feel bored or "out of place" on their first day. On the other hand, a personal introductory meeting and a first tour of the company with the boss is very well received and shows appreciation, even at a higher level.
During a welcome meeting on the first day of work, you will introduce the company and the tasks and discuss the induction plan together. The team and the mentor are then introduced. Names, contact persons, roles, organizational structure - all of this should be clarified first - according to the motto: "Who can I ask for what?"
Clarify important internal company processes and regulations in a meeting or compile a document with the most important points: Working hours, break regulations, time recording, vacation planning, drinks & canteen, toilets & coffee kitchen, parking, behavior in the event of illness, performance benchmarks, telephone lists and contact persons.
In a second step, communicate the exact tasks and processes in the position to be filled. Clarify the following questions with new specialist staff: How does what work? Who do they work with directly? Who reports to whom? Which projects are currently running? Which project can I be directly involved in?
Finally, new employees are given an introduction to their new workplace: filing systems, tools, computers and software are explained and important accesses and passwords are shared.
In addition to the 4 phases of induction, there is also a 4-stage method for knowledge transfer in human resources that has proven itself in every job.
The 4-step method works like this:
After the first week, your professional induction will increasingly begin. Your pre-prepared induction plan with dates for training, courses and various information events is at the heart of this. The support is now less intensive, but the same applies in this phase: keep up your enthusiasm and motivation. It's not just exciting tasks that are crucial, but also social integration into the team. After all, how well newcomers feel depends heavily on the goodwill and support of their colleagues! In some companies, so-called "feel-good managers" are even hired specifically for this purpose, but a mentor or sponsor can also take on this role. Keep in close contact with new employees and find out directly in regular feedback meetings whether and where the shoe pinches.
An initial feedback meeting should take place after the first few weeks, then on a monthly basis. The focus is on questions about the projects and the working atmosphere in a personal and open exchange.
Attractive team events and team-building measures help with further integration, promote contacts and strengthen employer branding.
Development steps and career prospects should also be discussed in the regular meetings, as well as how goals can be achieved.
After the probationary period, the induction period is usually complete and the employee has arrived at the company. Ideally, a probationary period interview takes place shortly before this. This is followed by a smooth transition into the existing personnel development measures. The aim is to provide employees with the best possible support so that they can continue to develop.
Due to the pandemic, all office staff in Germany were temporarily banished to working from home. But even during this time, companies had to recruit and train new talent - digitally! Corona has given a huge boost to the digitalization of HR processes. But to ensure that new specialist staff don't feel completely left to their own devices when working from home, training has become all the more important! Otherwise, companies run the risk of having a greater initial fluctuation than ever before! How does induction work under such circumstances and what challenges do you have to overcome during digital onboarding? We explain.
Many companies still lack standardized processes for training staff working from home.
As a result, new employees do not receive a good induction and feel left alone, bored or overwhelmed, especially when working from home.
Solution:
Even if you don't yet have the optimal solution for digital induction, make sure you can answer the following questions:
Social interaction is a major challenge when working from home. Social distancing measures or long distances may lead to employees starting their first day at work without having entered the office building once.
As a result, new team members initially find it difficult to identify with the company and its way of working and to make contact with colleagues.
The solution: remote onboarding measures need to focus more on social integration (in addition to professional induction). Digital tools and a little creativity can help. For example, organize an appointment for a virtual coffee break, an initial speed dating session via Zoom or a joint lunch where everyone in the team can have a meal delivered to their home. Team-building measures can now also be creatively implemented online.
Remote structures can take longer, after all, the orientation towards colleagues in the home office is completely eliminated.
As a result, employees working from home alone run the risk of feeling overwhelmed by the amount of information they have to deal with on their own.
Solution: Allow more time for the digital induction of new employees. You should provide the most important information in good doses over a longer period of time. If possible, plan an onboarding process of up to 12 months to spread it out.
Digitally, the communication effort is much higher, as a message has to be written or an appointment made for every little question.
As a result, employees have to wait longer for answers and work less effectively.
Solution: Make sure you have simple and fast communication tools to create short paths. The "Slack" tool is a good example of this.
Normally, colleagues connect in passing in the corridor, in the coffee kitchen and over lunch. If this office routine is eliminated, this opportunity is missing.
As a result, the connection between employees cannot grow as well and there is a lack of space for personal exchange.
Solution: Create your own networks where "newcomers" can exchange ideas with each other, for example, or offer social media tools such as LinkedIn for networking and exchanging ideas right from the start.
Especially for companies that are growing rapidly and regularly hire new employees, the process should be as organized and planned as possible, but many lack standardized processes for onboarding.
As a result, the company loses a lot of time due to non-automated processes and has to prepare each new induction individually.
Solution: Information, guidelines, processes, presentations, etc. should ideally be available to new employees in a central location. You can initiate standardized processes by working with training videos whose links you can easily forward. A wiki with the support of videos is also suitable for this purpose.
You can easily create training videos with Memberspot, a platform that offers you a central knowledge repository for employee e-learning and can also be accessed via app from anywhere - securely and with its own EU video hosting.