Employee Onboarding Process – Best Practices & Examples

The introduction of new employees into an organization is a hard nutshell to crack for HR professionals. The task becomes even more tedious when companies are required to onboard a host of new employees at once.

However, there are umpteen ways of making the first day of your new employee fun and exciting.

Here’s helping you make the employee onboarding process smooth and convenient. Pull off a warm welcome and ensure work process clarity with these 5 employee onboarding best practices.

5 Best Practices to Welcome New Employees in Your Organization
Here’s shedding light on these much-needed best practices:

1. Early Employee Engagement

One of the quickest ways to make new joiners comfortable—especially if it is a virtual employee onboarding—is to engage with them. When you engage early with the employees, they easily communicate with you.

You must ensure they don’t feel isolated or unwelcome. Reach out to them and help them understand the work culture and company better. Make sure that you answer any questions or queries they might have.

Early employee engagement goes hand in hand with boosted productivity right from the start.

2. Personalizing the employee area

For in-office onboardings, welcoming an employee is as simple as personalizing their working area. You can decorate the office desk of the new employee and hang a well-designed “welcome to the team” message to put them at ease from the get-go. Such welcome messages convey your compassion to them and shoo away any nervousness they may be feeling.

You might even go ahead and add a small gift to their personal space to enhance the welcome spirit.

3. An office tour

An employee welcome is incomplete without an office tour, don’t you think? New employees aren’t aware of the people and rules of the company. A small in-person or virtual office tour will make it easy for them to adapt to their new workplace.

Once they get well-acquainted with the office environment, they will know whom to approach when they need help or have a query. They will communicate and perform better when they know your company better.

4. Positive Workspace

An excellent way to establish a positive work environment is by introducing a little bit of nature in their workspace.

A shrub or succulent in a small pot placed next to their PC is bound to brighten up their office space and uplift their mood when they are exhausted. You can print and hang welcome messages to complement the thoughtful gesture.

Trust us, a heartfelt welcome message and bouquet of fresh flowers is an exceptionally sweet welcome gesture.

Relevant Read: Employee engagement activities specially for remote employees

5. Gifts and goodies

Everyone loves and cherishes gifts. When gifts are a surprise, they are even more memorable.

So, gift your new employees an item or two to symbolize the connected culture of your company. For instance, your new employee would instantly feel at home if you gifted them a branded pair of coasters and mugs carrying the company logo. Alternatively, a gift voucher for long-term use would be a delightful treat to them.

Other thoughtful corporate gift ideas include wellness hampers or gourmet snacks, in case it is a virtual employee onboarding process.

How about you put together an entire welcome package for the new employees?

Here’s how you go about it:

• Begin with sending out thoughtfully written emails for new employees the day before the onboarding. It needn’t necessarily be an email; even a personal phone expressing your excitement to have them onboard would do the trick.

• As the D-day finally arrives, make sure you prepare in advance that your new employee is ready to get started to the best of their capabilities.

-You may start by putting a checklist of essentials your new employee might need on a day-to-day basis: office stationery, sipper, notebook, bag, possibly a branded t-shirt, etc. We bet you anything they’ll love the package of goodies!

• Once you present employees with their welcome kit, it’s a good idea to show them around the office and introduce them to their colleagues so they have an opportunity to interact with everyone.

Ta-da! It doesn’t get better than this!