The Struggles of Onboarding

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The Struggles of Onboarding

POV: After months of unemployment, you finally get a job offer. You show up on Day 1, but your supervisor hasn’t planned or prepared anything for you. You spend your first week or two, uncertain and purposeless until someone has the time to notice you. You’re handed a project that seems simple enough, but you don’t understand the procedures or programs this office uses. The project takes you twice as long to complete and another team member has to redo your work to meet the deadline.

The onboarding process typically refers to the transitioning for new hires within their first 90 days of employment. What many new hires may not realize is that they’re not the only party struggling through the onboarding process. Leadership and the existing team members also experience some level of frustration or discomfort because they’re making room in their existing conditions to make room for a new hire.  

Unfortunately, there are several in-office and remote new hires that undergo unsuccessful onboarding that sets a team on the path to frustration and conflict. In this article, we’ll be looking at how new hires, leaders, and existing team members struggle with onboarding as well as some tips to make the transition smooth for everyone. 

Struggles for NEW HIRES

Why New Hires Should Care

The new hire should care if they get a successful onboarding experience. Coming into a new job can be daunting. No matter how many interviews you may have sat through, the first time you walk through your office’s door or log on from a remote location, you don’t always know what you can expect.

Starting a new job usually comes with a level of uncertainty. In the beginning, a new hire wonders who they will work with, how they will fit, and who would be their go-to for all kinds of questions. Some of these questions could be asked during the interview process, but there are many questions new hires don’t even know to ask until their first day. Onboarding is a great way to answer a new hire’s questions and eliminate that uncertainty as soon as possible. 

By the end of the onboarding process, a new hire should know the mission, goals, agenda of the company; the team they’re working with, including their supervisor and a go-to work buddy; and how they can set themselves up for success with your company. 

A successful onboarding experience for remote workers needs to include providing a sense of inclusion. It’s important that you give your team the feeling that they are not only welcome to your team but also wanted. 

Researchers report that in 2022 up to 20% of new remote hires will quit in the first 90 days of employment and that 25% of new remote hires will leave their jobs within 6 months of employment. These new hires can feel so detached or purposeless if they are not well-planned for. They need to feel valuable to this new company as a person and as a team member. 

How can you establish a sense of inclusion with your remote workers? On their first day, introduce your team in a video call (camera’s on!) or set up a virtual lunch with a few team members. The team leader or an assigned work buddy is typically in charge of stay connected with the new hire.

Helpful Tips During Onboarding

• Smile! Let your new coworkers and supervisor that you’re approachable. This opens the doors to honest feedback about your performance and will allow you to get better at your job sooner.

• Make eye contact. Show your coworkers and supervisor that you are interested in what they have to say and that you’re following along. 

• Welcome feedback or correction because these will only make you better at what you do.

• Ask questions so you know everything from where the bathroom is to what the company’s objectives are.

Struggles for LEADERS

Why Leaders Should Care

Leadership on all levels should care that the new hire has a successful onboarding experience. Whether you’re starting a new business or reforming a previous onboarding program, onboarding takes time, effort, and money. That means that an unsuccessful onboarding costs your team and your budget twice as much and increases frustration for all parties involved. 

If you’re a leader at your company, you may be thinking “I don’t develop a formal onboarding plan because I don’t have time.” That’s a fair statement! Many leaders think that, in order to have a successful onboarding process, they have to dedicate hours of time—that they don’t have—to personally train every new hire that comes into the office. Leaders are usually putting out several fires throughout the day and rarely have time to personally invest in a new hire throughout the onboarding process. 

Leaders are not required to plan the entire onboarding process on their own. Invite another supervisor connected to your team or a trusted coworker to assist in building the personal connection. These helpers can also be a perfect point of contact for your new hire if leadership has a full plate. 

Feedback and input from the existing team and other supervisors come together to provide a wealth of knowledge for the new hire. While leaders may be sacrificing productivity while a new hire is onboarding, they’ll actually be saving time and money in the future with a successfully trained employee. 

Leaders can save working hours by incorporating a pre-boarding checklist. Pre-boarding can include a variety of helpful resources, such as:

• A brief overview of the company history and goals

• All required employment paperwork 

• Employee handbook/office policies

• What to expect on Day 1 (including a schedule and maybe a copy of the org chart)

• Culture heads-up for information such as acceptable clothing, if you’re a traditional office)

• Set up full access to all programs/email

Develop an Onboarding Process

Develop an onboarding program that focuses on general knowledge of the company but can also be customizable based on position or department. Onboarding for IT should be different than the sales department. This does not mean that as a leader or HR department that you have to develop a specific onboarding program for each department. Develop a broad onboarding process and allow department supervisors to add specific information they’d like their new hires to know. 

Alex Weisberg is an instructional designer at NC State Industry Expansion Solutions who believes leaders should incorporate four stages to develop a successful onboarding experience: compliance, clarification, culture, and connection. 

First, compliance is simply the basic rules and policies of the company that a new hire must agree to. For example, if there are any non-disclosure or non-compete agreements, those should be some of the first things each new hires deals with either during pre-onboarding or at least on the first day of employment. 

Next, the clarification stage strives to answer any questions the new hire may have, including what they can expect each day or expectations that the supervisor has. 

Third, culture is when you introduce your new hire to your company culture. Some companies take the opportunity to hand out a questionnaire that includes birthday, favorite candy, favorite lunch spot, etc. These fun facts about the next hire are helpful for Secret Santa exchanges or birthday surprises. 

Finally, the connection stage is connecting your new hire to their new team. Introduce the new hire during a team meeting or schedule a team lunch. Arrange fun team-building activities or propose an icebreaker question that’s intended to loosen any tension or awkwardness of bringing a new person into an existing team. 

Struggles for the EXISTING TEAM

Why Existing Team Members Should Care

The existing team should care if the new hire gets a successful onboarding experience. If the new hire doesn’t have a successful onboarding experience, this will cause additional problems for the team as a whole. Team members get frustrated when someone hired to help them ends up bringing more problems than solutions. It’s also uncomfortable to try to complete your job and your tasks while babysitting another person who should’ve been trained to complete their job without constant supervision/assistance.

What Can We Do to Include New Hire?

Adding a new team member is like adding a new person into your family. You don’t know them. You have to build communication and a relationship with them, and that takes time. Within that time, there could be miscommunication or other signs of conflict. While conflict is a part of life and no stranger to the workplace, it is important to understand how to manage and resolve the conflict that comes into the workplace. 

• Allow them to make mistakes.

• Be available to help.

• Encourage them to ask questions or clarify instructions

• Include them in your group.

• Get to know them genuinely

*****

It’s a running joke in TV shows that the first day at a new job is the worst day you’ll experience at the company. Several side characters are scripted to encourage their main characters that the next day will get better. The fact is, that the first 90 days of a new job are critical for employee engagement and retention. It’s in the company’s best interest to make the first days of a new hire’s employment as smooth as possible.

Onboarding can be a struggle for the new hire, leadership, and the existing team. Adding new team members includes a lot of uncertainty on all levels and even a little awkwardness. A successful onboarding process is a game-changer that sets new hires on the path of success that benefits leadership and the existing team. If you’re struggling with onboarding, sometimes it’s best to get an outside perspective on your existing processes and pain points. ONE EIGHTY serves as an objective, outside resource and complement to HR teams. Learn more here.