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Whether it is a big organization or a small startup, making the onboarding process run smoothly and effectively is very necessary. Many organizations keep month-long and continuous onboarding programs to train their employees and make sure they get comfortable in the new environment. But startups cannot afford to spend so much time training employees. They have to work fast and they need their employees to yield good results as soon as possible.
If you have a startup or are planning to start one, employee onboarding will hold a lot of significance. Learn the best practices for an employee onboarding process for your startup in this article.
Have Someone Become Your HR
It is very common that the founders of the startup would be the busiest people in the company. They take up multiple roles at a time. They are the CEOs, managers, interviewers, and more. The responsibilities of HR are the ones that have to be carried out in the best possible manner. Taking up so many roles might slow you down. Moreover, you might end up neglecting the HR responsibilities considering the other important tasks.
You can hire a good HR professional or if someone among your founding members is willing to take up that role, that would be great too.
You now have someone who will devote their entire time to discovering, interviewing, recruiting, training, and making new workers feel at ease.
Prepare Before Your Employee Joins
Before you start hiring new employees, there are a number of things that you will have to do. Once your employees start joining, you won’t have any time to prepare the training documents and other study materials. So keep all the online training content ready for all the different positions your employees will be appointed to.
You can go by the traditional method of delivering all the content via email or you can use LMS to make things easier. Hire an instructor, record lectures, and set up your online training course using a suitable LMS. With LMS, all you have to do is give employees access to it and make updates to the course occasionally. With this, you can save a lot of time and this will also prove to be cost-effective in the long run.
You can also start the training before the joining date to save your time. In this way, you can be sure that the day your employee starts working they have sufficient knowledge about the company and the required tools or software.
Introduction And Job Descriptions
Get started with the introductions from day one. Host an orientation program. You can do it for one day or for a week. Introduce them to the company culture, how the company functions, your mission and vision, and the product or service you provide. Resolve any doubts they may have regarding your product or service.
Apart from this, you have to clearly introduce them to their role in the company and explain what is expected from them. Also, introduce them to the rules and regulations of the company.
Help them socialize with the team. You can set up a hangout area in the office and help them get to know other employees faster.
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Follow Up
Employees of a startup are always busy. The company is subjected to so many changes and all the employees have to stay continuously updated. For employees who have just started working, it can be very difficult to adjust to the startup environment. Hence, keep checking up on them. Ask them if they need any help or if they don’t understand anything. You can assign a mentor to them who can help them resolve simple issues quickly.
Track Progress
Just giving them the online training material or access to the LMS won’t suffice. You have to keep a close look at how they are progressing.
You have to track their development to see if they need more help. In a traditional method, you will have to assign them certain tasks and see their progress. If you use an LMS system, tracking their progress in the training period is easy. LMSs have analytical tools and tracking features that present statistical data. Moreover, you can use the assessment features to see how much they have learned.
Give And Take Feedback
Welcome the feedback culture to your startup. Encourage your employees to give constructive feedback on your onboarding process. Focus on the things they want to change and update your process accordingly. Welcome any feedback regarding the way things are carried out in the company. The employees might be new but if an employee complains about something, it is important to pay attention. The same thing may be bothering the other employees too.
It is also important for you to give them real feedback on their progress. Appreciate them for the good things they did. A little appreciation is a good force of motivation for the employees. If they are going wrong, try to understand why is it like that. Keep this give and take of feedback very natural. Accept negative feedback without getting offended.
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Part of the team
Although there are hierarchical positions, for a startup to reach higher heights, all employees and founders have to work together as a team. Make them feel like they are part of the team. Support them whenever they need help. Encourage your existing team members to share responsibilities with the new employees and work together to achieve organizational goals. The sense of belonging to a team can increase the efficiency of their work. Moreover, the employee will be more engaged in their work, giving you the best results.
Conclusion
Your startup may or may not have a lot of employees. In any case, it is important that you welcome your employees without causing any hassle. These days people look for job satisfaction and good company culture. Show them in the first few weeks that they would love to be a part of your company. We hope the tips we shared would help you onboard new employees that stay with you for a long time.
