The best way to onboard new team members

Great onboarding will help new team members to quickly settle into your organisation and gain the knowledge and skills they’ll need to deliver great work. According to one survey, 70% of new hires decide if a new job is the right fit for them within the first month – so first impressions matter.  

 

 

Onboarding before day one

 

Smooth onboarding starts way before someone steps foot into the building (or logs on). Send any information they might need beforehand, such as an employee handbook, equipment they’ll need if working remotely, and any forms that could be completed before they start.

 

If your organisation has an induction checklist, use it to plan their first month or so in post. And if not, think about putting one together – it will make onboarding easier for you in the future. The NCVO has a helpful induction checklist that you can adapt for your organisation, and Acas has a helpful guide to staff induction.

 

 

Make new employees feel welcome

 

Make sure someone is there to welcome them on day one. You don’t want a new starter having to wait in reception, fretting. Then show them where they’ll be working, walk them around the building, and, all importantly, introduce them to their team mates.

 

If your team is hybrid, ideally ask the person to start on a day when there will be others in the office. It’s easier to get to know people when you’re face to face, and to ask all those little questions that crop up when getting started. 

 

 

Make the practical onboarding stuff easy

 

The first few days of a new job can involve a lot of form filling and admin – before even getting to grips with their specific role. Making sure the basics are in place is one way to help a new team member to settle in quickly. That might include getting HR forms ready before they start, speaking to IT to set up systems and email, and checking their security pass works.

 

 

Prioritise introductions during onboarding

 

Scheduling a few coffee dates with team members is a good way to help build relationships – whether those meetups are in person or online. This is especially important when onboarding remote staff, who’ll miss out on those unplanned chats that can help someone to settle in. We share some more ideas about how to onboard staff working remotely.

 

 

Share the bigger picture

 

As well as understanding their own role, it’s important that the person knows how their role and team fits into the wider organisation. To do that you might want to share recent impact reports, strategy documents and information about the activities and services you run.

 

Over the first few weeks, book in meetings with people from other teams. This will help the person to grow their internal network and feel more established in the organisation. If appropriate, having a chat with a service user will help them to understand the impact their work will have.   

 

 

Buddy them up

 

When Microsoft carried out a survey of their own onboarding process, they found that “after their first week on the job, new hires with buddies were 23% more satisfied with their overall onboarding experience compared to those without buddies".

 

Matching up your new recruit with another colleague can support them to settle in well. It can be helpful if their buddy has been with your charity for a while, and has a good understanding of its culture, processes and people. And buddying them up with someone from a different team can bring a broader perspective on the organisation.

 

 

Give them time and space

 

It might be tempting to bombard new employees with information and book back-to-back meetings. But it’s easy to forget how overwhelming those first few days or weeks can be. It can be helpful to stagger introductory meetings over the course of a few weeks, building in time for them to digest information and get to grips with new systems.

 

Acknowledging that it takes a while to settle into a new organisation can also help them to feel less pressurised to perform, and give them space to find their feet. 

 

 

Regularly check in with new employees

 

Book in a few regular meetings with their line manager. This can be reassuring for the person to know they have a designated time to ask questions. And for their line manager, it’s a chance to ask how well they’re settling in and if they need any extra support. It can also be a good time to talk through expectations for their first months in post, and clarify any performance-related goals.