Onboarding a new employee is a critical step in their successful integration into your organization. If it is done well, you provide the new employee with the key foundation blocks for success, if ignored or done poorly; you increase their likelihood for failure in the role, resignation or termination, and having to begin a costly hiring process again. Taking the time upfront to get to know and understand your new employee (motivators, interests, strengths & weaknesses) will help you to best support their integration into your organization.
This process doesn’t have to be onerous, if you have a clearly laid out plan of action that everyone understands and follows. The first step is to lay the framework. We have a simple “New Employee Orientation & Onboarding Checklist” on the “Resources Page” of the website that you can use as a template.
Start with what you know. The hiring process provides you with a wealth of information that you can and should take advantage of and share with the new employee’s manager. The resume, interview process, and hiring assessments offer key insights into the new hire’s core personality, thinking style, motivators and interests.
Let’s take a look at these resources and the insights they provide that can support your onboarding process.
The Resume Review: Basic Insights
• Background experience and personal interests – basic familiarity and insights into motivators/drivers, areas where you can start to build connections
• Identified strengths/specialties – areas where they can onboard quickly and organization can potentially capitalize on
The Interview Review (Questions, Answers & Notes): Deeper Insights
• Motivators/drivers – deeper understanding of individual, areas to start to build connections
• Style and preferences/approach towards work (i.e. introvert/extrovert, individual/team player) – fit to team and manager and how best to approach
• Strengths/weakness/challenges –areas to capitalize on, areas for development & support
Employee Assessments & Reports Review: Deepest Insights
• Provide deepest insights into core person and personality – reports provide direction and tips on how to best support, manage and develop new hire
Core Person Assessments (i.e. ProfileXT):
• Insights into thinking style, behaviors and interests plus areas of strength and weakness /gaps – coaching & development tool – selecting right development/training approach based on optimal learning conditions
• Provide resources for employee self awareness –better understand strengths, weaknesses, and blind spots, as well as how to address them
Personality Based Assessments (i.e. DiSC):
• Identify new hire’s tendencies and preferences towards work, and how their style will potentially fit with manager’s and the team – helps to build positive working relationships, improve communication and overall team dynamics
• Provides resources for employee self awareness – better understand themselves and read and tailor their approaches to others
A successful new employee onboarding process doesn’t have to be cumbersome or time consuming. It simply requires a well laid out plan of action and a clear understanding of the new hire’s motivators, drivers and interests. Using these tools allows you to develop a solid, tailored approach that supports the new hire in a way that best fits their individual needs.