New Employee Onboarding

The concept behind employee onboarding is best defined as a systematic and comprehensive approach to orienting a new employee to help them get "on board."  There are two high-level goals of the onboarding process:

• To make new employees feel welcome and comfortable in their new surroundings.
• To minimize the time before new employees are productive members of their new workgroup.

Making Employees Feel Welcome

Studies conducted indicate that it's important for new employees to quickly acclimate to their new work environment.  It's also important for these employees to start building rapport with colleagues so they can begin to assimilate into existing workgroups.

By doing so, new employees experience a sense of purpose within their new organization and the transition into this organization is less disruptive.

Minimizing the Learning Curve

From the employer's perspective, onboarding can help minimize the downtime typically experienced when bringing a new employee into the department.  And by sharing information such as performance expectations right away their can be a significant reduction in the amount of misunderstandings which can often lead to frustration and even the premature departure of a new hire.

Objectives of Employee Onboarding

Finally, from either the employee's or employer's perspective, the high-level objectives of a good onboarding program include:

• Helping the employee to identify with their new employer.
• Allowing the employee to understand some of the company's values and priorities.
• Building an optimistic attitude towards the company.
• Avoiding misunderstandings.
• Helping the employee feel valued.
• Encouraging socialization and creating a sense of belonging.
• Reducing new employee anxiety.
• Setting of performance expectations.
• Decreasing the learning curve.

Of particular importance among the post baby boom generations such as Generation X is to feel they've made friends at work.  By quickly introducing these workers to their new coworkers this generation can start to build the relationships they need and employers can reduce new employee turnover.