Elevate Onboarding with A New Process: Enboarding
Not all employee onboarding programs are equal. While many traditional onboarding techniques use checklists (paperwork, payroll, provisioning, policies), this approach fails to make use of a great opportunity to improve employee engagement. Engagement-centric onboarding, or enboarding, aims to change that.
Why a great start with onboarding matters
The experience that a new hire has when joining a company will often dictate how long that employee will stay, as well as their level of engagement.
We often hear from companies that they feel they are ticking the onboarding box by having an induction program on a new hire’s first day. It’s been shown, however, that the first three to six months - when new hires are particularly susceptible to turnover - are most critical in creating an incredible experience. So, if your organisation needs to revamp their onboarding into one that surprises and delights their new hires, then what would you call it?
What is enboarding?
Enboarding, or you may also think of it as engagement onboarding. This refers to the way which companies create engaging experiences with their employees. The key words here are engaging experiences, revolving around the creation of an impactful employee experience, which is focused on a greater level of interaction with the employees compared to the traditional onboarding approach, which is mostly focused on the process of bringing someone onboard. Through enboarding, you can truly WOW your new hire’s, rather than just ticking the paperwork boxes. By focusing on creating a great employee experience through your onboarding, you can turn your new hires into future star employees, and great company ambassadors.
What are the main areas to focus on when enboarding?
One of the key points that enboarding focuses on is what happens before a new hire begins their employment. The time between an offer being signed and day 1 is such a missed opportunity for meaningful touch points with new hires. It’s often when they would like that reassurance that they made the right decision, as they’re dealing with those pesky pre-start nerves. This is a great time for your new employee to learn more about the organisation prior to the formal induction program, but don’t stop with the bare basics. This is also a great opportunity to share more fun (‘non-work’ related) information with the manager and the team, making the whole experience more personal and fun.
Another crucial step in enboarding is to have a structured welcome for when a new hire begins. Think back to when you last started a new role. Did you prefer the idea of sitting at a computer reading through pages of company information? Or instead, being welcomed with an experience that celebrated your decision to join a new team?
It’s not all about the lead up to day 1, the first 90 days are crucial to any new hire. This is why one of the most important steps in enboarding is to ensure that new hires are receiving regular communication throughout their employment. It is an opportunity to ensure that managers and employees alike are held accountable for set tasks throughout their employment, as well as providing comfort to the new hire that they haven’t been forgotten about. Again, we emphasise the importance of the experience created here. Why not set up an event that promotes your company culture, an example could be a Family Feud-like event on a Friday afternoon, putting hiring managers up against new hires.
Finally, enboarding also places great emphasis on the offboarding processes when an employee ends their employment (or goes on extended leave). Just as you want to ensure new hires have an outstanding experience, it’s vital that companies leave an existing employee with a similar experience. It is often the final moments that an employee will remember about working with you, so why not make it a great one.
Why should I care about engaging onboarding?
Research has shown that this method of interaction leads to positive outcomes, particularly in the areas of employee retention, job performance and employee engagement. In recent years, this type of employee engagement is being driven by e-onboarding practices, which is leading to more efficient and customised experiences – generating less admin – and creating a stronger relationship between new hires and their organization. So rather than just focusing on the process of bringing someone onboard (onboarding), push the limits, and instead start thinking about creating an experience that will blow their socks off!
We make enboarding fun for everyone
We’re driven to help you create impactful employee experiences during onboarding through simplicity and ease of use. We do the ‘heavy lifting’ in our backend, so that employers and their new hires don’t really need to do that much at all!
The result?
Higher engagement. Rockstar managers. Delighted employees.
It’s not even that hard. All we do is make onboarding fun, and easy, and practical.
Want to experience the future of onboarding today? Find out just how easy it is to do.