Employee Onboarding Considerations

Bringing on a new employee is not just a matter of plucking a decent candidate out of a pile of applications and setting them loose on your business. There is plenty of time and paperwork involved in ensuring that your business has coverage in the event something happens as well as training new employee will provide what you need. Here are some suggestions to help make employee onboarding easier.
 
Paperwork
Paperwork is one of the most necessary albeit tedious parts of having a new employee join your team. Consider sending a new associate an information/welcome packet with links to online information that they will need about the company before they even come in for training. This allows the new employee to start on their first day with this background information already on their minds. Advances in technology have offered ways for you to automate all of that tedious paperwork. This cuts down on paper consumption and helps to prevent duplication. You can even look into filing documents electronically and getting digital signatures to help optimize the onboarding process.
 
Training
There are numerous ways to provide training for your company. Look into having interactive training videos that allow new employees to try out the programs that they will be using and ask any questions that they may have. 
 
Consider setting up a buddy system in which a new employee ‘shadows’ a seasoned employee in order to learn the culture as well as the tasks they will be expected to do. A buddy can give a new associate someone who they can connect with and feel comfortable asking questions as they come up. Be sure to have a system set up that allows you to stay organized and on track with the training process in order to prevent overwhelming new-hires or from repeating information to them.
 
Add Some Fun
New employees tend to be nervous and can easily become overwhelmed during the training process. It is important to help them feel confident and welcomed within your company. Consider making a game out of training material at the end of the week. Offer fun prizes as incentives for learning the required information. This allows the new employee to feel like they are not only making progress but that their efforts are appreciated.
 
At Metro Boston Insurance Agency, we understand the importance of not only hiring the right people but also getting them up to speed with a successful onboarding process.  Call us today at 617.884.5480 for information on our policies.