As an HR professional, you’re well acquainted with the practice of onboarding. But if your company has never made doing it well a priority, you may not have a full understanding of it’s benefits.
We’ll attempt to remedy that in this blog. We’ll explain why proper onboarding of new employees is so important, and how to do it effectively using the four C’s approach. Let’s jump in!
The Importance of Onboarding
First off, why do proper onboarding best practices even matter? There are many different reasons. We’ll cover a few of the most prominent ones now:
First Impressions
Do you remember the old saying, “You never get a second chance at a first impression”? Well it definitely rings true in the business world. Especially when new employees are first being introduced to the inner workings of a business.
If your onboarding process is chaotic and outdated, new hires will assume the company isn’t well-managed. They may even begin to doubt their decision to take the job. Certainly not the feeling you want new team members to have on their first day!
Employee Engagement
Successful employees — the kind that work hard, help move a company forward, and make the HR department that hired them look good — are engaged employees. There’s no way around it. If your company’s employees aren’t engaged in their work, they’ll produce lackluster results.
Engagement also increases employee retention, which directly impacts the financials of the company. Let’s talk more about that:
Financial Responsibility
Successful onboarding directly affects a company’s bottomline. As we’ve already mentioned; the process can elevate an organization in the mind of new hires, increase their engagement level and make them more productive. Each of these lead to more profit.
The Four C’s of Onboarding
Can we agree on the importance of onboarding best practices? Great, now let’s dive into the four C’s approach. Use these techniques to improve your company’s onboarding process.
Compliance
These measures need to be taken, but they’re also just the tip of the iceberg. The first level, so to speak. Let’s move on to the second C.
Clarification
Unfortunately, for many companies, the onboarding process begins to break down at this step. As an HR rep, you need to ensure that each of your new hires clearly understands their role in the company and what’s expected of them. They need clarification.
Questions to answer may range from high level queries such as what the company’s overall objective is and who new hires should report to; to the ground level details like where to park. It’s all vital to a smooth and successful onboarding experience.
Culture
HR departments should make culture a priority during the onboarding process and steep new hires in it from the very, very beginning. This includes the original employment ads and initial interviews; and runs through the employee’s entire first few months at your company.
Connection
For business success to be achieved, connection amongst employees must be made. Your staff is more than random people performing specific functions. They’re teammates working together to accomplish ambitious goals. At least they should be.
Foster connection by introducing new hires to their new colleagues. If there are subgroups within your company you believe align with their personality — a band of people who meet on Saturdays to perform community service, for example — arrange for an introduction to be made.
Whatever you do, foster connection and communication between new employees and the rest of your company. Your company will be better for it.
Put the Four C’s Into Action
In this blog we covered the importance of onboarding best practices and the four C’s approach to doing it effectively. We hope this information has been useful!
If you can implement a system that ingrains compliance, clarification, culture and connection into each of your new hires — and commit to it — your company will see a lot more success. It’s almost inevitable. But it’s not necessarily easy…
That’s why we’ve created tools to help. Our onboarding software , in particular, will help you incorporate the four C’s into your process and create more engaged, productive employees for your organization.
About Author: This article is written by a marketing team member at HR Cloud. HR Cloud is a leading provider of proven HR solutions, including recruiting, onboarding, employee communications & engagement, and rewards & recognition. Our user-friendly software increases employee productivity, delivers time and cost savings, and minimizes compliance risk.
Originally published at https://www.hrcloud.com.
