How to Induct New Employees Into Your Organisational Culture
You’ve carefully recruited a new hire who matches your company’s values and will fit into your culture—but it’s not time to rest yet, your job is only half done! You need to induct them properly to ensure that their future growth within your company has a strong foundation to launch from.
Here's how to induct new employees and ensure they continue to adhere to the positive culture you've invited them into:
Read more: ‘Organisational Culture to Enhance Productivity and Profit‘
GIVE THEM THE KNOWLEDGE THEY NEED
Research shows that a strong onboarding process can improve the retention of a new staff member by 82 per cent—and it starts from before the interview. Conveying your company values and culture throughout your hiring process helps your new hire to get a feel for the type of company you are, and the behaviour that is expected.
Tip: show your candidates around your workplace and give them a chance to meet and interact with other staff they may work with.
Once you’ve offered the job to your perfect candidate, think about the things they’ll need to learn—or simply get their head around—when they first start. Is there software they’ll need to learn? A process to understand for a certain task? Book your candidate into meetings or training sessions with the right people who can train them up, and help them adjust to their new role as quickly as possible.
SHOW THEM WHAT BEST PRACTICE LOOKS LIKE
Whether you’re in sales, customer service, or engineering, show your new starter how the best members of your business conduct themselves—and how they go about achieving their results. Like any good role model, your top staff will set the standard of what makes a great employee within your company.
“Buddying people is a good way to induct people into an organisation,” says Greg Allnutt, a business strategist and high performance leadership coach at Advisory.Works. “It’s a continuum of the recruitment process and is important in helping new staff know what ‘good’ looks like and to understand what the expectations are.”
FORGE RELATIONSHIPS FROM THE START
According to Hays, the number one reason people leave their job is due to their relationship with their direct manager. So, it’s important to build a foundation of trust and respect between managers and new employees from the start. There are literally, hundreds of ways you can do this. Take them out for coffee with the team; leave a welcome note on their desk; hold a morning tea—be creative!
Tip: ask your senior staff and the teams your new starter will work with to come over and welcome them.
An induction doesn’t have to be done by a single person, people from all over your business can, and should, get involved. The key is to make your new employee feel welcome and valued. It builds positivity, good-will and begins to grow the understanding of your culture to your new start.
SET CLEAR EXPECTATIONS
A large part of setting expectations is informing your recruit about the rules, policies and core values of your company. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, one-third of new employees quit their job in the first six months. Of these, 23 per cent say they may have stayed if they’d received clear guidelines on responsibilities.
To go a step further, create induction progress goals for your employee to strive towards. They could be as simple as: “See if you can do this yourself by the end of the week” or “I want you to feel comfortable using this system by the end of the month.”
The benefit of these types of goals allow new hires to gauge how well they are progressing and if they are meeting the expectations of their managers and co-workers. As time goes on, shift the short-term “learn how we work” goals into medium and long-term goals. This will help keep your employee focused and motivated.
MAKE YOUR ONBOARDING PROCESS COMPANY POLICY
A formal induction and onboarding process not only helps your new employees find their feet and become familiar with your workplace culture, but also makes sure nothing important gets overlooked.
As part of your more long-term onboarding process, set up one-on-one reviews with your new staff member. Managers should check in after one month, three months, then six to see how they are progressing. Encourage your new hires to give feedback, and to come up with goals of their own. Remember, these reviews don’t necessarily need to be formal and can be often as need be.
At least once a year you should also offer an opportunity for your staff members to look at the bigger picture and long-term, career progression goals. This is especially vital for millennial staff since many view career progression as more important than money.
In short, making the effort to properly induct a new employee into your workplace not only makes your new hire more productive, but also keeps them engaged and motivated, and more likely to stay with your company for the long run.
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