How to Avoid a New Hire Nightmare

By jamie | April 24, 2010 | BPM, Solutions

As anyone who has ever started a new job knows, your first day in a new place can be a terribly awkward nightmare.  Like the new kid at school, you don’t know anyone, you have no friends to ask for help, and you aren’t even sure where the bathroom is.  But unlike middle school, a new employee on-boarding process can be pain-free, and even positive, with the help of an effective, streamlined workflow.

Looking at the on-boarding workflow from the employee perspective, a new employee  needs to know the very basics: get to know the lay of the land, meet the important characters, get the right equipment, and learn who to ask when you don’t know something.    From the company perspective, the company also needs to make sure the new hire has the right equipment, has signed the right documents, and is linked up with the right people and equipment to get a running start.  So the goal of the employees, and goal of the company, is much the same, though the order of importance they place on each item may differ.

For example, a company may be very concerned with having the employee fill out the appropriate forms, while the employee is worried that she had to park her car in the 30-minute visitor lot.  The company will want to introduce her to everyone right away, but she hasn’t even visited her own desk, or left her belongings.  Worse yet, an employee may show up on the first day without knowing who to ask for, or where to go.  Even worse, the HR department forgot to announce her arrival, and no one knows who is supposed to “deal with the new girl”.  Sound familiar?

So when you’re redesigning your employee on-boarding process, start with a checklist that contemplates the on-boarding needs of both the employee and the company. A checklist is a great starting point to keep track of all of the important on-boarding tasks.

But then, move beyond the tasks themselves to design an orientation “experience” — an introduction to the company, the culture, the department, and the relationships that the employee will need to thrive.  Cut to the chase, don’t waste your time or the employees’, and present key information in a digestible, memorable way.  When you keep the big picture in mind, you avoid making your employees feel like awkward middle schoolers, and help them hit the ground running right from the start.