The Perfect way to onboard a new Recruit

By: Sumeet_Manhas

Attracting top talent to your business isn’t always easy. When you are fortunate enough to bring in great people, you’ll want to ensure that their initial experience with you runs as smoothly as possible. Here, 1st Formations look at some top tips for onboarding new recruits to your small business. Let’s get started.

Prepare all the necessary equipment

Before your new employee officially begins, ask them if they require any specialist equipment, such as a particular laptop, piece of software or anything else that will help them do their job. Then, if possible, get this ready for them before their start day.

By having all the necessary tools prepared, your recruit can jump straight into work, rather than having to waste their first few days taking care of mundane tasks such as collecting all the kit they need, setting up logins and downloading applications.

Make sure they meet everyone

Compile a list made up of all your employees. On your new team member’s first day, introduce them to as many colleagues as possible, ticking off on your list who they have met - not forgetting your remote workers. As they work through their first few weeks, see who they still need to meet (due to hybrid working, annual leave and sickness) and take steps to implement a quick introduction.

Working in a new environment can be intimidating, but by initiating these conversions you will enable less confident recruits to meet everyone early on.

If your new hire will be working remotely, video calls with every individual on your team may not be feasible, so consider hosting a handful of quick introductory calls with groups of colleagues instead.

Give them a buddy

Allocate your recruit to a colleague whom they can shadow for a period of time. This person should be a confident team member, embedded into the company culture who can assist the employee with any task-specific queries as well as make them comfortable within their new working environment.

As well as having a buddy, consider arranging some team-wide events to help initiate the newcomer, such as a paid-for lunch or social drinks one evening after work.

Assign an interesting job

Have a task ready and waiting for your new employee. This should provide them with an opportunity to showcase their skills and give them a fair representation of the type of work they will be doing. If the recruit is going to be working as part of a team, ensure said team is involved in the task too.

Without micro-managing, monitor them throughout this task - ensuring that they’re comfortable. The purpose of this is to give them a taste of what they can expect from the role, not to stress them out.

Talk to them daily

Too many business owners feel that their job is done as soon as they get a new recruit through the door and choose to leave the employee to it. This approach is a mistake. Part of onboarding is to continue demonstrating to an employee that they have made the right choice in joining you.

Hold daily catch-ups in their first few weeks, asking them how they’re getting on, providing feedback on what they’ve done so far, making sure they have enough work, and keeping them in the loop on upcoming projects. These meetings don’t have to take long, sometimes just 5 minutes will do.

This process will help you stay connected to the recruit and illustrate that you’re delighted to have them on your team.

Thanks for reading

So, there you have it, the perfect way to onboard a new recruit. Getting top talent to join you is a particularly challenging part of running a business - when you do manage to do this, it’s key that you demonstrate to an employee that they have made the correct decision. Onboarding plays a vital role in doing this.

1st Formations have helped form more than 1 million UK companies. If you have a business idea and have decided that a limited company is the right business model for you, they can help get you up and running in just a matter of hours. It’s as simple as picking your company name, choosing a company formation package and then filling out a few basic details. Take a look at their different company formation packages now.

By Sumeet Manhas

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