Do you remember what your last onboarding experience was like? Maybe you were thrown head-first into your role after simply being handed an employee handbook or perhaps you took a series of training classes to learn about your position and the new company. Chances are, if you’ve changed jobs at least once in your life, you’ve experienced different types of onboarding.
As a hiring manager, it’s important to think strategically about onboarding new employees. How can you craft the most effective onboarding program so your new employees can get up-to-speed with company norms and their responsibilities quickly?
While you can take a number of different approaches, one thing that’s clear is most new hires need at least four weeks to feel comfortable in their role and begin providing value. That time period can expand or decrease based on how much support they get in the early stages of their job.
If you want to increase the effectiveness of your onboarding program, you need to create and assign three distinct roles to current employees. When structured correctly, these people will ensure your new hires have the necessary tools, information, vision and connections to succeed in their jobs. This, in turn, will lead to greater employee engagement, retention rates, and a reduction in recruiting costs over time.
Here are the three roles you should create for current employees as the basis for your onboarding process: (Click here to tweet this list.)
Onboarding New Employees: A Strategy for Retaining Your Best Workers
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