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On-boarding, the process of  conveys your organisational brand values, explains your people and professional culture, highlights organisational expectations and performance and provides the tools for the employee to be successfully placed into his or her position. Therefore, as an in employer it’s important to get this part right if you want employee longevity and loyalty. 

Onboarding isn’t just the first step in hiring of collecting the relevant human resources, payroll and benefits forms. It’s a lot more than that. The onboarding process follows the employee lifecycle from first step of orientation through to mentoring and development of their first month to the completion of their first year. 

What’s the process?

Google found that new hire time to productivity can be improved by a full month by just a simple reminder alert email sent to the employer or recruiter the Sunday before the new hire starts. Tasks that should be included in the email alert are:

• Have a role and responsibilities discussion
• Match your new hire with a peer buddy
• Help your new hire build a social network
• Set up onboarding check-ins once a month for your new hire’s first six month 
• Google also does eight things to on board their new hires, which you can adapt to your organisation:
• In-person Training

Google, provides their new hires with a two-week in person training and orientation program that explains all things organisational and the ‘need to know’ functions of the organisation and job. Your organisation may not be able to provide such a lengthy in-person training period, but some in-person training is better than none, and it helps you as an employer establish rapport. 

Thorough Introduction to Company Culture

Google offers a class which help develop new hires to the norms and practices of the existing employees. The purpose of this, is to implement a way of learning into the new hire which reflects the way in which the organisation works and ensures the new hire is productive in his or her new employment.

Checklists

Checklists help new hires to understand what is expected in the first week to the completion of their first year. It is a lot less daunting for new hires if they’re given a checklists as they don’t feel pressured to memorises systems, practices, and events in the first week.

CodeLabs

Codelabs are a great way for engineers to get up to speed through hands-on tutorials. They aren’t just for new hires, but can be used by the most experienced engineers to refresh their knowledge.  

Extensive Resources

No doubt there is a language to your industry so everyone is speaking the same language, just like Google – so a company-wide glossary and handbook is provided for reference. A similar resource but be useful for your industry in getting your new hire up to speed on the terminology, or every-day goings on of your company so they can fit in smoothly. 

On-the-job Training

Without a doubt, whatever your organisation is, on-the-job training provides a good introduction to the field and provides greater realism of application when in the real world of work. 

Mentorship Program

Assigning a new hire to a mentor who is successful within the company and can act as a trustworthy role model. The mentor can initially act as a friendly face which welcomes the new hire to the company and show them the facilities. This mentor can also be a point of call for questions or queries for the new hire if they don’t feel confident to ask a supervisor or manager. More importantly, it provides a friendly welcoming for the new hire to feel more comfortable in their new place of work. 

Check-in

Google employee send weekly snippets entailing what they did that week and take part in a self-assessment and set goals at the end of every quarter. The purpose of this, is to demonstrate the productivity of the new hires week or so forth and to high their achievements. As an employer, you may not follow this exactly, but it is recommended to have frequent check-ins with your employers to see what they’re achieving, how they’re progressing and whether there are any queries. 

Follow those simple steps to ensure that your hiring process is smooth and efficient, whilst also improving your chances at retaining loyal, trust Worthing and hard working employees.

Precision Announces Anand Kakkad as Head of Technical. 

Building a team from two to six in fourteen months, by empowering and coaching. 

Precision People are pleased to announce the promotion of Anand Kakkad to Head of Technical. 

Anand joined Precision, based in Leicester and operating since 2004,  in September 2018 as a Team Leader of the Maintenance division. Within fourteen months he built the team from two to six consultants, taking new recruits into high performers,  and as a result, was promoted to Divisional Manager of the Technical Perm team. 

Director Phil Walker commented:- 

Anand manages the team how most Managers don't; which is by empowering, leading, and coaching, whilst working the hard yards himself. He also takes the time to have an interest in his people's success and well-being. This makes him the most successful manager Precision has seen.

This year, under his leadership, the Technical team of Permanent & Contract recruitment has created six promotions, progressing two Senior Recruiters into Managing Consultants and building a team with them. 

Anand commented: - 

After working at three different recruitment companies, I can firmly say at Precision People, we do things differently. Every business strategy is about people development and achieving individual and business goals together as a family.

The next steps and progression are at the forefront of every conversation with our recruiters and managers. Without the support of Precision People as a whole, and my record-breaking team, none of this would be possible. 

Phil added:- 

At Precision, we hold progression at the top of our people development, every consultant has clear steps with measurables to get to the next level in their career, reviewed with them every month.

With a record-breaking year this year, we are well on course to grow the team by double within the next three years to forty people, to achieve that we need to have the right culture that champions progression.  Those that make it into the management roles needed will benefit hugely both in their career and personally with rewards that are unique to Precision.

Head to our meet the team page to find out more about us

Recent coverage:- 

Business East Midlands Link: https://www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk/mag/appointments/precision-people-makes-head-of-technical-promotion/

The Global Recruiter 

https://www.theglobalrecruiter.com/anand-kakkad-becomes-head-of-technical-at-precision/

The Leicester Mercury 

https://www.business-live.co.uk/enterprise/east-midlands-appointments-and-promotions-25499266

What creates a successful culture?

One key aspect of creating a successful culture, is really understanding what your culture is and how it makes your business unique. Your culture is your competitive advantage. In a world where products and even services can be replicated by competitors, its culture that is your completely unique and sustainable competitive advantage.

In the same way that no two people are the same, no two companies are the same. There isn’t a particular type of culture that will make your business X% more profitable, implementing a culture that isn’t your own is likely to have an adverse effect. (Hence why trying to change it should only be in extreme cases).

How to understand your culture within your business 

To really understand your culture, it’s vital to sit down with trusted team members from a variety of levels. The culture at board level may differ to the culture at entry level - it’s important to understand these differences and how they affect your business.

Deduce what attributes your successful employees have, do they correlate with your culture? Following on from thinking about what negative traits unsuccessful employees have had. Why did they leave the business? You’d be surprised at how many of these negative traits are cultural.

Once you understand what it is that makes your culture unique, the next step is protecting it. Whatever the size of your company it is important to hire people that fit into it, after all, one bad apple can spoil the bunch.

How to hire someone according to your culture - 3 killers questions.

It’s important to note that finding someone who fits your culture isn’t necessarily someone who will bring a breath of fresh air into your business. Often what you’re really looking for isn’t a someone who fits your culture, but a culture add.

The difficulty is to find someone similar enough seamlessly slot into the team, but someone original enough to push the boundaries and bring in some fresh ideas where necessary.

‘Birds of a feather flock together’

Interview questions

Knowing the importance of employing people who add to the culture, the difficult bit is working out who matches your requirements.

The recruitment process needs to be in place to allow the candidate to showcase what they can do and how they fit these values. The most important way for you to work them out is by asking the right questions at the interview.

Question #1: Why do you want to work for us?

Why ask it:

Although this might seem like a simple question many candidates fall at the first hurdle. This question is an opportunity to see not only if the candidate has put the effort in to research your company, but also see what the candidate prioritises from what their research has shown.

What to listen out for:

• Whether or not the candidate has researched your company.
• What specifically about your company the candidate has noted and prioritised?
• Does it sound overly rehearsed or does it come across as genuine?

Question #2: Describe a time when you were tasked with something you didn’t know how to do and how you overcame it.

Why ask it:

The nature of a new job will entail new challenges and there is always a learning process involved. There will be times when a new employee will be challenged with something new, are they likely to take a risk and try something without guidance or are they more risk in their approach?

What to listen out for:

• How comfortable are they admitting their lack of knowledge?
• How self-aware do they seem? Do they know their own limitations? Did it take them a long time to think of something?
• How did they overcome this challenge?

Question #3: Tell me about a time when something unfair happened at work.

Why ask it:

Frustration is something that is likely to happen in any job at some stage. When an employee gets frustrated it can have a profound effect on their colleagues and the business as a whole. The important aspect of this question is seeing how they handled their frustration, were they proactive in going to the source and talking about or did they let it fester and turn into something divisive in the team.

What to listen out for:

• What does the candidate believe is unfair?
• Did they take into account the accountability for the situation?
• What effect did they let their frustration have on them? Did they channel it into something productive?

Your culture is the most important thing your company has whether your a manufacturing plant, a fabrication business or you distribute construction products - knowing what it is and how to manage it for success is the biggest sustainable competitive advantage your company can have.

Once you have the right people in place, keeping them motivated is the next challenge, why not check out our blog on 7 powerful ways to motivate your team.