EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND ONBOARDING

Over the next several issues of Power Ideas, the experts at HPISolutions (and perhaps input from other professionals) will be talking about these important issues. Once you have gone through the recruiting process, invested a fair amount of time and money, and made a selection in a candidate or candidates that you are now going to invest even more time, and more money, you need to spend some time thinking about how you are going to bring them on board and make sure the stay engaged and productive. We hope you enjoy this series of Power Ideas.

Now you hired em’…..What are you gonna do with them?

There are some basic, core ideas to attracting the brightest and the best, and ensuring that they continue to be fully engaged in helping you to have a high growth organization that is sustainable for the long term.

1. Always be seeking talent for your organization. Hiring is not an event. It is a process. Make sure that you are always keeping your key positions in your mind, and the mind of the rest of your team. What does a great employee look like? What can they contribute? Why would they work for you? Why would they stay with you? How you brand your organization, how you create a culture that attracts an ongoing stream of great employees is critical to your long term success. Use social media, company events, industry events and so on to be sure great people know about you and your culture is important to continuous recruiting efforts.

2. Do you make it easy for high potential people to know about your organization? What is your “attraction” strategy? Or, is it difficult to get information? How do you find out? Secret shop yourself and see what you think.

3. Do you remember orientation to a new job? How did it go? Was it, stuck in a room filling out loads of paperwork? Have you streamlined your intake process? Do you provide someone to help the new team member get through the “necessaries?” Have they been introduced to the team? How do you make them feel welcome and a part of the new group?

4. Have an onboarding plan? How do they learn their new role? Is it “sink or swim?” There should be a documented plan to be sure they are clear on their responsibilities. Do they have a “buddy” in the organization who helps them with all the unwritten things in the culture? Who do they go to lunch with for the first week? How do they understand the mission, vision, values and culture of the organization?

5. Gain feedback from the new hire. Perhaps you can create a survey that is sent to them to complete. Perhaps an interview with the hiring manager or the HR Leader is an effective way. What do you do well and what needs improvement in your onboarding process? Engaging new people in this fashion sends a message that you care about them and that you value their feedback.

Over the next several weeks we will be sharing even more new ideas regarding successful onboarding and maintaining employee engagement for your organization.

Do you have ideas on this topic that you would like to share? Write back to us at info@hpisolutions.com
We will be sure to share your ideas with our other readers.