As every employer will acknowledge, recruiting new talent is an expensive and time-consuming endeavor. But the employer’s investment shouldn’t stop at recruiting. Once a new hire is made, it’s essential to have a process in place that enables the recruit to quickly integrate into the company … and get down to work.

“Onboarding” a new employee begins well before the individual’s first day on the job. “Employee engagement and onboarding really start during the interview process, when the employee is interviewing the potential employer, just like the employer is interviewing them,” says Susan Richards, principal, human capital management consulting at Buck Consultants LLC in Atlanta. “The employer needs to put his or her best foot forward to try to help the future employee understand a day in the life—what it’s really like to be part of the team.” Once the individual has accepted the position, Richards recommends that the employer reach out to the new hire several times before his or her first day at the office to provide information about the organization. If there is a company event scheduled before the new recruit is slated to start working, remember to extend an invitation so he or she can start to interact with colleagues.

Richard Hadden, co-author of Contented Cows Give Better Milk and Contented Cows Moove Faster, defines “onboarding” as “re-recruiting.” In order for the employeremployee relationship to be successful, he says, the courtship must continue long after the knot has been tied. The recruiting process, therefore, only begins once you’ve made the hire.

PUT YOUR BEST FOOT FORWARD
While employees are under pressure to make a good impression—especially during the first few weeks on the job—this period also offers companies the opportunity to impress the people they have just brought on board, which, in turn, motivates new hires to do their very best. Hadden suggests that after the job contract has been signed, the company should send out a welcome letter signed by the president. In the weeks leading up to the employee’s first day, the human resources department should take care of all of the necessary paperwork, including benefits enrollment. Ensure that the new employee really understands the company’s benefit options and how claims procedures work.

The onboarding process doesn’t just consist of administrative matters, however. Hadden suggests a number of more informal gestures that don’t cost a lot of money, and that go a long way toward making the new hire feel welcome. He cites an anecdote from his co-author, Bill Catlette, who at one time worked in the HR department at FedEx. The company had recently hired a man who relocated to take the position, and Catlette showed up at the employee’s new residence on moving day to welcome the family to the area. “His purpose was merely to see if they needed anything,” Hadden recounts. “It turns out they did. With a toddler and a newborn, they were already running about two quarts low—on milk. He scared up some milk, bread, and a few other essentials, delivered them, and left. To this day, that guy and his wife mention the ‘milk thing’ to Bill whenever they talk.”

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