A little anecdote - not so anecdotal - about the arrival of a new employee. Doesn't this remind you of a situation you've already experienced?
(the new guy) - Hello, I'm Pierre, I was told to come here at 9am because I've just been hired in the marketing department.
(assistant) - Oh? Well, I don't know, please wait, I'll find out...
It's the first day, and it doesn't start well... For a new employee, arriving at a new company is a bit like starting a new school year: remember that mix of stress and excitement, discovering a new class, new teachers and every year the same good resolution: "this year, I'm going to be perfect"...
Except that, if when you arrive, everyone is indifferent, and you have no office, no computer... your motivation can quickly wane.
💡: it's possible to listen to this article! Find the audio at the bottom of the page 🎧
What is onboarding?
Onboarding refers to all the processes involved in welcoming a new employee. These are the very things that will make them feel welcome.
The benefits of onboarding are twofold:
- integration: a well-received employee will feel 'at home' more quickly. The feeling of belonging is crucial for an employee, who will have more reason to invest in the company, to feel good there, and therefore to create an atmosphere conducive to good development for themselves and the company. This also contributes to the employer's brand image. Onboarding can even be a decisive factor in an employee's decision to stay or leave.
- productivity: when an employee arrives in the right conditions, he or she will be up and running more quickly. An employee who doesn't have everything he or she needs to work will put more pressure on colleagues and quickly lose motivation.
Best practices for welcoming a new employee
1. Keep future colleagues (direct or indirect) fully informed.
Most people think of the involvement of HR in welcoming a new employee, but HR is only the 'institutional' and contractual part of the arrival process. Those who will scrutinize the newcomer the most will be his future colleagues.
If his arrival is expected and he comes across many people welcoming him, this will immediately put him in a positive mood.
On the other hand, you don't want this to be a flash in the pan, with the newcomer arriving on the first day in total indifference. Make sure that during the first few weeks, he doesn't eat alone, or that he is invited to take part in coffee breaks, which are an essential informal moment for bonding with colleagues.
2. The welcome pack
Nor is the employee a spectator of his or her integration, which is why he or she should be invited to meet new people through pre-arranged work meetings.
We can provide him with an organization chart so that he can familiarize himself with all the staff and we can provide him with a corporate kit so that he can integrate the values, objectives, etc...
It's also a good time to introduce enterprise chat networks like Slack, Teams, Workplace ... but also file storage spaces.
Let's not forget the essentials ^^ your office, your workspace, your hardware, your software etc.
We almost always think of the desk, the computer or the chair, but we often forget what isn't visible: computer access, software... After all, what's the point of having a nice PC on your desk if the user doesn't have a login? And how can they start work without a mailbox?
Small goodies are always welcome at this time 😁.
3. If you are the direct manager, prepare the first half-day of support
And don't rush things: take the time to welcome him and make him feel at ease. If you're overloaded with work and this arrival is putting you off, make an effort not to show it and put on your biggest smile. Show that you're comfortable and relaxed. These efforts will be rewarded a hundredfold by the new arrival, once he's up and running.
It's also possible to postpone his arrival by a day or two, so that you're more present when he arrives if an emergency comes up the day before or the day before. You can discuss this with him so that he doesn't feel rejected.
Take advantage of this half-day to introduce him or her to everyone by visiting the company's premises. Explain in 2 words what this new head will be responsible for. If there are a lot of you, split the visit in two, for example half in the morning and half in the afternoon. This will allow the new employee to 'digest' the amount of information, and also reduce the stress caused by meeting so many new people.
4. After the first day
All right, so far you've done a flawless job, everyone's playing their role as host perfectly, then pfffff the following weeks, months, nothing.
As we all know, you don't feel at home in 5 days. When we think back to our beginnings, it took us a long time to feel totally at ease with the company, the colleagues, the work and the methods.
It's important for human resources and the manager to plan milestones. It's important to talk to the employee about them transparently when they arrive, that way they won't experience them as check-ups since they'll be warned. You can plan them for his 1st month, 3ᵉ months, 6ᵉ months and 1ʳᵉ year.
These points should not be reports on the person's work, but points of feeling for both parties. This allows us to discuss misunderstandings, minor discomforts or other issues, as well as what's going well, what we like, etc.
These points between manager and employee can be made in a less formal setting to open up the conversation.
5. Onboarding tools
You might think, great, I've got everything I need on paper, but we all know that in real life, not everything works out perfectly.
What can you do to keep the process running smoothly? Help yourself to solutions, of which there are a plethora on the market. SaaS solutions have the advantage of not requiring cumbersome installation and complex parameterization, and of being highly flexible.
You can already look at your existing tools to see what's out there. Your payroll software, your HRIS may have bricks to facilitate workflows such as sending an email a few days before the arrival of an employee to remind him the essential information, place, day, time of arrival, name of the manager...
You can also send them presentation documents to familiarize them with the company, the products or even the integration schedule.
Don't forget the technical part of onboarding, when it comes to creating accounts. There's a blur between HR, the manager and IT when it comes to hardware and access. You may not have known it, but there are software programs that automate account creation.
Now that you're a whiz at human onboarding, I'd like to introduce you to another equally important aspect of onboarding: IT onboarding.
What is IT onboarding?
IT onboarding is the set of actions put in place to welcome new employees from an IT point of view. It covers all aspects of the IT department: hardware and accounts.
1. Equipment
Make sure that his equipment is present and operational on the day, but above all, make sure that the transmission of access has been done according to security rules. Forget the password on a post-it note on the employee's PC 😉.
2. Telephony
Telephony, too, needs to be ready, both in terms of hardware and settings.
3. Account creation
As we saw earlier, an employee without a mailbox is inevitably blocked, so think upstream about the various settings for instances such as Active Directory, mail, Google workspace / Microsoft 365, Slack...
As account creation is a sensitive part of onboarding, the IT department must ensure that a smooth process is in place. This implies rigor and, unfortunately, a lot of back-and-forth with HR and managers. It's a time-consuming process.
4. Passwords
Another rule that should be adopted by all companies is that the first password is temporary, and employees should be asked to change it the first time they log on.
A solution
To achieve this, IT will certainly need administrative information held by HR, and the two departments will need to liaise upstream.
Think automation! In fact, there are a number of software packages available that link your HR source, such as an HRIS, to the Active Directory (or other user directories), to gather the necessary information without systematically disturbing IT and HR staff. Parameters are set in a single operation, eliminating the risk of errors.
Identity and access management (IAM) software is therefore a real asset when it comes to onboarding a new employee.
It resolves many points of friction and saves an enormous amount of time. You can automate account creation, modification and suspension, password transmission and IT inventory management. You'll also be able to better manage your licenses by only paying for what you use.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself about the software:
Software compatibility
Cost and connection (cloud)
To prepare for onboarding, you can use an IAM solution to connect all your software and applications for easy account creation and information synchronization: who's coming, who's going.
Make sure the solution can connect to as many of your software and applications as possible.
Be sure to compare solutions, as some are very expensive because they are integrated into building blocks that are much more extensive than IAM. Others are on-premise, i.e. stored on your servers, which makes the software more cumbersome.
Also take a look at how easy it is to connect to the solution: if it's SaaS, you'll be able to connect from anywhere.
The ease of use of the solution
Adapted to the size of my business
An IAM solution can quickly become extremely complex to use.
Make sure that everyone can find their way around it, that it's easy to read and efficient for HR, with in-depth parameterization for IT, and a fluid interface for managers.
There are all kinds of IAM solutions, from the ultra-complex and suitable for very large companies, to the complex and time-consuming to set up and use. There are also easy-to-use solutions for small and medium-sized businesses, which are perfectly suited to large incoming flows and process automation, while ensuring the security of your identities and accesses.
An onboarding process is therefore crucial, but the departure of an employee should not be treated lightly either. That's why its lesser-known and less popular counterpart,offboarding, is also an essential stage in the life of a company.
Offboarding, like onboarding, has its key points and its risks, so make sure you don't neglect it!
Youzer, a specialist in user and account management, helps companies manage their onboarding and offboarding processes. Youzer integrates a workflow process to help HR and IT manage their human and IT onboarding.
