Hi, my name is Mark Mitford . I spent 20 plus years working as a high level HR executive in corporate America with many fortune 500 you may recognize, and also several middle market sized companies. If you're a small business owner, CEO, or any other professional, given the task of solving your company's HR issues, then you're in the right place today. Our episode is about employee onboarding and the importance of doing that process. Well, so let's go ahead and talk about that.
And we're going to go ahead and get started. Now, first of all, what is employee onboarding? You know, a lot of companies that I work with because we focus at my consulting firm, HR catalyst consulting, we focus on working with a number of smaller and middle market sized companies.
It's amazing when you think about the onboarding process, because when I think about onboarding and I think from an HR professional standpoint, when you think about onboarding, this is really the first 90 to 120 days of the employee joining the company. And a lot of cases, a company thinks about employee onboarding as the first day. It's a gap by getting all the basic paperwork, all the legal paperwork done, getting them set up on payroll, making sure they have their I nine done.
And then they're , you know, you do that for a couple of hours and they get introduced to the manager or they're off to the races and taking on work assignments. But when you think about it, employee onboarding is much greater than that because that's where we really get into creating a robust 30, 60, 90 day plan for that employee. And some companies do it for a longer period.
As I mentioned earlier, it's really fascinating that when you think about onboarding, I think all of us who have worked at different companies, we have had that horror story where an employee gets started at a company, especially a company that's going through, maybe perhaps some high growth. The employee gets started on day one. Uh, they get to, they're all excited. They get there at eight o'clock a little before eight o'clock to start their day.
And they talked to the receptionist and the receptionist has no clue who that person is. And they find out they're , they'd say, well, this is my manager. Well guess what your manager is on a business trip for the rest of this week. So I'm not sure exactly what to do with you. So that is definitely the worst case story because to hire somebody, just to even get somebody to start on day one, depending on the level of the person and the organization, it costs on average $5,000 to get it .
Let me repeat that, to get that person to be ready to start on day one, the company has invested already $5,000 to get to that point, because you think about it with job postings and interviews and maybe different types of assessments. It could take a couple of months just, just to get to that person to get started on day one. So you've already invested thousands of dollars to get that person there.
And if you find out they're not even their , manager's not even there that week or that day, and the receptionist is just stuck saying, I'm not sure what to do with you, but I'll talk to somebody else and let's go see if we can find you a place to sit for today. That's definitely the worst case scenario and from an employee from a new employee perspective, how do you think that makes that person feel?
Are they really excited to be there or do they feel like, Oh my gosh, what a mistake I made here? And in that type of scenario, a lot of times employees are especially good employees who are getting, getting started, have been interviewing with several companies. And so there's a chance they may decide, you know, what, if that first day or two or week doesn't go that well, there's a high probability of that person has already interviewed with other companies and they may decide, you know what?
I don't think this is the right place for me. I'm going to go ahead and turn in my resignation immediately. And they're going to go to another company that was maybe number two, when they were interviewing.
And there goes that investment out the door, the other key thing, and there's lots of studies that I'll actually discuss this, but if a person doesn't feel like they're part of the organism within the first 60 days , 90 days of employee employment, they don't feel like they've actually started to fit into the culture. They actually feel like they don't understand exactly how their role fit into the overall goals of the company. Then there's a very high probability.
It's the chance of them leaving within the first year is actually going to be about four to five times greater that a company that has a solid and robust type of employee onboarding program. So that's another key reasons to do that. So let's cover a couple of steps around what makes a good employee onboarding process. The first thing is the manager drew needs to dedicate a lot of time with that person within the first week or the first month.
And with that too, sometimes the best, the best onboarding programs to that person has as is assigned a person who is a mentor or a buddy or somebody like that. Who's not going to be their manager, but this is going to be the person that, that individual who's, the new hire can go to at any point in time during that first 90 days to ask them some, you know , even some basic questions or sometimes even some very mundane questions, they don't feel like they can bring it to their manager.
So it could be around technology about getting set up on getting the printer connected to their computer, or just basic things like that too. So that would be critical to have that person assigned to that person on day one so that new employee knows, Hey, this person, you can go them with any question you have, if I'm not available. And some of these questions are questions that may just feel like I'm embarrassed to ask my manager about it. So that's a great thing to do during that assignment.
Another critical thing to do is to tell them during their first week, how their job fits into the overall scheme of things , manager's goals and responsibilities and the overarching goals and responsibilities of the company. Because a lot of times, depending on where the person sits, they may not be able to clearly understand exactly how their job aligns with the overall priorities and goals of the company. So that's another great thing to do the other key thing to do.
And we've talked about it on other episodes too, is culture making sure the person understands the corporate culture and understands the overall mission or purpose, which is why we exist as a company. And also what are the core values of the company? Making sure that's definitely entrenched with them is definitely a reinforced with them on a regular basis, right? Upfront is great because of that person doesn't feel like they're fitting into the culture of the company.
That's going to be another key driver as to why that person probably would leave within that first year of employment. They never feel like they actually fit into the organization and they don't fit into the overarching fabric of the organization. That's another good reason that's going to happen.
The other thing we wanted to mention here too, is that during the first 30, 60, 90 days during that onboarding process, the key thing to do here is having weekly touch-base meetings between the managers and the employee , a weekly touch base space meeting can be as simple as it could. You know, I , I re I highly recommend to , uh , business owners and newer managers doing that with that employee Friday afternoon , spending 15 minutes on Friday afternoon. How was your week?
Tell me about some of the highlights of the week. Tell me about, about some things you have questions about and asking them, where can I help you fit into, where can I help you that you're maybe stuck on a project? Or what information can I share with you to alleviate any barriers in getting your job done?
So if you think about it, if you just ask those few simple questions and you put Tom in your calendar to do that every Friday for the first 30 days, and perhaps the things are going really well, maybe you move that to every month during the next 60 and 90 days. It's amazing how just having that connection point at the end of the week, about how things are going, are you struggling with anything? Are there any challenges? Are there any questions I can answer for you?
It's amazing how that person just feels like they're fitting in. And I know every one of us is busy and so managers, especially if they're in high-level a lot of times they will think they will do that, but they actually won't spend time doing it.
So put it on your calendar and spend that time with that in that employee, that you've invested so much time and finding and making sure you have that time, even if they're remote, spend time, just set up a zoom meeting, set up a conference call and just dedicate that time with them, because that will be time that's pays off tenfold in the long run.
Because once that person's come on board with you, you know, you've invested after the first three to six months of employment, you perhaps, depending on the position they're in, you may have invested thousands upon thousands of dollars of time, effort training and things like that.
So be thinking about this individual from an investment standpoint, and the last thing you want to do is have this person you've invested lots of hours and lots of training dollars into deciding to leave because they don't fit in because they had a poor o nboarding process. So those are the things I wanted to highlight. So that covers it for today.
Thanks for listening for more information pertaining to HR, visit HRcatalystconsulting.com, and don't forget to like us and subscribe to our podcast until next time. This is Mark Mitford. Thanks so much.