What Does a Successful Employee Onboarding Process Look Like?

Employee onboarding can be stressful and it’s hard to know what you should or shouldn’t be doing. What do you tell a new hire on day one? Do you start the process before their first day? When do you do performance reviews? The list of questions goes on! Today, Jim and Jason are going to walk you through the Carr Machine & Tool onboarding experience.

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Hiring Millennials: A new era of employee onboarding?

The overarching number of people applying to machinist jobs are millennials. For those of us in a different generation, do we need to change the way we onboard? According to Jungohr, there are some tips to make the process more successful.

Get on-board with preboarding: You can send the employee handbook and have them fill out the necessary paperwork before day one.
Begin relationship-building: One fun way? Have them listen to the MakingChips Podcast!
Clearly communicate: Communication is key to a successful onboarding process (this, of course, applies to every generation)
Establish a sense of purpose: Millennials want to feel as if they are contributing to the greater good of the company and the world. Foster an environment where they know they are!

Many of these points apply to every generation, but it’s been found to be especially impactful to Millennials. Let us know what YOU think!

How to gauge if the potential hire is the best fit

At Carr Machine & Tool, Jim has several ways to see if a potential hire is a fit for their culture. If he has a good feeling about a candidate, he will bring them into his weekly production meeting to see how they interact with the team.

He also enjoys walking a candidate through the shop to see how they interact and engage with people. This could be labeled as “pre-boarding”—he’s involving the potential hire in his company culture before officially hiring.

If they’re not interested in engaging and don’t make an effort, you can end the process before it’s even started. It may seem time-consuming on the front-end but can save a lot of pain and problems throughout the next 30, 60, or 90 days.

Make performance reviews meaningful

On a new hire’s first day, Jim lays out what the process looks like, and schedules a 30-day performance review. The first 30 days is a sort of trial period to see how they acclimate. There is no goal-setting or anything that would place pressure on the candidate. You want them to spend time shadowing (and there’s a lot of hand-holding) and learning new processes.

Jim makes sure to ask 6 different questions in the first performance review. He wants to let them know if they are on-par with expectations and see how they think they’re doing. Jim will even let them know if they are performing below expectations. The goal isn’t to be critical, but to let them know that you are going to take an active role in their success.

When should you do a compensation review? Listen to find out!

Regular performance reviews are a proven process for success

Within the first year an employee is hired, Jim does performance reviews at 30 days, 90 days, 6 months, and at the one-year mark. These reviews are based on goals they’ve set, improvements that were recommended, and so forth. If the employee has proven themselves exceptional, they reward the employee with a pay increase.

It allows the employee to learn new skills and be goal-driven.

The goal is to help your team members feel more connected and that they have a safe environment to grow in—you want to help them reach the next level of expertise. When you schedule reviews in a formulaic manner, it’s a structured way for both you and the employee to constantly move forward.

To hear some mistakes to avoid, be sure to listen to the rest of the episode!

Here’s The Good Stuff!