culture-branding
Everything you need to know about onboarding
Maelle De Francesco
HireHive
Maelle De Francesco
HireHive
Maelle De Francesco
HireHive
Maelle De Francesco
HireHive
Onboarding new users or new employees is essential. In this post, we wanted to talk about two kinds of onboarding that we have experienced in HireHive: the onboarding of the users of our software but also the onboarding of new employees. We wanted to share our experience and to give you some insights on why we recently revamped our in-app onboarding process. We also have a few tips on how to onboard new employees in your company. Let's get started!
The idea behind this post is that we recently added a new onboarding process in the HireHive app. Until a few weeks ago, we had a very simple onboarding process: it wasn't fully interactive, our users kind of had to figure it out by themselves. The main onboarding actually happened through our free trial emails that were sent throughout the 14 days of trial. What pushed us to review or process, you may ask? Well, we were getting a high number of users signing up for free trials. But a big part of those users didn't do a huge amount in their account after signing up, which then resulted in lower conversion rates than we were used to.
We spent a few days thinking about the reason why people might not use the platform to full effect from the start of their HireHive experience. We came to the conclusion that we weren't guiding our users enough on how to use the tool. You see, the challenge was that here at HireHive, we know our product inside out and how to use it. We know how easy it is to use. So if we can see it, our users probably can see it from the start too, right? Wrong. Of course, there are different types of users: some people just like clicking around, while others need a bit more guidance and support. That's why we realised that changing the way we onboard new users was essential.
As software users, we ourselves have tried a good number of onboarding processes. From in-app ones to emails, we have seen a lot of different sorts of onboarding processes. This helped us understand what we wanted to do within our own software. So, what were our criteria when revamping our onboarding process? Well, we wanted to make sure that people signing up for our free trial knew how to take the most important steps to see the value HireHive could bring them. We identified four steps that seemed important for a recruiter starting to use a new ATS.
And that's it! After taking these four steps, the HireHive account is ready to use. Our goal was to make sure that the onboarding was complete enough but also very user-friendly. We want our users to understand the software's main features and learn how to use them without wasting any time. That's why we chose to have an interactive setup guide.
We also decided to include our Support Centre in the setup guide, as an additional resource. Basically, our Support Centre gathers all the information needed to set up and use our software, along with the answers to the most frequent questions we have been asked through the years.
We spent a lot of time designing and working on this new guide. And we are really happy to see our new free trial users making the most of their account following this onboarding process!
It turns out that onboarding new employees is very similar to onboarding new users. It has been proven that employees that receive a good onboarding in their new company will be more likely to remain in the organisation and to be successful there. So it is essential to make sure that you have a great process in place. Luckily for you, it's a topic we know quite well and we have some tips for you!
A lot of companies seem to neglect the fact that a good onboarding process starts before the new hire actually arrives at your organisation. Do you remember how nervous you were before starting your new position in a new company? Chances are, your new hires will be as stressed as you were back then. So why not make it slightly easier for them?
We recommend creating checklists gathering all the tasks you or other team members need to do, to make sure that you are not forgetting anything. You can also add the things they will need to do on their first day. Here is an example of one we use at HireHive:
[caption id="attachment13556" align="aligncenter" width="450"]
_The HireHive onboarding checklist[/caption]
A good way to make things easier for your new hire is to give them all the information they will need even before they ask. Let them know at what time they are expected, who will meet them there, and what they will do during their first day. We suggest a tour of the workspace, a meeting with their mentor, or shadowing some of their team members.
You can also create a guide that you can send to your new hires before they start in your organisation. This is a great way to give them more information about the company and its culture. Include all information you think could be useful. Use this opportunity to answer the most frequent questions you are asked by new hires. As those questions are often very similar, having them in written form helps you save time as well as helping your new employee.
Can you imagine a more awkward situation than arriving in a company where no one is expecting you? You don't want your new colleague to feel uncomfortable on their first day. The first thing you can do is to make sure that everyone on their team knows they are coming. We also recommend preparing their desk, with a few basic items such as a notebook and a pen for example. A nice touch would be to prepare a few treats for them, to make them feel welcome right away.
That’s it, it is D-Day for your new team member! If you followed our advice from the ‘Before’ part, you should have everything ready to go to welcome your new colleague to the company. Make sure they receive a tour of the office so they don't get lost on their first day and if you all go for lunch on a Friday make sure they know that too!
A good practice is to assign a mentor to your new hire, different from their managers. This is to make sure they know they have someone to go to with any questions - even the ones they wouldn't be comfortable asking their managers. It also allows them to meet people from their team right away. Another nice thing to do for their first day is to take them for lunch or a coffee outside the company, to help them integrate a bit more with your existing team.
In order to make them participate in the company life even on their first day, let them shadow their team and be integrated into a project directly. Be careful though, you don’t want to give them too much work either. Remember that they will need some time to adjust to the job!
Unlike what many companies believe, the onboarding process doesn’t stop on the new employee’s first day. A great thing to do to make sure everything is fine with the new team member is by having regular meetings with them. Here at HireHive, the whole team has weekly meetings, and we organise 1:1 monthly meetings with our new employees. During these 1:1 meetings, they usually feel more at ease to talk about the challenges they are facing in the company, and ask all the questions they may not feel comfortable to ask in front of everyone.
We hope this will help you give the best onboarding to your new employees!
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“HireHive makes the team a lot more productive. We’d be lost without it. Team Leaders can do it all themselves if needed or jump in at the right time and know exactly where everything is and what’s happening.”
Hilary Dempsey Head of HR at Life Credit union
