COO Anais Rodriguez reveals her 5 tenants of a successful onboarding experience in her recent interview with Rachel Kline of Authority Magazine.
1. DO YOUR RESEARCH, AND PICK THE RIGHT TOOLS!
Find the project management and human resource tools that work best for your organization. Tools are not “one-size-fits-all,” so pin down what fits your organization’s needs.
A successful onboarding process starts with defined roles and clear expectations—maintaining communication and transparency when an employee is selected.
She suggests one-on-one meetings with managers and supervisors on the first week to ease people in.
“In this learning phase, we also have new hires join client and internal meetings to familiarize themselves with the day-to-day tasks, responsibilities, and processes that take place within the organization.”
2. ASK YOUR EMPLOYEES WHAT WORKS
Ask lots of questions. Keep checking in. Anais reminds us that a successful process is perfected by checking in with your employees. What do they need? How can we adjust to meet those needs?
She tells Kline about THE 3RD EYE’s agency growth and transition to a hybrid model.
I like surveys, A LOT! After implementing the hybrid office model, I received feedback that some employees were missing out on interacting with their colleagues who they had never met in person.
After running a survey, note large-scale inefficiencies like this… and address them!
Anais implemented Department weeks where full departments come to the office all week—complete with team building activities and educational sessions to bring people together. Since then, the department week process has been perfected—and it’s something employees would never give up.
3. ONBOARDING SHOULDN’T BE LIMITED TO ONE WEEK
New employees should feel “comfortable, connected, and useful” during that first transitional week. In those first few weeks, new hires should join meetings where they can get acquainted with their positions and THE 3RD EYE Anais importantly reminds us, however:
Onboarding doesn’t end after week one. How do you continue to educate and engage employees?
4. MANAGERS SHOULD BE INVOLVED
Anais reminds us that while onboarding begins with Employee Experience or HR, managers should be involved since they ultimately take over. “As part of our onboarding process,” she says “we have managers/supervisors schedule one-to-one meetings with their respective new hires to ensure the first couple of weeks are productive, seamless and comfortable.”
This is when new hires become familiar with their work environment, and ensuring managers are involved helps everything go more smoothly.
5. CONSTANTLY OPTIMIZE!
There’s always room for improvement. This goes hand-in-hand with #2. Even when the process goes smoothly, it’s not a “set-it-and-forget-it experience.”
Read more from Anais:
Why you should redesign your internship program
Want to turn around your agency? Get over instant gratification.
