Improving your employee onboarding process can be daunting, especially if you have small IT and HR teams. However, doing so can save you time and effort, allowing you to focus on the more essential aspects of your business operation. More importantly, improving your onboarding process offers a great first impression for new employees and attracts top talents. So, here are five ways to improve your onboarding process.

1. Keep it Simple

You do not need to complicate the process of onboarding new employees. Try to keep it simple and easy. A simple onboarding process eliminates the anxiety and nervousness that new employees tend to feel when starting a new job. The goal is to help employees get a solid and fresh start.

Make new employees feel welcome by sending out information about your company and providing them with informative links that will direct them to your company's website. Set expectations to ease their minds on the first day. Send an agenda for their first day and include essential rules they need to know, such as what to wear and bring. Send them their first week's schedule at work so they will be aware of what time they will be working and can make plans.

Avoid nervousness by streamlining your employees' access to the workplace. Share the entry instructions before their first day, so they will not get stuck waiting outside for someone to let them come into the office. Doing so helps to improve their first impression, making them feel welcomed.

2. Meet with New Employees Before They Start

Engage with new hires before they start working to make them feel valued. Make the new employees feel they are an essential part of the organisation. Meet them in person and let them know you are open to answering any specific questions they may have about their jobs.

Spend time with them instead of merely sending them welcome emails and training materials. Spending time with your new employees and checking them in personally is one way to make a great first impression. During your one-on-one session, let them know what you expect from them long-term and how you want them to progress in their respective fields. But do not just spend the entire time in a training room. Take the time to show the new employees around, introduce them to their colleagues, and show them their workspaces.

Be available to answer any questions that your new employees may have. Even after you assign them their tasks, be open to answering questions and addressing their concerns. Let them know the proper channels for asking questions so they can immediately get the answers they seek.

3. Invest in a Good HR Team

If your organisation is onboarding new employees regularly, it's a good idea to invest in a good HR team who will be responsible for implementing an efficient onboarding process. Think about hiring HR specialists who can help with employee onboarding, familiar with the process, knows what to do, and can improve the process.

The onboarding HR team should consist of people committed to making themselves available as resource persons for new hires through training or social capacity. Providing new hires with a team of reliable and experienced employees will empower them to ask questions and engage with the company culture. If you cannot meet the new hires in person, have someone from your onboarding team meet them at the door as soon as they arrive.

Your HR team should frequently follow up with new hires, especially during their first month on the job. Implement a weekly follow-up to ensure they are getting the hang of things and can ask whatever questions they may have. Follow-up can be as simple as sending a checklist to ensure they have accomplished all necessary tasks. They can also create a short quiz on company procedures and policies to evaluate the employees' knowledge about the company. But remind your HR team to avoid micromanaging the new employees because doing so could discourage them from progressing.

4. Make Sure they Have Plenty of Activities on the Day 1

The first day of work is the most impressionable moment for your employees with your organisation, so try to fill it with engaging activities. Create a plan for what your employees should do on their first day. Think of activities that will allow them to learn about their tasks on day one.

Avoid overwhelming new hires with information. Instead, deliver it in small and manageable amounts. Implement a variety of learning styles to keep them engaged throughout the day. Integrate them into the organisation as soon as possible to allow for opportunities to answer more specific questions about the job and develop a seamless integration once they are ready to work independently.

Give your new hire tasks to get them moving on immediately. Most employees would want to demonstrate their value to the company on their first day, so let them be. Assign light activities during their first day and run through a general plan for their first week's activities. Introduce them to the team immediately. The sooner they can assimilate with their co-workers, the easier it is for them to adjust to the new work environment and give their best.

5. Make them Feel Welcome

Make new hires feel welcome on their first day at work. Sometimes, when a new employee arrives on their job, they feel like none of the team is aware of their presence, which could leave a bad first impression on them.

One way to make new employees feel welcome is to prepare their workstations before they arrive at the office and let their co-workers know about their arrival. Start with a quick workplace tour while introducing them to the team as you go along. While they might not remember everyone, this helps them to feel more comfortable and welcome.

Another way to make employees feel welcome is to provide them with a mentor who will serve as their guide on the first week of work. The mentor can help them deal with the nervousness new hires often feel on the first day.