Most new hires find starting a job stressful, but having a solid onboarding process is key to reducing that stress. It can also help them hit the ground running and make it twice as likely they’ll still be with you after 18 months.

But creating a good onboarding process can be tricky, because it’s so easy to forget all the little things your job involves that have become second nature. That’s especially true for hybrid and remote firms, where new hires can’t always get answers to their questions right away

Here, we’ll go over how you can create a clear onboarding process that helps your new hires succeed from day one.

Start before you hire

Chances are, you put significant effort into attracting top candidates. While you’re in the midst of posting job descriptions, vetting resumes, and conducting interviews, it’s easy to forget about the next step: training your new hire.

Yet it’s a crucial one, and it’s ideal to have your onboarding process in place before your new hire starts. This is important for a few reasons:

• Your new hire’s productivity will partially depend on how efficiently you can onboard them.
• If you’re hiring more than one person, a standardized process can help you compare their performance more objectively.
• Your onboarding process is part of the first impression you make on a new candidate.

If you already have an onboarding process, it’s ideal to review it before your new hire’s first day to make sure everything they need is already in place.

Standardize your onboarding workflows

Standardized processes make your firm run more smoothly – and onboarding is no exception. Create an onboarding guide that directs candidates to the important links, information, and tools they need to get started.

In ProCharted, you can create a standard onboarding work item to assign to each new employee. Each work item can have a standardized set of subtasks you can create so that your new employee can check them off one-by-one.

For example, you might have a set of tasks like:

• Complete orientation paperwork
• Read employee handbook
• Watch training videos
• Complete security tasks
• Review training documents
• Book one-on-one with supervisor
• Fill out employee survey

As your new hire completes their onboarding tasks, you’ll be able to check the work item at any time to see how far along they are so you can jump in as necessary.

You also won’t need to send them links to paperwork and training documents – you can upload all of your onboarding files right into the work item to centralize the info for every new hire.

Ask for feedback from new hires

You might be asking yourself: why would I get someone to fill out an employee survey after I’ve just interviewed them? Although it seems counterintuitive, feedback at this stage can give you valuable information about how to help your new employee thrive.

Author Adam Grant recommends “entry interviews” that ask new employees why they’re here, what goals they hope to achieve, and what qualities they valued in their favourite boss at a past workplace. That way, you’ll understand what motivates them and what upskilling paths can help keep them engaged as they settle in.

Keep track of what they ask

But answers to the questions you ask aren’t the only valuable form of feedback you’ll get. Questions your new hires ask will be just as informative; they’ll tell you what knowledge the employee brings, what skills they might need to develop, and where there might be information silos in your workflow.

Centralized communication is invaluable in keeping the lines of communication open while new hires still have lots of questions. In ProCharted, new hires can ask questions directly in the Notes section of work items and tag others with @ mentions.

As a bonus, that also makes their onboarding work item a valuable source of information about what questions they’ve had about the onboarding process.

Keep iterating as you hire

The more employees you hire, the more chances you have to streamline your onboarding process even more. Use the feedback you get from new hires to modify your training, and you’ll create a much easier onboarding experience for everyone.

Keep in mind that your onboarding process is just one part of the whole picture. Your new hires will also benefit if you keep it simple across the board, with intuitive software that keeps all your firm’s work central, visible, and easy to dive into.

ProCharted makes practice management (and employee workflows) simple. Try it free for 30 days to get started.