Effective Onboarding Strategies to Set Your New Hires Up for Success

Are you waiting until a new hire's start date to begin the onboarding process? If so, you should reconsider! In this episode of Hire Calling, HR consultant Ricky Baez shares the importance of starting your onboarding process the moment a candidate applies and best practices for integrating new hires into your organization.

Additionally, he will touch on ways you can leverage technology (especially AI) to streamline your processes and how to give candidates constructive feedback who didn't secure the role. 

Additional Resources:
1. New Hire Checklist: The Easiest Way to Onboard
2. How to Conduct Virtual Onboarding
3. Keys to a Great Employee Onboarding Experience
4. Orientation vs. Onboarding: The Main Differences

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👋 FOLLOW PETE NEWSOME ONLINE:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petenewsome/
Blog Articles: https://www.4cornerresources.com/blog/

👋 FOLLOW RICKY BAEZ ONLINE:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/efrainrickybaez/
Blog Articles: https://www.baezco.com/baezco-blog

Episode Transcript

Pete Newsome (00:00):
Welcome back everyone.
I'm speaking with HR consultantRicky Baez about employee
onboarding strategies.
So, ricky, before we get intohow to create great ones, let's
just start at the top.
How would you define employeeonboarding?

Ricky Baez (00:12):
Employee onboarding is a process where you take an
employee who has the skill setthat you need, has no clue what
your culture is, and you putthose two together.
You take their skill set andyou assimilate them to the
culture.
That way, they have a goodstart and a good future with
your organization Perfect.

Pete Newsome (00:29):
Now, how can a company implement onboarding
strategies that differ fromtraditional methods, and what
unique benefits do those offerto new hires?

Ricky Baez (00:36):
Well, it's the best way to answer that question,
pete, is to tell you what mostorganizations do today right, as
soon as somebody interviews andeverything goes well that
candidate gets in an offerletter, they go, let their
current employer know, they putin the two-week notice and then
they start on day one.
Most organizations, onboardingstarts on day one, and I'm here
to say that's a mistake.

(00:56):
The best way, the best way toensure that you have a good
onboarding process and youremployee sticks with you for the
long run, is to startonboarding not when they start
on new employee orientation, notwhen they get that offer letter
, but as soon as a candidateapplies for the position.
And here's what I mean by that,pete.
It's these days.
Employees want to know who orwhat kind of organization

(01:20):
they're going to be working for,so they want to know the
culture.
Of course, they need a paycheck, but they want to know the
culture of an organization andthey want to know how their
skill sets meet the needs of theorganization and how they fit
in that big picture.
The best way for you to attractthe right people for the right
jobs is to make sure you starttelling that story at the very

(01:41):
beginning of that relationship.
And, pete, that's when theperson applies for the position,
right, you start telling thatstory, the recruiter tells the
employee exactly what they canexpect, what the organization is
all about.
It's just like a relationshipwhen people first start dating.
Before you ask them out to goon a vacation for like 14 days
in a cruise, you're going towant to go on a couple of dates
first, right, you're going towant to get to know each other.

(02:03):
Same thing here, and, pete,what that does is, by the time
that person starts, they'regoing to be so excited about
being a part of this team and ifthe training continues past
that first day where that personhas to support they need in
this brand new world that theyhave no idea about, and you're
going to have an employee that'sgoing to stick around for the

(02:23):
long run versus somebody who'syou know walking around in the
dark, and then they'll leave youafter two weeks so that makes
perfect sense, and I think thata lot of times onboarding is
confused with orientation abunch of the time, right,
because now let's talk aboutthat difference, right?
new employee orientation?
It's letting the employee know.
Well, it's that that one day,when you fill out all the

(02:45):
paperwork, you get your badges,you get your login credentials,
whereas onboarding is a wholeprocess.
It's not just one day.
It takes about three months toproperly onboard somebody
because if you're doing it right, you're focusing more on making
sure the employee feels welcomein the organization, they feel
welcome in their team, they knowhow to use their tools so you

(03:07):
can set them up for success, sothey can exhibit the talents
that you hired them to do.
So that's that difference.
Orientation is one day to getall the paperwork done and
onboarding is an entirethree-month process to make sure
the employee feels right athome.

Pete Newsome (03:20):
Now let's talk about putting it into practice.
What role does technology playin the onboarding process and
how do you ensure it enhancesrather than complicates the new
hires?

Ricky Baez (03:30):
It's.
So it's getting interestingthese days with AI.
Right, for the past couple ofyears, ai has made a name for
itself.
Now, ai has been around forlonger than a couple of years.
Right, it's because if you haveSiri, if you got Google, you've
always have to use AI.
It's because, if you have Siri,if you got Google, you've
always have to use AI.
But in the past few years, it'sbecome more relevant in the
workplace.
Today, here's how we can help.

(03:50):
Right, whenever an employee hasany kind of a random question
that is relatively easy for youto find or for anybody else to
find, but it's not for theemployee, you can have an AI
assistant help out with that.
If somebody has a questionabout PTO, ai assistant can help
.
Somebody has a question aboutbenefits, general questions, ai
can help.
Now, it sounds a little bitmore robotic, but with more

(04:11):
practice and knowing how to usethose AI tools, you as an HR
person, you as a business leader, can use all these tools to
make the onboarding process forthe employee just that much more
easier.

Pete Newsome (04:22):
Do you think that too much technology can make
matters worse?

Ricky Baez (04:25):
I think too much technology too fast can make
matters worse.
It definitely can.
But there's nothing wrong inhaving several different options
and trying them out to seewhich ones best work out for
your organization.
There's nothing wrong withhaving a couple out there and
then one of them may not work aswell, because at least you know
that's not the route to go.

Pete Newsome (04:44):
So it sounds like some trial and error may be
necessary to find the rightbalance.

Ricky Baez (04:48):
Trial and error may be necessary, but at the end of
the day you have to make sure asa business leader and as an HR
professional you got to makesure that whenever those errors
come about that you and yourboss are okay with it, because
then those errors can be big andthey can be costly.

Pete Newsome (05:01):
Can you share an example of an onboarding program
you've implemented and talk alittle bit about the impact?

Ricky Baez (05:06):
All right, so here's something I implemented about
four years ago with a differentclient.
So the person applied for thatposition and as soon as that
person applied, it was amarketing show, it's a
commercial for the organization,right?
The whole goal, from the timethe person applies to they get
their first interview, is to letthem know who they just applied
for, what the organization isall about and get the candidate

(05:27):
excited.
Again, this is all part of theonboarding process.
The recruiter their goal isgoing to be to guide that
candidate, to let the candidateknow exactly what to expect,
every single step of the processwhat happens after the
pre-screen, what happens afterinterview one, what happens
after interview two, whathappens if you get the job and,
more importantly, pete, whathappens if you don't go, if you

(05:48):
don't move on to that next step?
So let's fast forward, right,let's fast forward that the
person interviewed, right, theperson interviewed with the
panel, the interview is over anddone with, the recruiter checks
in with that person.
Hey, how'd it go?
Everything's okay.
It's their own personal coach.
Again, all part of theonboarding.
Let's fast forward.
They get that position, theyget the offer.
Once they get the offer, sendthem a gift basket, send them

(06:12):
some wine glasses when I startedat Darden.
As soon as I got my offerletter.
A couple of days later, I got aFedEx package with chocolate,
wines and wine glasses.
They knew how to get me inthere.
They definitely did.
And then you learn more aboutthe person in the time that they
get that offer letter to thetime they actually start.

(06:33):
And, pete, this is whereorganizations make the biggest
mistake.
This is what I call no man'sland.
When an offer is made, and fromthe time the offer is made to
the time they start, there's nocommunication with the candidate
, which is a huge mistake,because guess what Other
organizations are trying to,especially if it's a sought
after candidate.
Other organizations are goingto want to get this candidate

(06:56):
and if you stop talking to them,somebody else is going to court
them.
Then, once you start learningabout them, here's some little
bit information about theleaders.
Let's learn about you.
The more you learn about them,the more you personalize their
first day experience.
If they love Star Wars, getsome Star Wars mugs.
They love Chick-filfil-a?
Have chick-fil-a breakfast.
I'm telling you, pete, if we gothat route, you will have an

(07:18):
employee that's going to be inthere for the long run.
But let's talk about the personwho did not get the role.
If the person made it to thefinal interview and they did not
get the role, then you get.
You ask if you could give somefeedback and you give some
really good feedback and youhelp them for later on.
That way you turn an employeewho a candidate who could have
been upset because they didn'tget the role and now because of

(07:40):
how you treated them all the wayto the end.
Now you have a walkingmarketing campaign that they're
going to apply again and peopletalk that's an onboarding
program.
And let me tell you, if youstart your employees on that
foot nine times out of 10,they're going to stick it out
with you longer than if youdidn't do that.

Pete Newsome (07:57):
Perfect.
Well, the taco Chick-fil-A hasme hungry.
So I think it's time to run outand go get some Ricky.
Thanks so much for all of thatinformation.
Very helpful, and if you havemore questions about onboarding,
leave us a comment.
We'll get back to you and we'dlove to hear how we can.