How to Onboard Business Support People the Right Way

Can you recall your first few weeks with a new employer? How nerve-wracking was it trying to keep up with the new acronyms and processes while doing your best to live up to their expectations? Nothing is quite as important as getting those first few weeks right, for both you and your new employee.

The onboarding experience you put a new hire through can impact a lot more than just the working relationship between the two of you. If your employee has to continuously stop to ask questions mid-task or find someone to help, it can quickly irritate everyone around them. In turn, this can put a damper on team morale, productivity and the employee’s confidence. Avoiding this falls to the processes you put in place that ensure your new hire is shaped into a focused and hardworking member of your business. We’ve put together a guide to help you start that working relationship off on the right foot.

Be Prepared for Their Arrival

A strong onboarding process starts the moment your ideal candidate accepts your job offer. The steps that follow should aim to keep your prospective Administrator or Receptionist informed and excited about joining your business so that their first day will likely be as smooth (and productive) as possible. One example of this would be to send a tailored pre-employment pack that reduces the amount of information that they would otherwise have to digest on day one. This could include an employee handbook and explanation of the core processes, people and procedures that are relevant to their role to give them a head start when they first arrive. At the same time, exploring branded gift ideas, such as personalised stationery or coffee mugs, could also send a powerful welcome message to your new employee.

Another great way to reduce any potential stress and get the most out of your new starter from day one is to ensure everything they need to start working has already been arranged by the time they arrive. For example, if you’ve hired a new Receptionist, ensuring they’re given the names and contact information of the key people in the office could give them a strong head start when they’re at the front desk. Alternatively, if you’ve recruited a new Personal Assistant, then make certain that they have their work computer, phone, stationery and ID badge ready for their first day. If you need a little inspiration on how to properly prepare for your new hire’s arrival, then consult your existing team. Very few people will be better equipped to tell you what was missing or poorly handled in your onboarding journey than those who have already traversed it. Ask them for their feedback on how to improve your onboarding and then refer to the notes you made during the prospective employee’s interview to tailor the experience to their needs.

Make the Most of Day One

The first day is crucial to the success of onboarding your new hire as it can either remind them why they chose to work for your organisation or lead them to regret their decision. Even if you used the time leading up to their arrival to get most of the official paperwork out of the way, there’s still a lot left to do. However, meeting everyone all at once and being thrown into intensive training can be incredibly overwhelming. While you’re going to want to get your permanent employee up to speed and moving as quickly as possible, we recommend that you break your training sessions into tiny bite-size portions so they can better retain the information. In addition, if you have a large workplace then it might be best to introduce your employee to their immediate team first and show them the key places around the office (kitchen, toilets etc.). You can also assign a buddy figure who can help the new person settle in. Don’t underestimate the importance of socialisation – get them interacting with people they’ll be closely working with so they understand how their role contributes to the team’s success.

Ensure the First Week is Productive

Once induction and training have been completed it’s time to put the employee to work. The tasks you set your new hire can have a large impact on their experience. While it might seem logical to ease the employee in with some easier work, however, this can quickly become boring or make the employee feel like their skills are not being properly utilised. To avoid this, make sure that you set them meaningful tasks that utilise their capability early on so that each day they go home feeling like they’ve done something worthwhile. To further strengthen their connection with your business, it might be a good idea to let new employees meet the executive team and senior management over lunch so that they feel like a valued member of the organisation, and can begin building their internal network.

Look to the Future

The cornerstone of a successful onboarding after the first week is a long-term plan. Collaborate with them to design a 90-day plan that is broken into key milestones for the first, second, and third months. The idea of this plan to help your employee better themselves over the course of the next three months and help you to measure their successes and track their failures to provide feedback and support. One of the best ways to ensure your employee feels supported in their new role and come to you with any problems early on is to foster clear and honest communication, along with ensuring that your expectations are clearly laid out.

Summary

With so much to organise, a lot can go wrong in the first few days and weeks after someone new joins your business. To set your next prospective employee up for success, a strong onboarding strategy that starts the moment a job offer has been accepted is critical. Although your company’s policy can help shape this experience, your current employees are your greatest resources. Tap into their insight and create an onboarding plan that ensures the next hire to step through your doors will be eager to build a successful career with you.

To help you get your onboarding process into top notch shape, take a look at our handy onboarding checklists for Reception and Administration roles, as well as Personal and Executive Assistant roles.  For more useful recruitment advice, check out our blog or if you’d like to connect with Sydney’s best office support talent, get in touch today.