A Small Business Guide to the Onboarding Process
A smooth onboarding process isn’t only reserved for big companies with expert HR teams. As a small business owner or leader, you too can create the kind of onboarding experience that your new hires will rave about.
In this guide, we’ll take you through why onboarding matters and the steps you can take to make the journey smooth and effective — whether this is employee #3 or #45. We’ll also share some of the insights that we’ve learned and how we approach onboarding at Charlie.
What is onboarding?
Onboarding is the start of the employee journey. It’s the period where they join your company after being hired, and before they fully settle into life as one of your employees.
The onboarding journey starts from the moment recruitment ends, right through to their first few weeks and months. A successful onboarding experience should introduce your new hire to the company, their role, their coworkers, and any expectations and goals you have for their initial month or two with you.
Why having an onboarding process matters
First impressions matter, and the experience an employee has when they join can influence whether they decide to stay for the long-haul or not. Onboarding isn’t just a list of tasks to rush through, but instead an opportunity to do your best to help your new hire integrate into life at your company.
An effective onboarding process:
- Increases employee retention rates
- Raises employee happiness
- Boosts employee performance
- Increases employee engagement
- Promotes teamwork
- Improves job satisfaction
- Supports your company culture
On the flip side, a poor onboarding experience can majorly affect the way an employee feels about their experience. They may feel disengaged, be less productive, or decide that the role and company isn’t a good match for them and decide to walk away.
Getting these first few days, weeks, and months right is essential if you want to build a strong, productive, and close team. Focus on improving your onboarding experience with a set of repeatable steps designed to welcome and nurture your new employees.
5 new employee onboarding steps for a seamless experience
Everyone goes through some kind of onboarding process, but for yours to be successful it should be intentional, repeatable, and effective. Here’s how to approach the process in a small business — whether you’re doing in-person, hybrid, or remote onboarding.
1.Pre-boarding
The pre-boarding stage is when you take care of paperwork, equipment, and essentials before the new hire steps into the office or logs in for their first day of work. Many people overlook this step, but getting pre-boarding right helps set you up for success.
Take care of new hire paperwork
Before your new hire arrives, make sure you have all your contracts and legal paperwork in order. Check the employee’s right to work, issue a contract and ask them to sign and return it. Make sure you have other paperwork, like the job ad, job description, and job offer letter, stored somewhere safe for future reference.
Collect personal details
You’ll need to collect personal details from your new employee, like their name, contact details, and emergency contact information. This is something you can take care of over email, but using an onboarding tool like Charlie makes this step effortless. Add your new hire as an employee and they can use the self-service platform to update their own details.
Create logins
Avoid any issues on the day and arrange for logins for your new employee now. This includes a company email address, access to your file systems, and login details for any software they’ll regularly use as part of their job.
Order equipment and assign budgets
Make sure everything is ready for their first day by ordering equipment or assigning workplace setup budgets nice and early. Work with your new employee to help them get the laptop, screen, chair, and other equipment they need to work at their best.
Send meeting invitations
If you’d like your new hire to join any meetings in their first few weeks, invite them as soon as they’re set up on your system. They can then review their inbox on day one and feel like they’re already a member of the team.
6. Assign a buddy or mentor
Improve the onboarding experience by giving your new employee someone they can team up with. Introduce a buddy or mentor system and have this employee guide them through their initial few weeks and months at the company.
Email your new employee
Stay in touch with your new hire regularly before they join, and send a detailed email before their first day. Include key information like start date and time, where to meet you, what they can expect, and how to get in touch with you to ask any questions.
2.First day
Your employee’s first day is approaching and it’s time to start planning how to spend the time together wisely. Here’s what to do on your new hire’s first day to ensure a warm welcome.
Welcome your new hire
Don’t let your employee walk into silence, whether they’re heading into the office or joining their first video call. Talk with your employee about how they’d prefer to be welcomed, and make this happen. This could be a big friendly “hello” from everyone, a morning coffee with you, a team meeting, or something else. The key is to tailor this to your employee so they feel at ease.
Hand over your onboarding checklist or onboarding plan
We think it’s best to share your onboarding checklist with your new employee. Not only does this set expectations and provide a useful structure, but it demonstrates transparency and trust. At Charlie, we put together an onboarding pack that we personalise and share with each new hire so they can clearly understand the process.
Share your company handbook
Your employee handbook is an essential guide to your company, so it’s best to share it with new hires early. This key document covers everything your employees need to know about your company, culture, company policies, and processes, and it’s a great first read for new employees.
We’ve made Charlie’s company handbook public, so it’s an ideal place to start if you want inspiration on how you can create your own for your small business.
Host an orienteering session
Help your new hire adjust to their workspace with an orienteering session. This might look like an office tour and a map of the building for in-person team members. For remote employees, this could be a video call or series of pre-recorded videos to introduce your digital workspace, tools you use, and where to find files.
Make introductions to team members
Introduce your new employee to the people they’ll be working closely with. You can do this in-person or in a group video call, or ask team members to book short intro meetings with their new colleague.
Introduce your new hire to their onboarding buddy or mentor
You might have already introduced their buddy or mentor by name, but take the time to help them get acquainted in person or virtually too. Host a welcome session, and ask your mentor to work with their new mentee to put together a plan on how to support them best.
Send a welcome email
Whether you have five employees or a hundred, it’s always a good idea to send a welcome email or share a message in your team chat app. Ask everyone to welcome your new hire and share some information about their new role within the company. Depending on your culture and your employee’s preferences, you might also ask the new employee to share some of their favorite hobbies, some photos, or an intro video.
3.First week
The first day always feels busy and full of energy, but it’s just the start. Here’s what to focus on for your new hire’s first week to help them settle into their role and the company.
Discuss the role and expectations
Meet with your employee to talk about their role in detail, outline expectations, and answer any questions they might have. This is a good opportunity to invite them to share ideas and tailor the job role to suit their needs, skills, and growth potential.
Share key company documents
If it’s not all contained within your employee handbook, give your new hire access to other key documents they should read — like your company values, business plan or strategy, HR policies, and personal development resources.
Make goals together
Spend one-on-one time with your new employee and agree on a handful of goals for the short term. Their first goals might be to read through the company handbook and share their feedback, to schedule a video call with every team member, or to review a file on a project they’ll be joining.
Assign training
Review the list of mandatory training your employee should do and make sure they have access to the courses they need. Work together to agree to any other role-specific training they need in the first weeks and months.
Have lunch or a coffee together
Joining a new company can feel overwhelming, especially if there’s lots of paperwork or training to review. Offer to take your new team member out for coffee or a team lunch. If they’d like it, you could also plan a team activity for the end of their first week — like mini golf, an escape room, or a walk.
Check in at the end of the week
Plan time in your schedule to check in with your employee at the end of their first week. Ask how they’re feeling, and whether there’s anything more you can do to support them. Encourage them to ask questions, be honest with feedback, and talk about their employee experience so far.
4.First month
Your onboarding programme doesn’t end after the first week. Continue to check in with your new hire and work together to support their transition from newbie to fully-fledged team member.
Check in regularly
Stay in touch with your new employee often throughout their first month. Host 1:1 meetings, send a DM to ask how they’re doing, and stay visible. As they get more comfortable in their surroundings, it’s useful to know you’re always there to offer support if they need it.
Ask for feedback
Your onboarding process shouldn’t stay the same forever. Encourage new hires to share feedback about their experience so you can adjust it and make it even better. Use engagement surveys to gather information, or simply ask for feedback whenever it feels appropriate.
Host a performance review
Scheduling a performance review for the first month might sound scary, but it’s actually a great way to introduce your approach to performance management and get insights on how you can help develop your new hire’s career path. Invite them to discuss what’s working well, what isn’t, and set goals that motivate and inspire them.
5.Ongoing support
While onboarding naturally comes to an end when your new employee feels settled, you can continue some of these supportive elements well into the future. Here’s how to maintain close contact and continue to nurture your employee’s growth beyond the first month.
Meet regularly to discuss goals
Create a habit of spending one-on-one time together to discuss goals. Use this time to review progress against previous goals, check whether they’re still relevant, and set new ones. These can be project-specific goals, or related to professional development, teamwork, culture, or growth.
Highlight professional development opportunities
One of the best ways you can continue to support your employee is to discuss growth opportunities. Make sure you know what their goals are, and see if you can support them along that desired career path. Talk about training courses, development opportunities, and ways they can tailor their work to align with their career goals.
Onboarding process tips for small businesses
While the exact onboarding steps you take can vary from business to business, there are some top tips that we think work for all. Here’s how to approach the onboarding process as a small business leader for maximum success.
- Check in regularly — be proactive about checking in with your new employees. Schedule regular follow-up meetings, let them know you’re there to help, and stay in touch throughout their first few months.
- Create networking opportunities — host team building events, coffee chats, or virtual networking sessions to introduce your new hire to others within the company.
- Encourage feedback — explain how employees can share feedback, and invite them to do this on a regular basis.
- Use an employee onboarding checklist — save time on recreating the process from scratch and use our onboarding checklist template to get started.
- Customise the process — tailor your onboarding process to every new team member, so they feel welcomed in a way that aligns with their needs and preferences.
- Share FAQs and useful information — put together an internal wiki or resource where team members can find essential information and answers to their questions.
- Use employee onboarding software to streamline the process — use a HR platform (like Charlie) that has built-in onboarding software to save you time and energy with smart workflow automation and ready-made, customisable processes.
There’s lots you can do as a small business to create a fun, engaging, and welcoming employee onboarding experience — this list is just the beginning. Use these tips, alongside our onboarding best practices, to hit the ground running.
Automate your employee onboarding process with Charlie
At the start, your onboarding process may take some getting used to. Over time, as you invite feedback and hire new team members, it’ll evolve into a set of onboarding steps that intentionally deliver the best experience for new hires.
Putting a good onboarding experience into practice, however, requires time and means retrieving and finding information in the right place. It’s easy to forget documents, or make a mistake, especially if it’s not the only responsibility you have in the business.
To make the whole process feel simpler, it’s a good idea to invest in great onboarding software to help you take care of the day-to-day admin and introduce elements of personalisation.
For example, and with software like Charlie’s, you can collect key details, upload documents securely through our platform, and introduce the new hire to everyone in the company through a tailored onboarding flow.
Onboarding process steps — FAQs
Have a question about onboarding? We get asked about this topic a lot, so we’ve put together these frequently asked questions (and answers) on the subject.
What are the 4 phases of onboarding?
You can break the onboarding process down into four phases — pre-boarding, onboarding, training, and transition. Pre-boarding (or pre-onboarding) takes place before the first day, onboarding covers the first few weeks, training continues for the first month or so, and transition is the moment they feel fully settled.
What are the 5 C’s of onboarding?
Some companies organise their onboarding steps so they fulfil the 5 C’s of onboarding — compliance, clarification, culture, connection, and confidence (or check-ins). These 5 C’s (or 5 pillars) hit all the necessary elements that you should introduce your new hire to as they join your company.
What is the role of human resources in onboarding?
Traditionally, a HR manager or HR professional would oversee the onboarding process. They’d work with the senior leaders to create a process, refine it, and roll it out to new employees. In a smaller business, this responsibility often lands on you — which is why we’ve created the process above to help simplify the onboarding process.
What comes after onboarding?
Once your employee has settled in, onboarding comes to an end. The period after onboarding might include less intensive communication and training, but you should still aim to include elements of teamwork, culture, professional development, and learning into the entire employee lifecycle.
Is onboarding the same as training?
No, onboarding and training are not the same. Training can happen at any time during the employee journey and isn’t limited to a specific period of time. Onboarding specifically covers the first few weeks. While it may include training, they are not the same thing.
What is another name for the onboarding process?
You may find some people refer to onboarding as employee orientation. Typically, orientation refers to helping a new employee adjust to their new work environment, and is part of a wider onboarding process.
What is the opposite of onboarding?
The opposite of onboarding is offboarding, which is where an employee leaves the company. Much like the onboarding process, the offboarding journey is an opportunity to meet, discuss, gather feedback, and provide a smooth transition to their new job or lifestyle.
