With the busy season fast approaching, it’s likely that you’re thinking about scaling up your workforce to manage the influx of customers!
This also means that if you’re a manager in hospitality, events, or even retail, it’s likely that got a million and one things to worry about- from hitting those targets and pushing productivity levels, to keeping your customers happy.
We understand that hiring holiday temps and casuals is super important for your business to do well- but it can also be challenging when you’ve got a list of things to take care of in order to get your business set up for the busiest time of the year!
It is SO important to make your new employees feel welcome, in sync in the work environment, and to get them motivated to go above and beyond.
So, we’ve put together some tips for you to get best-practice onboarding set up for your new employees before the silly season. Check them out below!
What Is Onboarding?
Onboarding is the process of providing a new employee with the tools and knowledge to become and effective part of your team. By ensuring the onboarding procedures are delivered appropriately, employers give staff everything they need to start their new role (and the holiday season) on the right foot.
Why Is It Important To Onboard Staff?
23% of new hires churn in their first 12 months, which means that if you hire now there’s a chance you’ll need to hire again before next Christmas. However, staff who go through a comprehensive onboarding procedure are more likely to be retained for up to three years!
So, best-practice onboarding can help your business cut unnecessary recruitment spend.
When the average new hire taking around 30 days to learn the ropes – and this loss in productivity costing businesses $3b annually– onboarding also represents an opportunity to help staff be productive sooner and see gains in employee output.
What Does Best Practice Onboarding Look Like?
The best onboarding procedures seek to set up staff to do their best work as soon as possible by focusing on 3 key purposes.
Onboarding should:
-Welcome and encourage: eg. Make introductions to the team and provide opportunities to bond
–Excite and motivate: eg. demonstrate how the new employee’s work will contribute to team goals and the overall success of the organisation
– Provide the tools to excel: eg. Train in necessary software and protocols
Following these guideposts will help you craft a considered onboarding procedure and avoid common onboarding mistakes – but it’s important to do this across the appropriate timeframe.
It takes time for people to find their feet and they need to be supported for the entirety of this journey- not just the first 5 days. As it takes staff 3 months to reach full productivity, it makes sense that your onboarding processes should take a similar amount of time.
What Can You Do Now To Prepare For Onboarding Your BEST?
Once you understand what needs to be included in your onboarding procedure you can get to work optimising what you have- or starting from scratch- so that your first hire for the busy season can be positively inducted into the team.
Over the next few weeks set aside some time to:
– Stocktake your current onboarding procedure (or lack thereof):
What do you currently do? How can you align it with the onboarding guideposts?
– Commit to making onboarding no discriminatory:
Are you onboarding all of your staff or just permanents? Casuals need love too.
– Upskill others to help you:
Who can assist you in planning and delivering top-shelf onboarding? Start talking to them about the new procedures now.
– Examine your hiring prospects and know when you’ll need onboarding ramped up:
When do you next plan to hire? What can you do to build a new procedure by day 1.
– Onboard For The Right Reasons:
Onboarding is vital for permanent and casual staff provided the time it takes to execute (3 months) is at least doubled by the time they will be with your business. For roles that are naturally high-churn or short-term you may need to look into new and innovative staffing options.
So, now that you’ve got the insight to craft and deliver a great onboarding procedure for the holiday recruitment session, it’s time to get started.