How to submit?

12 Ways To Quickly Integrate Your Newest Hire

onboarding system for new hires at a startup

Name your best tip for creating a strong onboarding system for new hires at a startup. What’s one thing you shouldn’t forget or miss?

onboarding system for new hires at a startup

 

LAWRENCE WATKINS1. Write Process Documents

“One of the best things that I have done for training and onboarding is to create excellent written documentation. To create a great system, four components need to work together: strategy, tools, people and processes. Creating a company manual that outlines these components for every piece of your business makes new employees feel comfortable and gives them a good understanding of your business.”

LAWRENCE WATKINS, Great Black Speakers

 

KELLY AZEVEDO, She's Got Systems2. Decide When to Give Access

“Once I met a new client via instant message and introduced myself. She sent me her credit card info to book a flight. Decide before hiring when and how you’re going to give access to passwords, credit cards, your website and other sensitive information. It’s best to release slowly, only after a contract is signed and filed and preferably not by chat.”

KELLY AZEVEDO, She’s Got Systems

 

SHRADHA AGARWAL3. Embarrass Them

“I say embarrass them cheekily. One tradition we have is an all-company lunch to welcome a new team member. We put her in the middle of the room, and anyone can ask any question. It helps the new person shed her guard and become part of the family quickly by sharing embarrassing moments or which movie makes her cry.”

SHRADHA AGARWAL, ContextMedia

 

ERIC KOESTER4. Include a Test

“Onboarding is a two-way street. The company is making an investment in its newest hire, and the new employee is making an investment in the company. Therefore, make sure that there is a feedback mechanism to determine if the new employee is learning the key points about the company. Also, make sure the team is learning about the new addition.”

ERIC KOESTER, DCI

 

AARON SCHWARTZ, Modify Watches5. Ask Hires About Their Experiences

“We recently hired our fifth full-time employee. I thought I had everything ready to go, but after a few days, I realized that we missed a lot of obvious things such as his health care plan pre-printed for his signature. We asked him to document everything that he wishes had happened during onboarding. We’re now converting that into a repeatable checklist for future hires.”

AARON SCHWARTZ, Modify Watches

 

FABIAN KAEMPFER, Chocomize6. Revamp the New Hire Process

“Organizing a thorough new hire orientation can be a good opportunity to introduce new members to the team, spend time with other departments to see how their role impacts other operations and set expectations in terms of culture and responsibilities. Make it timely, relevant and hands-on. Every newbie gets to make his own chocolate bar the first day as part of a fun yet valuable experience.”

FABIAN KAEMPFER, Chocomize

 

DEREK FLANZRAICH7. Introduce New Members Through Onboarding

“Our favorite strategy is to use our onboarding setup as a way to get to know individual members of the team. That way, when the onboarding is complete, the new hire doesn’t just know you or the HR person but more of the organization.”

DEREK FLANZRAICH, Greatist

 

Andrew Schrage8. Focus on the Basics

“It’s very easy to inundate new hires with training manuals, videos, computer-based training modules and other printed materials in the beginning. However, you must keep the materials brief and to the point.”

ANDREW SCHRAGE, Money Crashers Personal Finance

 

Ted Murphy9. Create a Buddy System

“The best way to integrate new hires at a startup is to create a buddy system. Assign one or two key personnel in the new employee’s department the responsibility of being a buddy for two weeks. They can introduce the new hire to all of the other employees, train him, bond with him and make him feel like part of the team right from the beginning.”

TED MURPHY, IZEA

 

John Berkowitz10. Think Long-Term Training

“Think beyond the initial training. Even if you onboard someone smoothly in a week or two, he’ll likely need to learn new things for the first two months. Training piles on new information, so plan weekly milestones that map out what new hires should be doing to learn the business. Have weekly check-ins for four to eight weeks to gauge how new hires are doing.”

JOHN BERKOWITZ, Yodle

 

HEATHER HUHMAN11. Document Everything

“Write everything down. Have documents upon documents of information to share with new hires. There is so much information to be shared during the first few days of hiring (culture, tasks and guidelines). Providing new hires with all of the information clearly written out and outlined gives them a way to go back to things as they come up. This way, nothing gets missed.”

HEATHER HUHMAN, Come Recommended

 

ALLIE SIARTO12. Create a Training Website

“We created a private online training site for new hires earlier this year, and it’s been a great guide for us to reference so that we don’t have to take extra time to walk each new hire through the basic concepts related to our business. We recorded the videos using Camtasia, a screen capturing software. It’s helped streamline many processes.”

ALLIE SIARTO, Fare Oak

 

 

Originally published by StartupCollective.

 

Photo Credits

StartupCollective

Vote on recent startup submissions:

Monthly Sponsors

More Stories