The employee experience can stop just as soon as it started. From the first step being the job posting, all the way past the new employees first day; the employee experience needs to be maintained at all times.
By having a powerful and successful onboarding process, you can keep your candidates onboard throughout the entire recruitment process; don’t lose potential employees half-way!
The employee experience you need is coming right up with the help of a successful onboarding process, and here’s how.
You post your job ad and patiently wait for applicants to come popping up on your screen, and yet you find no one is coming through. You blame technology and your Recruitment Software, not realising it all had to do with your job ad. What could’ve gone wrong? A lot, unfortunately.
The way you present the job role is fundamental to whether or not a potential candidate will apply. From the information displayed to the location and role description; all can affect the applicant. You want to keep your candidates interested and engaged with the role; make it stand it out from your competitors.
Consider adding your company logo and describing what a typical day looks like in the role. Show the work location and include links back to your companies website; otherwise, some candidates may think you don’t exist. Add the perks and work benefits your company offers, and even add the recruitment managers contact details if they wish to ask questions about the role.
Even if your company isn’t a large organisation and may not have benefits such as free lunch or discounted gym memberships, you should still highlight the company’s success and what opportunities this role could offer and arise for the candidate. Potential employees want to know where they can fit in your company and if there are growth and further career opportunities.
Next, you have the application process. How long is it? Do you require the candidate to attach their resume and then continue filling out questions that could be answered by looking at their resume? If so, this could take a while for the candidate to complete.
An application shouldn’t take 20 minutes or more to complete; most candidates stop their application process midway because it takes too long. When the application is tedious, it can cause the applicant to never apply for that company in the future; this can form the start of a bad reputation and can stop other candidates from applying for a job if they hear about other candidates application process.
Make the application process short and simple, and don’t include 20 steps for the candidate to complete. Picture your candidates answering a few quick questions, attaching their cover letter and CV and being on their way. Simple and completed within a few minutes.
Now, once the application gets sent through, how long until the candidate receives a confirmation email? If the candidate is unsuccessful, do they receive an email saying they were unsuccessful and thank you for applying?
Try putting yourself in the candidate’s shoes and how you would feel if you received no notification or information on the process – can you see it now? You wouldn’t want your candidates calling your company to chase up whether they were successful or not; a simple ‘thank you for applying, but unfortunately, you were unsuccessful’ email would suffice.
By having automated and customised emails, it will make the recruitment process quicker and a whole lot smoother; for you and the candidates. With your emails, try to get personal and communicate with your candidates directly, show them you care and value their time and effort of applying for a role in your organisation.
If you put the candidate through the next step of the recruitment process, you want to set up interview times and appointments through automated emails; no time is wasted, and the onboarding process is on its way.
You believe you’ve selected the perfect candidate and you give them your verbal offer. The candidate accepts! Now how do you remain in close contact without being too invasive, and yet showing interest? Balancing this is vital to ensure you keep your candidate, and not lose them due to lack of communication.
Stay in contact by keeping up to date with your new hiree and informing them of what’s next in the recruitment and onboarding process. By keeping the new employee engaged and informed it would increase their employee experience and show professionalism. Remember to congratulate them for accepting the role and thank them for their patience during the recruitment process; small actions and words of encouragement can make a difference.
When you don’t execute all these steps correctly, you can end up with no positive employee experience or any employee experience for that matter. Once they’ve accepted your offer, you then have to send them their contract and forms!
Following through you have the onboarding process of sending your new employee their contract and forms; forwarding these as soon as possible is significant, as well as checking in to make sure they received their entire onboarding pack.
Imagine you find your perfect candidate, they say yes, and then you never hear from them because you took too long to send over their contract and forms. Always tell yourself that they may have other job offers, therefore the quicker they sign your contract, the more security you have.
By having a modern and digital onboarding process, your candidate will see and experience a process that is effective and simple to use. Accessing their contract via their mobile devices will ensure you receive all paperwork promptly, and it can all be done with the click of a button.
With the digital signing, you can quicken the process and have the contract sent back to you the day you sent it – no more snail mail. Think of it like this; you’re saving trees, money, time and your candidate’s patience. It’s perfect.
Your employee experience is still going if you’re up to this point; let’s not fail now. You need to keep the communication going with your new employee. Are you sending them pre-training modules to prepare them for their new role? By doing this, not only are you keeping them engaged, but you are keeping them on track.
With online training, it can be done anywhere and at anytime; it suits around your new employee’s schedule and shows them how productive your company is. Send them all their training modules online so they can complete it on the train on their way home.
Become mobile-friendly and see how your employee experience will improve. You want your new hiree to succeed in your company, so give them the tools to do so.
Training has now been completed! Now, when is their first day and what do they need to know beforehand? Perhaps your team isn’t even aware they have a new teammate. Communication is key as they like to say, and you need to keep the lines of communication open.
Internal communications keep everyone on the same page as you can correspond with stakeholders, managers and the candidate. Keep everyone informed on what needs to be set up and organised. This includes the new employee’s provisions, such as their desk and IT access.
You don’t want to start their first day finding a desk for them or running around trying to get IT to get them online access. It can become such a waste of time and make a wrong first impression for the new employee.
Instead, start communication early through the onboarding process. Send notifications and prepare your team for the new member of the team. Organise a person to greet them on their first day, as well as who will run their induction and show them their set tasks for their first week and onwards. Get all their equipment ready, including their desk, computer and IT provisions.
Show your new employee you’re ready for their arrival and excited to have them onboard.
Your onboarding should be executed efficiently and quickly; no one likes to waste time and money, therefore don’t give up at this stage, you’re almost there.
When the new employee does arrive for their first day, give them notice on what time to arrive, what to bring/prepare, and who they will be meeting.
You never want your new hiree to start their first day with no one expecting their arrival. Could you imagine them asking the question of “am I in the right place?” This is never a good sign, so have someone ready to bring them in.
Once they arrive and meet the assigned person waiting for them, remember that the employee experience is an ongoing process, and you don’t want to risk losing them on their first day.
Your turnover rates will lower if you make this work, so after they are brought into the office, kick-off by starting their induction and introducing them to the team. Perhaps the induction can be completed before their first day, either way, have everything prepared and ready to go.
Don’t forget they will be nervous and excited, so start them off with a great first day and strive to keep this ongoing.
After their first day, your new employee will have had a taste of their new role, expectations and requirements. Their induction and training will be completed or soon to be completed, and they will have all their provisions set up. They will be meeting the employees of the company and starting to find their place.
Once their first week is done, your new employee should be feeling welcomed and aware of their first set task and requirements. The first week is the beginning of their career at your organisation, and can also be the moment where their employee experience will come out and say, “I’m glad I accepted this job, and I’m looking forward to the weeks to come”.
The ongoing employee experience is entirely up to the company and team now, so make it a good one.