Onboarding is also a communication challenge

Recruiting new talent is a major challenge. But too many companies still consider that once the hiring contract is signed, they won the battle. Yet welcoming, supporting and retaining these talents is just as essential. Giving them a taste for the company, creating a strong and lasting emotional bond is played out from the very first days.

A crucial challenge

The first days and weeks are crucial. Joining a new company is in itself an experience that brings up many emotions. Boarding a ship, becoming part of a new crew is indeed accompanied by enthusiasm and motivation, but also doubts and apprehension.

Without a prepared, well thought-out and smooth onboarding experience (or even pre-onboarding), many of these new talents will leave the company within the first few months*.

Creating a link before the first day (pre-onboarding)

Feeling expected, being part of a team, even before your first day at work, is already nourishing an emotional bond. For example, receiving a letter a few days after signing your contract expressing the pleasure of being able to count you among the staff and to benefit from your skills can be very positive.

Similarly, checking in with the future employee and sending them a welcome kit a few days before the start of their employment helps to create an emotional bond and a sense of belonging while making them familiar with the rules and expectations of the company. Simple gestures such as these are therefore an opportunity to express and convey the spirit, values and tone of the employer brand.

Key steps to successful onboarding

Integration takes place on four main levels:

• The human aspect depicts the quality of the relationship initiated. It is the manager’s responsibility to be there when the new employee arrives, to have a meeting to discuss both sides’ expectations. Finally, organising a meal with other colleagues and appointing a mentor who can accompany, help and monitor the newcomer during their first few months are elements that contribute to a good integration.
• Administrative matters will also help to reassure the employee. The more clearly HR is able to communicate both legal and administrative elements, the easier it will be for the employee to complete the process and the more the employee will feel in tune with the company.
• The equipment should not be neglected either. A well-configured workstation with all the necessary equipment to start the job is also a sign that the company considers the person to be a fully-fledged team member from the very beginning.
• Finally, following-up with the employee is also an essential factor in their integration, and thus in their ability to express their full potential (depending on the position, it is estimated that it takes three to six months for a colleague to be fully effective in his or her activity within the company).
  
  
  

  Onboarding is therefore also a communication challenge

  These expectations seem to go without saying. But is this really the case? Onboarding is first and foremost a communication issue. If all brands invest heavily in terms of external communication, the question is : do they show the same care in terms of internal communication?
  
  For that matter, the use of a communications agency can prove to be useful, if not necessary. Translating the brand’s values into internal communication tools, designing the media that will initiate and then nurture the relationship from the very start of a person’s employment, are essential for successful integration within a company. Thus, creating the emotional bond to maintain the motivation of any employee, making them understand and adhere to the culture and spirit of the brand are key factors in both successful onboarding and lasting loyalty.
  
  All recruitment has a significant cos, which is why losing a talent in their first few months, by underestimating the importance of welcoming and supporting them, is a form of waste that is detrimental to both the image and the profitability of the brand.
  
  *Some future employees do not even show up on the day they are hired (the phenomenon of “ghosting” is on the rise) and depending on the study, sector and country, the proportion of new talent leaving the company within the first few months can be as high as 40%.