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Employee Onboarding Checklist

How WATER is the blueprint for an Employee Onboarding Checklist

A company’s onboarding solution is an employee’s first opportunity to really understand their new position and to learn their place within the organization. However, it can be daunting to try to develop a new system, especially when trying to ensure it provides all the information and support that the new employee might need. But don’t worry, we’ve put together this checklist to help you keep everything in sight. We’ll provide a little more detail on each section below, but if you just want the nitty-gritty, click here to download a printer-friendly PDF of the checklist. For now, here is the breakdown of our employee onboarding checklist, which we call the WATER method: Read more…

In-Describable Onboarding: Involved Onboarding

Why an Effective Onboarding System Must Involve its Trainees in the Training Process

There’s an old adage attributed to Benjamin Franklin that, as you might expect, contains a lot of wisdom in just a few words and can help us understand the importance of an involved onboarding process. It is:

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”

As it turns out, this saying is almost certainly not one of Franklin’s. He may have said it at some point, but its origins likely go back to early Confucian philosopher Xunzi. Nonetheless, there is still much to learn from this simple triad. Read more…

In-Describable Onboarding: Onboarding as Investment

Each Employee is a Beautiful Flower- And that Saves You Money

Have you ever spent time gardening? I have just recently started the habit, and it takes a lot of practice to learn the finer details, like exactly how much water each flower needs. I’ve noticed a couple drastically different schools of landscaping, and they have made me think about onboarding as investment. It may seem like a bit of a jump, but bear with me. Basically, the two schools can be described like this: Read more…

In-Describable Onboarding: Onboarding as Insurance

What Fireworks and Haircuts Can Teach You about Effective Onboarding

There is nothing quite like setting off fireworks to mark a special event, and they can teach us a lot about viewing Onboarding as Insurance. They can create a beautiful display, and their presence always means that something important is being celebrated. However, when it comes to setting them off at home, there is always a bit of concern regarding just what exactly will happen once the fuse is lit. Read more…

In-Describable Onboarding: Instructive Onboarding

Why Your Onboarding Process Should be Less Like a Jigsaw Puzzle and More Like Furniture Assembly Instructions

The trend toward assemble-it-yourself furniture has provided consumers with affordable pieces that look quite nice once finished. However, the trade-off for costing less is that the consumer must put the piece together herself, which is never as simple as she hopes. In fact, some would contend that the first big test in a marriage is when the newlyweds try to assemble their first cabinet. But even still, this approach has a lot to teach us about instructive onboarding. Read more…

In-Describable Onboarding: Introductory Onboarding

Why Starting a New Job is Like Moving to a New House, and How Introductory Onboarding Helps

They say that moving to a new house is one of the most stressful life events. Not only do you need to find and purchase your new home, but you must also move out from your old place and adapt to your new environment. If you lived in a similar home before, the transition is easier, and you may even expect to have very little to learn. But then you get the HOA agreement, the introductory onboarding of home ownership. Read more…

In-Describable Onboarding: Onboarding for Independence

How Effective Onboarding Grants Independence to Employees and Their Supervisors

Effective training has many different components, but when done correctly, it creates freedom for everyone within a company. Onboarding for independence means enabling each employee to focus on his or her own tasks. To see how, consider this old adage:

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; but teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.

This saying helps to understand what it means to be onboarding for independence from a number of different standpoints. Let’s take a look at them one-by-one.

5 Secrets to Hiring Like an All-Star

3 Habits to Adopt and 2 to Drop

One of the great challenges in keeping a company running smoothly is hiring and keeping a talented and motivated team. When not done efficiently, tremendous amounts of time must be spent on implementing a hiring process, including posting openings, collecting and sorting applications, and interviewing potential hires. Fortunately, there are five simple secrets that will help you escape this cycle and begin hiring the right candidates at the right time. Read more…

The VICTOR System: Mastering Employee Engagement

The six steps for keeping your employees engaged

It is no secret that one of the greatest challenges in getting the most out of your employees is keeping them engaged in their work. What is far less well-known is how to do that. Fortunately, there are six simple steps that are essential to mastering employee engagement. Together, they make up what we call the VICTOR system:

Vocalizing
Instilling
Conveying
Training
Observing
Rewarding

The Challenges of Onboarding Isolated Employees

How to account for the unique challenges posed by isolated employees

What do construction workers, delivery drivers, and production line workers have in common?

I’ll give you a minute.

Okay, sure, the article title kind of gives it away. The answer is that they all spend a significant portion of their time working in isolation from their peers and supervisors. They are not the only ones, either, as there are many other jobs that require employees to spend much of their time alone. However, these isolated employees present a unique challenge in the onboarding process and require their managers to spend a little extra time to determine how to ensure they are successful. Read more…

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