Your employee onboarding process is the most essential time period in the employee lifecycle. A solid onboarding process is linked to employee retention, company innovation, and overall productivity, and yet 35% of companies have no formal onboarding program.
When considering how to structure your onboarding process, there are several key elements that need to be taken into account.
Your onboarding process should
- Be relevant to all employees, but adaptable to your individual roles
- Give your employees insight and job-specific knowledge that will help them be successful in their role
- Make them feel welcome and appreciated
Additionally, you’ll need to make sure all boxes are checked as far as documentation collected and completed from your new hire.
Both employees and employers benefit from a standardized onboarding program, so think about what is essential for your employee to succeed and your business to remain compliant when structuring your process. Here are the five must-haves of a solid healthcare onboarding program.
1. Make it comprehensive
Potentially the most important element of a successful onboarding program is its ability to be effective for each individual role at your facility. Your CPAs and your RNs should be able to go through the same process, gain insight into your company, understand their responsibilities, and feel ready to do their job. That requires your process to include several steps, such as a general overview of your organization and culture, employee meet-and-greets, management check-ins, and mentorship or job shadowing. This will give your new employees the full scope of what is expected of them while making them feel prepared and welcome.
2. Avoid information overload
Think about how you distribute information so that your employees don’t feel overwhelmed and can actually absorb everything that’s thrown their way. Spread out the process and provide a timeline so your new hires know what to expect. Check in with them frequently to make sure they’re learning at a comfortable pace, and allow them to address any questions or concerns they may have. Consider creating a 30/60/90 day plan that you can walk through together to make sure there’s no knowledge gaps and expectations are met on both ends.
3. Foster relationships
Feeling connected to your coworkers is an important part of onboarding because it gives your new hires an avenue to ask questions, build trust, and feel a sense of belonging — all important elements to retaining employees. Start from day one by introducing new employees to veterans, individuals on other teams, and your leadership team. Give them guidance on where to go for certain questions, and consider using icebreaker questions or gamifying the experience to make getting to know coworkers easier and more enjoyable.
4. Keep it organized
A centralized system helps you keep track of all paperwork and monitor employee progress throughout the onboarding process. Hireology’s Document Collection feature provides your HR team with an easy way to manage all the essential documentation that’s collected throughout the hiring and onboarding process, accessible to both hiring managers and employees. The automated system also saves your facility a great deal of time, as Hireology connects to your payroll system and transfers essential information to make sure your employees get paid on time without a hitch.
5. Ask for feedback
During the process and after onboarding is complete, ask for feedback to strengthen the effectiveness of your process. You can do this through an anonymous survey and during one-on-one chats to gather a range of feedback and make sure your employees are set up for success at your facility. Once the feedback is collected, make sure you’re using it to create a more all-encompassing onboarding experience — make changes where necessary, and keep processes in place that are really working. This will help with retention and the success of your future employees.
Including these essential elements in your onboarding process will change your healthcare facility dramatically by helping you keep your best team around longer. Want help mapping out your onboarding process? Let us help! Connect with our team to get started.
