Properly Onboard Your New Hires By Emphasizing These 5 Key Parts Of Your Company Culture

If your onboarding program fails to explain your company culture adequately, your company and the your new employee will both suffer. Your company loses out because the employee won’t assimilate as well into your company culture.

Your new employees lose out because they will have to learn how to adapt their habits and workflow without guidance.

So, when it comes time to onboard a new employee, make sure your onboarding program covers the five following elements of your company culture.

How do you affect change at your company?

This aspect of your company culture is especially critical for any new managers or executives you have hired. You expect them to make an impact at your company, but any changes they implement have to be made within the parameters of your company’s standard procedures.

If your new manager tries to change things from the way they did it in the past, she could find herself butting heads with other managers or staff. So, explain how successful change is implemented during the onboarding process.

Is your company team oriented? Or do you value the work of individuals?

New employees need to know if a company has a collaborative culture, or if it values the work of individuals over teamwork. Again, this is critical for new managers to understand. As they try and effect change, do they wait to run ideas past a team? Or, do they strike out on their own and implement their plans?

What is your decision-making strategy?

Your onboarding program inform new employees in how decisions are made. Does your company have formal meetings with presentations, followed by decisions? Or is it more informal. Are changes made during lunch or at after-hours sessions at the local pub?

Whatever it is, let the new employees know. Otherwise, their good ideas (and they will have them), could get passed over because they didn’t know when or how to introduce them to management and executives.

How do you communicate?

Communication is one of the core components of influencing company culture. During the onboarding process, let new hires know they best way to communicate with management, supervisors, and other departments. When they report their progress on projects, does your company want detailed reports? Or, is a summary of progress and resource expenditure enough?

Is your company big on meetings? Are your executives and upper-management approachable? The last thing the new hire wants to do is run counter to the communications chain, and it could aggravate upper management and co-workers.

How does the new hire approach their new co-workers?

How employees relate to each other goes beyond communications, they need to know who to approach in the first place. Is it ok for your employee to casually request input from a co-worker in another department? Or, do they need to go through more formal channels?

Most employees will learn this quickly on the job because they will notice when people are friendly and open with them. However, helping them understand any rules or customs before their first day can save all parties involved time.

You only have about 90 days to get your new employees acclimated and set them up for success. Equal Parts can help you design onboarding programs that produce highly effective and efficient employees. If you would like to know more about how we can help your company, we encourage you to contact us to discuss your situation.