The ultimate guide to onboarding an employee successfully

If you ever had to start a new school in the middle of the school year as a kid, you’re familiar with how it feels to be in a foreign environment, surrounded by people all of whom seem to know the ropes. Starting a new job can feel similarly scary. New hires come into the workplace often feeling anxious, stressed, and nervous about their new role in a new organization. And their experiences in the first days, weeks, and months can make or break this new relationship.

We know that the amount and depth of training during a new employee’s early days varies across organizations. Some provide a quick orientation heavily focused on compliance policies, employee handbooks, and paperwork. Others, recognizing that employees need more, may overwhelm new employees with too much information, in too short a period of time to be effective. And while you might think it would be standard operating practice for companies to at the very least clearly communicate role-related information to new hires during their onboarding period, that isn’t always true. 

Role clarity is one of the most consistent predictors of job satisfaction and organizational commitment during the onboarding process, but Gallup research indicates that fewer than half of employees are clear on what is expected of them at work. And this ambiguity in expectations can lead to stress and a downward spiral of low employee engagement and satisfaction. Moreover, the absence of clear guidelines about specific responsibilities and requirements has been found to be one of the most common reasons people gave for leaving their job within six months of being hired.

Without guidance on what their manager expects from them, how to organize and prioritize their work, from whom they should be taking directions, or feedback on how they are performing, new employees will waste valuable time and mental effort trying to guess. This can result in anxiety, lack of confidence, stress, and even burnout. On the flipside, these feelings are reduced when new employees have clarity on their role, how success will be measured and evaluated, and how they fit into the bigger organizational picture.

As a leader, you are in a unique position to make sure new employees don’t become disengaged and unmotivated because they don’t know what to do, or what you expect of them. To be clear, just telling people what to do on a day-by-day basis is not the solution. Setting clear expectations for a new employee is about inspiring confidence and autonomy. Painting a picture of exemplary performance and making sure new employees have a clear, reasonable road map for their work and can begin contributing to the success of their team and organization accordingly. 

Here are some strategies for onboarding your new hire to ensure they understand their new role and have a clear road map to follow:  

1. Clearly communicate details about the job role

The first step may sound simple, but it’s an important and often overlooked one. To set a new employee up for success, make sure they can answer the following questions:

• “What do I need to do?” Clearly define the key duties and responsibilities for a particular role, specific goals and timeframes for accomplishing them, as well as measures that will be used to evaluate their progress.
• “How should I go about doing it?” Be specific about any organizational norms around meetings, communication methods, and working hours. Include information on what they need to accomplish to be successful. This helps new employees better focus their time and efforts and prioritize their work activities.
• “Who do I report to and where can I go if I need help?” Clearly articulate the organizational structure and make sure employees know to whom they are accountable and where to go if they have questions.

2. Provide Clear Documentation

Once you have clearly defined the job role, expectations, accountabilities, and boundaries, document them and make sure employees have access to the up-to-date job description. The key here is that the job description accurately describes the work that will be done, rather than simply listing a set of required skills. Employees can become confused and frustrated if they are held accountable for work that is not included in their job description. Include in the description specific tasks and milestones. For example: At software company 15Five, new employee job descriptions include actionable details about what’s expected during their first 30, 60, 90, and 365 days.

3. Help employees see how their role connects to the big picture

Don’t forget to help your new employee step back, zoom out, and see how they fit into the bigger picture. You can do this by communicating a mission and a vision for what your organization is working to accomplish. Help employees clearly see what they need to do to succeed, how their job expectations connect to the larger organizational goals, and the part they play in realizing your company’s overall vision.

4. Collaboratively establish clear, measurable, and achievable short-term goals

Short-term goals provide opportunities, from day one, for employees to make progress and experience small wins. These can boost motivation, confidence, trust, engagement in work, and overall happiness during the workday. 

Over time, tasks can increase in complexity and level of responsibility. And setting goals collaboratively with your employees can be beneficial for several reasons:

• It can give you greater insight into how to best leverage an employee’s strengths to help them reach their goals and beyond.
• It helps new employees take ownership within their new role.
• It ensures understanding and helps align goals with employees’ skills and interests

5. Set performance goals

Setting clear performance goals helps employees better understand their priorities and align their efforts with organizational objectives. By emphasizing results, leaders encourage autonomy and empower their team members to take ownership of their work, which can also reduce the inclination to micromanage new employees.

6. Nurture your new employee’s sense of confidence, competence, and self-efficacy

In Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us, psychologist Daniel Pink writes that people are driven by “autonomy, mastery, and purpose.” And you can support this by helping employees articulate and understand their skills, strengths, and motivations, and how they can be applied within their role.  Progressively more difficult tasks and challenges help build self-efficacy (one’s belief that they are capable of doing what is necessary to achieve a stated goal). Breaking down projects and tasks into manageable components can also accomplish this.

7. Watch for signs that new employees are struggling

If employees perceive tasks to be “over their heads,” they may need reassurance and support to restore confidence and motivation. One strategy is to encourage people to reflect on times when they have surmounted similar challenges, and help build a recognition and appreciation for the fact that they can grow and learn with practice. Share examples of others who overcame similar challenges in ways the employee can, too. To be competent in their new role, employees may need specific training, on a certain software platform for example. If this is the case, make sure they receive it in a timely fashion.

8. Schedule (and keep) regular, one-on-one check-ins 

Take the opportunity to regularly talk with new employees about their role and their performance. These touchpoints are important for assuring new employees that they are on track, or letting them know if they are not, and providing clarity on how to close any gaps. 

These conversations also support a smooth transition into a new role by helping managers and employees get to know each other better and identify roadblocks as quickly as possible. Employees need to know whether the strategies they are using to complete tasks are appropriate and whether they are meeting the desired targets or benchmarks.