At a time when small businesses are competing for talent, having an effective onboarding process for new employees is more important than ever. That first introduction to your business can be the difference between success and failure. A 2019 study by HR tech platform Hibob showed that 64% of new employees are less likely to stay at a job after a negative onboarding experience.

“There’s nothing worse than showing up at a job and having someone say: ‘Who are you? Right.  I think you’re with Phil, and he’s going to show you the register,’” said Peter Vinge, CEO of Torbay Consulting, which provides HR strategies for small businesses. If your new employee doesn’t feel seen or appreciated, it’s easy, he said, for them to simply leave. “It’s a virtual world, and they can search for jobs while they’re on their 15-minute lunch break if they want to,” he said.

That’s why it’s so important to be thoughtful and purposeful in your onboarding process. “Showing someone that you’re excited about having them onboard and showing them that you’ve planned for them goes a long way in retention,” Vinge said.

Below, he offers tips so small business owners can make a positive first impression, foster employee engagement and retain top talent in a competitive job market.

Have a Plan for What the First Days of Training and Onboarding Look Like

When an employee comes in for onboarding, it’s important that you have a sense of what your goals are and what the day or days of training and onboarding will look like. Some things to think about:

• Who will greet the employee when they come in?
• Will it be a shortened day?
• Will the employee have meetings with other team members?
• What sort of paperwork needs to be filled out? Do you have the paperwork prepared?
• What takeaways do you want the employee to leave with that first day and week?

Once you have a sense of what the first day will look like, let the employee know before they even step in the door. Communication sets everyone up for success. And no details are too small. Vinge suggested letting new employees know what if anything they need to bring with them that first day and even whether they should pack a lunch. “People who have anxiety or may never have had a job before will come in more relaxed and engaged because they will have an idea of what to expect,” he said.

Make Sure the New Employee Feels Welcomed

First-day jitters aren’t just for school students. Make new employees feel welcome from the minute they walk in the door. Vinge suggested making sure you’re available when the new hire walks in or let an assistant know to expect the new hire. If the new hire has a workspace, make sure it’s already set up and clean, with everything they need. And while your one-on-one interaction is important in setting the tone, it’s also helpful to set up time those first few days for the new employee to meet other team members. “One thing I like to do,” Vinge said, “is have [new employees] go out to lunch with one person from your business and let them know that lunch is on you.” Everyone — both old and new employees — likes a free lunch. Additionally, Vinge said, having your team members go out together “allows them to build a relationship and allows the new employee to ask questions they might not feel comfortable asking you.”

Be Clear About the Employee’s Responsibilities and Your Expectations

• In life and in business, vagueness breeds misunderstanding. When employees know exactly what is expected of them, they can focus on delivering results.
• On a practical level, you can help new employees understand their responsibilities and objectives by:
• Providing a detailed job description. The description, Vinge said, should be up to date and present a comprehensive overview of the employee’s role, including key responsibilities, performance metrics and any specific deliverables or targets they are expected to achieve. This helps new employees gain a clear understanding of their primary duties and performance expectations.
• Communicating core values and cultural expectations. Every workplace operates differently. Clearly articulate your company’s core values, workplace culture and expected behaviors. Specificity is important. Vinge said: “You want them to understand even the basics like: ‘Here’s where the coffee is. Here’s where we hang up our jackets. This is the uniform we wear. This is how you punch in and punch out.’ These little things matter. Yet we often take them for granted.”
• Providing examples of how your company values translate into day-to-day actions. “You want to paint a clear picture for your new hire about what they can expect on the job,” Vinge said. Let them know specific instances that often come up and how you, as a company, deal with them. “If the new employee is a cashier or a front-of-the-house representative, you want to give specific examples of the questions they might get and how to respond,” he said.
• Letting them know to whom they should go with specific questions or issues. When you have more than a handful of employees, providing new ones with a flowchart of to whom to reach out about specific issues can lead to easier and faster integrations. As Vinge said, in order to get the right answers, “they need to know who to talk to to get the information they need.”
• Setting specific performance goals. This provides a new hire with a road map for success, but make sure the goals are attainable, reasonable and based on the employee’s current skill level. Also make sure the goal-setting is a collaborative process and that your new employee feels comfortable with the goals. “No one wants to feel like they’ve been thrown to the wolves,” Vinge said.

Spread Out the Orientation and Onboarding

“There’s only so much memory a brain can hold,” Vinge said. “I’ve gone through onboarding where I’m working eight or 10 hours a day for the first two weeks and I retain maybe a quarter of that information.”

Avoid overloading an employee with all the information they need on the first day or week. Instead, identify the most critical points they need to understand to start and allow time for them to practice and seek clarification.

Along, those lines, provide ongoing check-ins. Don’t think of onboarding as something that’s one and done. “I personally do a 30-day follow-up after every hire, asking: ‘Hey, how are things going? What are you feeling the most comfortable with?’” Vinge said.

Consistent check-ins also help troubleshoot and problem-solve. “I might use that time to say: ‘Hey, I saw that you got a little frustrated with that customer the other day. Let’s talk about the ways we can approach resolving that conflict and let’s figure out together a way where we can be more patient and provide them with better customer service,’” he said. The important part is collaboration and coming to a solution together. “That’s just Leadership 101,” Vinge said. “How can you be a servant leader, to provide them with the information and support they need to do the best job they can. You’re going to get way more out of your employees by doing that.”

Allow for Questions

As they say, the only dumb question is the one not asked. “The best way to create an employee experience that people want to be part of is by giving your new employees the full right to ask as many questions as they need to feel comfortable to do the job,” Vinge said. When you tell employees that you welcome all questions, you show them that you run an organization that values clarity, engagement and growth, and it sets the stage for effective communication and knowledge-sharing moving forward. As Vinge said: “If you can do that, you have beaten half the other companies that are out there right now because people are afraid to make mistakes.”