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The onboarding and offboarding process in companies today

Preparing new hires for their start-up and integrating into the team correctly is crucial to acclimatize them to their new role and the working environment.

30% of employees leave their job within the first 90 days (according to g2.com), as the probationary period is directly linked to the process of adaptation and onboarding. It is no secret that an employee with less experience and expertise can complete the probationary period and stay with the company for a long time if he or she feels a good team atmosphere and receives the necessary support from colleagues - this helps to improve skills for the position. At the same time, a person with more experience can perform poorly and fail to meet the company's expectations if he or she finds himself or herself "out of place" in a team.

On average, it costs a company more than 50% of its annual salary to replace one employee, so properly preparing employees for the start-up process and helping them to adapt softly is really important for any business, as it minimises staff turnover. If you get the hiring process right, you'll save your business time and money in the long run.

The HR manager must manage the onboarding process well so that new employees are fully supported and truly become part of the team.

How is the onboarding process today?

In the office
Remote onboarding (online format)
Hybrid onboarding (offline + online format)

Whichever format onboarding takes place, it should include:

providing the newcomer with all the necessary information about the company and work rules;
discussing the main responsibilities of the employee, providing them with a job description and the documents required for their work;
getting to know the manager and the team;
introducing the newcomer to the corporate culture and values of the company;
setting long-term and short-term goals for the employee and schedule personal meetings with the manager and HR representative.

Based on our own experience with the Talentgrator team, we find that the most effective method of onboarding has been to create a short questionnaire on Google Drive to get basic information about a new colleague, and an introductory presentation with links and online navigation to all the necessary documents we work with.

Each new member of our team is introduced to us live or online on their first day, given a tour of the office (if the position is onsite), and given all the necessary access and links to presentations and introductory documents in the mail. Over the next few days, we try to keep in constant communication and inquire about how the documents are going. You could say that we take the newcomer by the hand through all the working processes from A to Z, giving him/her a glimpse of the corporate culture, the company values, and how the classical working day will go.

Onboarding process automation

The onboarding process, like many others, can be automated if you are talking about a large company and regularly recruiting new employees. For example, you can create a Telegram chatbot and add basic information about work rules, benefits and company culture to it. If there is no possibility to generate your own bot, you can use special software which will also help the employee to go through onboarding at their own pace and always have all the necessary information at their fingertips.

The supply of such applications, both paid and free, is now quite extensive. Here are some of them:

eduMe
Charlie
Juno
Quinyx
Hibob
Stonly

Talentgrator recruiters and HR managers also shared the main points of onboarding from their own experience.

Check out our onboarding checklist:

Prepare a general document in any format convenient for you, which will contain all the necessary information about the company, rules and processes of work, as well as the main responsibilities and KPIs of the candidate.
Inform the candidate about all the possible benefits that he/she can get in your company, whether in the format of a chatbot in Telegram, a mini-presentation, or during personal communication, but be sure to do it on the first working day to form a positive impression of the company.
Prepare a plan for the first day for the employee and provide all necessary access to the system in advance.
Make a plan for short one-to-one meetings with the HR manager and department head to check the current status of the candidate's work.
Do not forget about informal but important details: conduct a tour of the office so that the employee does not get lost on the first working day and does not feel uncomfortable. Introduce him to the team, and if possible, organize a non-working meeting to not only introduce the new employee, but also speed up the process of his integration and adaptation in the team:)

Employee offboarding

The process of offboarding has become much more complex in today's realities, but the basic principles remain the same. We have previously talked about offboarding with John Zaidi, an expert in this niche. John took part in the first part of Talentgrator's Coffee with the Professionals project and spoke in detail about how to prepare for the offboarding conversation, survive the stressful period afterward and keep a good employer-employee relationship, in this video.

A poorly managed offboarding process can affect not only your relationship with your former colleague and the reputation of your company but also team morale and the productivity of your organisation. To avoid negative consequences, it is important to follow the simple rules of offboarding while remaining humane and mindful of empathy for the departing employee.

What does the process for dismissing an employee include?

Notifying the employee of the dismissal. At this stage it is important to tell the employee the news in person or by video if the employee works remotely. We do not recommend that the termination should be communicated in a formal letter; it is important to establish direct contact. People do not remember the decision to terminate their employment, but the emotional moment of hearing about it.
Paperwork, handing over projects, negotiating possible payments and compensation. Don't forget all the necessary formalities. Even if you are the best friend of the departing employee, you can't afford to skip them when leaving. Remember both the formalities that protect the organisation's intellectual property and the rights of the departing employee.
Notify the team and the entire company of the employee's departure. After any announcement of a colleague's departure, there are internal worries and reflections of self-worth, which can lead to a general bad mood among the entire team. Present the news as positively as possible, so that employees are not left with the impression that someone has been treated inappropriately.
Exit interview. A final interview with a departing colleague - his impressions of working in the company, his wishes and recommendations for management. In order for the feedback to be as objective as possible, it is important at the very first stage to facilitate the exit interview for the colleague. The exit interview is a very important and powerful tool for identifying problems causing high employee turnover. Instead of conducting exit interviews just to tick off a to-do list, turn them into a competitive advantage. Immerse yourself in employee responses and find gaps and pain points that your company can improve on. P.S. Change what people advise you to do. This will help those who have stayed to realise that you hear your colleagues, even those who have quit.
Organise goodbyes time within the team. Many companies do not pay any attention to this point at all, but organising a farewell party within the company, giving something as a memento to a departing colleague will not take much time or effort, while helping to leave warm and pleasant impressions of work even with the most unpleasant dismissal.

Offboarding of management positions

When a team manager leaves or is fired, the last two weeks in the team play a big role. During this phase, it is very important to follow up on the organisation of the business processes and to keep the morale and overall team spirit high.

It's hard to lose a key player, but a well-designed dismissal process makes the transition easier, creates a long-term brand advocate and can even strengthen your team. The executive offboarding process is no different from the general rules outlined above, but in this case it is important to emphasize teamwork, especially in the first month after an executive leaves, as the executive often does not just control, but creates the overall atmosphere and pace of the team. It is important to maintain, and perhaps even improve, the general mood of colleagues.

Summary:

A well-organised onboarding process determines whether an employee passes the probationary period and stays with the company afterward.
Automate your processes. Even onboarding optimisation will help you not to miss important details for each new colleague, and also save time.
Integrating the newcomer into the team is as important a process as agreeing on KPIs and key performance goals for the position.
During the offboarding process, remain humane and empathic. An employee who has been made redundant or fired for a variety of reasons, even those beyond their control, may feel unwanted and very frustrated with themselves. Your job is to conduct the process in a way that leaves a good impression of the company and maintains the employee's confidence in their skills.
Don't underestimate the importance of the exit interview. Be sure to use the information to improve the quality of your company's work processes.
Don't burn bridges. A properly organised offboarding process will help you maintain good relations with former colleagues, and the company's reputation and perhaps even open up new opportunities for your business in the future.