What To Look For When Onboarding New Employees

Top 10 checklist

We know that starting a new job can be a bit overwhelming and mistakes can be made by candidates, especially in the first month when new hires are still getting the lay of the land. And whether or not it’s fair, judgements are made about new employees—often very quickly. So, if you are onboarding these candidates, here is a checklist of the 10 most common onboarding mistakes to look for and act upon. 

1. Not Showing Up Early Enough

Arriving late for work sends an immediate negative message and a warning sign to the manager and their coworkers, but also, watching the new employee show up right on time can often mean cutting it too close to being late. Great new employees show up early for their first couple of months, which broadcasts that they are reliable, eager to be there, and a team player. When the new employee shows up early, they are also afforded the opportunity to get to know their new coworkers more quickly, both on a personal and professional level.

2. Isolating Themselves 

As the “new employee on the block,” your new hire might be struggling to adjust, and as such, keep to themselves. It is very important for you to proactively encourage the new employee to get involved as much as possible at the beginning of a new job. Make it a point to arrange a lunch between them and their new coworkers, regularly switching future lunches for them to meet and get to know new people. By promoting them to do so, you will both accelerate their learning curve, as well as the development of their relationship with their new coworkers.  Special and meaningful relationships will result.

3. Being Afraid to Ask Questions

Let’s admit it:  no one knows everything. Especially not new employees. Thus, there is absolutely no reason for the new employee to start a new role and feel like they need to immediately prove that they are the right person chosen for the job.  Thus, reassure them that they had already achieved that during the interview process. Teach the new employee that it is much better to dive in and ask questions. Encourage the new employee to seek the advice, answers, and opinions of those who are more experienced, illuminating to them that this is how they learn.  One of the smartest people in history, Albert Einstein, once said: “The day you stop learning is the day you start dying.” Nothing could be truer.

4. Being Negative or Engaging in Gossip

Bringing positivity to the workplace is an awesome way to assimilate to a new work environment. Gently remind the new Team Member to make an active effort to avoid negativity and the archetypical malaise and gossip around the water cooler. Calmly let them know that the last thing they want to be labeled as is one of those actively disengaged employees.

5. Failing to Ask Their Boss How to Best Communicate with Him/Her

All bosses are different in how they prefer interaction with their employees. So, do new employees quickly ask their new bosses this upfront? The reality is that many do not. As such, proactively encourage your new Team Members to do so, asking their bosses questions like: do they prefer email, voicemail, instant messaging, a weekly meeting, or the always healthy in-person drop by? In addition, teach them that their new boss may not communicate like the other managers they had in the past.  

6. Taking On Too Much Work

There is an enormous gulf between new employees trying to impress their new coworkers and burning themselves out with work volume. Encourage them to relax. Remind them that “Rome was not built in a day,” and that it is much better to focus on work quality than quantity. After all, the number one reason people quit their jobs is stress/burnout. Your company wants an employee for the long term!

7. Ignoring Corporate Culture

This is a big and very common error that can negatively affect the impression new employees make on their new colleagues. Rather than fall victim to culture blindness, teach new Team Members to actively discover the following aspects of their new workplace culture:

-    What are the organization’s beliefs, values, goals, and strategic mission?
-    How do things get approved?
-    How do people dress?
-    What are the office politics?  (Often difficult to identify without the help of a trusted coworker or boss).
-    What are the unwritten “policies” that you would not find in the employee handbook?
-    What are the organization’s policies vis-à-vis social media and the internet?
-    How about the policies and expectations regarding personal cell phone use?
-    What are the organization’s policies on being able to work remotely, as well as having flexible work hours?
-    What are the absolute “No-Nos” of the culture or the acts and behaviors that are highly discouraged?
-    What are the most common roadblocks to getting things done, as well as the corresponding workarounds?

Unveiling the answers to these kinds of topics will hyper-speed the new hire’s assimilation to a previously unknown work environment, making it much more likely that they will achieve profound success.

8. Not Writing Things Down

When onboarding new employees, companies often shower new hires with a waterfall of information, from new names and faces to tasks, assignments, technology, and even their boss’s preferences.  It is hard to remember everything, and as a result, communicating the same things multiple times could make new hires look bad. 

Numerous studies have shown that writing things down creates better retention of information, so it is smart for the new employee to take notes on everything during their first few weeks. Communicate this message to the new Team Member from the onset of the onboarding process. For complex instructions, it is extremely valuable for them to take notes they can refer back to later. Also, writing things down demonstrates an extra effort to their new coworkers and boss, but also that they are engaged and care about doing a good job.

9. Talking Too Much about Their Last Job

This is an all-too-common mistake made by those starting a new job. Simply put, the re-hashing of their old job to their new coworkers becomes stale pretty quickly. People might also interpret that the new employees’ remembrances as a longing to have their old job back, which is obviously not the message you want them to send.

Thus, if you start to see your new team member making this mistake, coach and teach them that they do not want to be the person who is repeatedly referencing their old job.  

10. Failing to Take Initiative 

There are always ways to go above and beyond what is expected. If the new employee is not showing that initiative from the very beginning, it is a missed opportunity for them to make a positive impression on their new boss and coworkers.  

A great rule of thumb for your new Team Member: “Start before you start.”  For example, during the pre-onboarding period, prior to their first formal workday, train the new employee to proactively ask their manager for recommendations on how they can best prepare for their first day. Also encourage them to ask for reading materials about the company, its products and services, and employee communications, such that they can prepare to onboard (e.g., notes from town hall meetings, employee newsletters, annual reports, a new hire checklist, etc.).

Also suggest that once they start the new job, they should be quick to offer help to others. If meetings are optional, such as town halls or brown-bag lunch and learn, highly recommend that they make it a point to attend. Seizing learning and development opportunities is also an awesome way for your new hires to establish themselves as “go-getters”, as well as accelerate their career and personal growth.

Onboarding new employees is hard for companies, but it is even harder for new hires! Recognizing this reality and innate challenge, bookmark this onboarding checklist in support of your new hires, so you can leverage it to immediately accelerate the assimilation, productivity, and engagement of your new hires!    

Author Bio

Kevin Sheridan is an internationally-recognized Keynote Speaker, a New York Times Best Selling Author, and one of the most sought-after voices in the world on the topic of Employee Engagement. For five years running, he has been honored on Inc. Magazine’s top 101 Leadership Speakers in the world, as well as Inc.’s top 101 experts on Employee Engagement. He was also honored to be named to The Employee Engagement Award’s Top 100 Global Influencers on Employee Engagement for three consecutive years, as well as being designated as a Senior Fellow at The Conference Board.   Visit www.kevinsheridanllc.com Connect Kevin Sheridan