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Onboarding is a human resources industry term referring to the process of introducing a newly hired employee into an organization. Also referred to as organizational socialization, onboarding is an important component in helping employees understand their new position and the requirements of their position. It's the process that helps them integrate harmoniously with the rest of the enterprise. The onboarding process includes many activities, from signage to team training. Onboarding may last anywhere from a few weeks to a year, but the most effective onboarding usually lasts at least a few months. Ideally, employees will feel confident and competent following the onboarding process.

What does the new hire onboarding process entail?

One thing HR professionals generally agree on is that onboarding begins the moment a candidate accepts a job offer and ends when a new employee is fully integrated and performing as expected. Whether or not an organization provides all of the onboarding elements in the list, it’s a wise investment to provide all new employees with a thorough, efficient, and consistent introduction to their new organization.

Research shows that the quality of onboarding experienced by new employees has an important impact on engagement, performance, longevity, etc. The best onboarding processes include relationship integration, which includes:

Setting expectations.

Building connections with other employees.

Creating confidence in others.

Developing a clear definition of roles and limitations.

Starting a new job can be overwhelming, and onboarding is most effective when it is spread out over time. This allows employees to better preserve information by giving them time to process everything and ask questions as needed.

How Long Does Onboarding Take?

There are no strict rules regarding the length of a new employee's on-boarding period. However, it is important to be strict in this process in order to maximize employee engagement and reduce employee turnover. Many companies have an onboarding process that lasts only a month or a few weeks, which risks new employees feeling overwhelmed with their new responsibilities and not connecting with the rest of the company.

Many HR professionals recommend that an integration process take approximately 90 days, while some professionals recommend extending the process for as long as a year. This ensures employees have the resources they need to learn more about the company, assimilate their training and feel comfortable doing their work as intended.

The onboarding process is a bit complex and takes more time than the recruitment process. There are a lot of steps involved in the onboarding process which is summed up in the onboarding tracker.

The onboarding tracker is a spreadsheet, like the recruitment tracker, that tracks dates regarding when the newly hired employee should start in the company and such. Their main difference is that the recruitment tracker does not have specific names written on them and have only the positions available in the company. Whereas the onboarding tracker, it is a more specified and more detailed look on the ins of the newly hired individual.

Most of the items being input in the onboarding tracker are important dates involving the onboarding process like when the job offer has been signed, what date did the employee start, and much more.

Here's how the onboarding process works:

1. Pre-onboarding

By the name itself are the prerequisites needed to be done before the newly hired employee starts in the company. Prerequisites as in very much important and ultimately needed before said onboarding date.

Here are the parts of the pre-onboarding process:

• Name – the name of the employee recently sent a job offer and subsequently signed the job offer.
• Position – the role of the new employee in the company.
• Employee ID Number – this can be used as login details for attendance purposes.
• Job Offer Signed – date the job offer was signed by the applicant.
• Start Date – start date of new employee.
• Determine if the employee is a referral or not.
• New Employee Announcement.
• Ticket IT for Assets (New Hire Setup).
• Ensure new hire is added to distribution group (New Hire Setup).
• Inform training department about new hire.
• Send onboarding details (log-in credentials, start date and time) and Immersion plan to new hire.
• Prepare probationary employment contract for CEO signature.
• Schedule HR, training, DH for the induction and orientation date and time in calendar (invite applicable people.
• If back office employee, update BO employee spreadsheet with start date.
• Ensure meet and greet for new hires (Zoom meet and greet with HR team, team leaders, department heads, COO, and CEO).

Banks are important in payroll. The employee would not be paid if it were not for the banks. That is why the employee should procure a bank account along with the bank account number from the preferred bank of the company to avoid delays in payment.

• Sent Bank Application Endorsement for ATM Cards.
• Received Employee Bank Account Number.
• Sent Finance the Employee Bank Account Number.

The actual onboarding process.

While a few HR managers seem to consider employee onboarding process as simply the new hire paperwork, more savvy and committed team members have a different perspective on the employee onboarding meaning. They consider the entire period from the time an offer is released to the moment where an employee becomes a productive contributor to the organization as a part of employee onboarding.

Onboarding spans from the minute you make an offer to the time the employee starts genuinely producing in a role.

Every process that falls within that time period including the orientation program, the training plan, setting up performance metrics, and a feedback loop is segmented under the definition of onboarding.

These parts are what happens on the day itself:

• Employee has started.
• HR orientation conducted date.
• PayRuler tutorial.
• Add new hire to OneDrive applicable folder and demon on how to access OneDrive and MS Forms.
• Last Pass tutorial.
• Ensure team leads know how to lodge IR (Incident Report) in MS Forms.
• If team leader or department head, demonstrate how to submit change management request.
• Issue RFID.
• Add new hire to calendar appointments and MS Teams groups.
• Add Freshdesk license if required.
• Employee added to engage spark for ATU.
• Confirm ATU registration.
• Adding newly hire to employee database.
• Update bio number in PayRuler.
• Add allowance in PayRuler.

Part of the onboarding process is to see to it that the requirements sent by the HR in-charge, be it the recruitment officer or the onboarding officer to the newly hired employee are complete and they are fully ready to start working with the company.

Prior to onboarding, the company requires the employee to procure the required requirements. In the company, you cannot start unless you have completed the requirements. You are given 3 days to a week depending on how many requirements you lack to secure them.

Here are the requirements needed:

• Birth certificate
• SSS number
• PHIC number
• HDMF number
• TIN number
• BIR 2316
• TOR/grades/diploma
• NBI/police clearance
• COE
• Medical exam results
• 2x2 pic
• 1x1 pic
• 1 valid ID

The onboarding officer must see to it that he/she inputs the correct date when the requirements are received and should they need to be updated, he/she puts comments on whether or not it has been submitted.

5. Agreement Papers

Binding relationships always come from signing agreement papers.

There’s just something about putting a signature on paper that makes things very official. This is why agreement papers are used for formalities.

The onboarding officer sends onboarding agreement papers to the new employee for work from home or onsite via email.

Here are the agreement papers needed to be signed prior to employment and onboarding:

• Probationary contract
• Non-disclosure agreement
• Attendance and punctuality policy
• Code of conduct and discipline
• Company ID policy
• Information confidentiality agreement
• Data privacy notice
• Mobile device usage agreement
• Statement of understanding
• Acceptable use policy
• Mental health policy
• Dental coverage policy

The onboarding officer must see to it that the employee has read and understood and acknowledged all existing company policies and procedures.

The most critical task of managing human resources is to administer the employee's “201” file.

The 201 file essentially corresponds to the employee profile in the organization's files. The 201-File tracks a wide range of personnel information and provides sophisticated reports and its richly-presented variants from corporate, groups, and down to the individual worker.

It includes the personal information of an employee, such as full name, address, date of birth, and other information. Some other details that a “201” file can hold are: the employees’ SSS number, TIN , PhilHealth registration, HDMF number, educational transcripts/diplomas, performance appraisals, issued corrective actions, clearances, and many others.

These 201 files may be printed documents that are filed in binders, folders or electronic documents.

Parts of the onboarding tracker regarding the 201 file are as follows:

• Ensure CV and pre-employment requirements has been placed in 201 file.
• Update central employee list excel.

Introduction and orientation of employees, words are often used synonymously although they are different in their meaning and application.  Induction refers to the process of introducing a newcomer to its employer/company and working environment. An induction session, conducted on day one for a new joiner, usually through PowerPoint presentation and videos sessions lasts a few hours or day. In addition, orientation is a well-designed program that involves reorganizing a new employee and familiarizing them with their department, role and work culture. An orientation session can range from a day to several days, depending on organizational and corporate needs.

The company’s induction process differs from every department.

There’s a certain checklist to be followed to ensure that the process goes as smoothly as possible.

The one who performs the induction are the department heads or the team leaders if the employee is from the back office.

Here are the different parts of induction for each department, according to the onboarding tracker:

• Assign action to DH to add new hire to strategy X and ensure confirmation of account.
• Assign action to CEO to provide Xero access if required.
• Assign action to HR on site for employee tour to HOIT office.
• Assign action to DH or TL to complete induction presentation and checklist.
• HR, training and department head induction conducted.
• Confirm induction checklist has been completed and stored it in 201 file.
• Client and sales person is informed of the handover.

New employees can be vulnerable, out of their element, stressed, and eager to please.

Instead of providing a nurturing environment and offering instant validation, however, many businesses expect their new hires to turn into genuine attack dogs in a matter of weeks, providing little training coupled with high expectations.

Given that the next generation of employees will be constantly evolving, excellent onboarding is essential to retaining quality employees.

Onboarding, sometimes referred to as organizational socialization, is the process of introducing your employees to the expectations, skills, knowledge, and culture of your company.

The mentor buddy is a proposed plan for the department heads or team leaders to follow up people in their team to assess their work, how they are adjusting to the company and such.

The steps in the mentor buddy program are as follows:

• TL to choose the appropriate buddy.
• Create 8 actions for the chosen buddy to complete the reviews.
• Create 1 action for employee to complete survey with TL as approver.
• Create 1 action for buddy to complete survey with TL as approver.
• Upload buddy and employee survey to 201 file.

Employee benefits can improve your company’s bottom line by engaging employees to participate in wellbeing programs. Healthier employees mean reduced healthcare costs for your organization. Employees with fewer health risks have fewer sick days, fewer doctor visits and more time to work in your organization, doing their best every day.

Part of the employment process are the benefits presented upon hiring.

It is imperative for the company to present benefits to the employee.

And here are the steps in obtaining these benefits from the company through the onboarding tracker:

• Create ID for newly hires.
• ID issuance.
• Issuance of HOIT lanyard and ID case.
• ID delivered and received by employee for WFH set up.
• Update asset tracker.
• Create COE and send to employee.
• Enroll employee to HMO upon regularization.
• Create action in strategy x for HMO in charge to schedule employee for HMO orientation with PhilCare (upon regularization).
• Create 3 actions for TL/DH to conduct 1^st, 3^rd, and 5^th employee performance evaluation.
• Create an action assigned to the EE/ER HR officer to process regularization contract. Ensure onboarding HR officer is the approver.