When it comes to employee success, onboarding makes a huge difference. Here are 5 ways to build smooth, repeatable processes for great new hire experiences.

Be Prepared

It’s never too early to identify what tasks go into an onboarding process—you don’t have to wait until you start hiring and it will probably be easiest to do it at an earlier point in time.

When mapping out required tasks, identify what needs to be done and by who: a manager may select an Onboarding Buddy, IT may own account registration, etc. Once you have an idea of who will own what, it’s time to discuss these designated steps with those team members to make sure everyone is aligned.

Every team that a New Hire joins will have different tasks and responsibilities involved in their onboarding process. Partner with managers to add in team-specific tasks to your organization’s general onboarding process.

Lastly, make a point of reaching out to a New Hire before their start date to say hello and give them an overview of what they can expect on their First Day.

Map Your Plan

First weeks can be a lot! Not only for a new hire, but also for the teammates supporting their onboarding journey. After all, they’ll be taking on additional responsibilities on top of what the team is usually working on day-to-day.

It’s important to put thought into spacing out what a new teammate will be doing and learning during their first weeks. Remember, everyone’s capacity and learning style is unique.

Be clear about what activities and tasks are mandatory (such as a compliance training) and what might be optional (like a virtual Happy Hour).

It’s also a good idea to schedule points to check in via Slack during a New Hire’s first weeks to see how things are going. This doesn’t just need to come from one person, but can be from different team members at different points.

Being intentional about communication can help insure that inboxes/Slack/etc. don’t get too crowded.

Automate Important Tasks

Some things are best done by people, some things are better done by systems, and none of us are perfect. That’s why automation is such an important part of any onboarding program.

Even with the best of intentions, human memory can be fallible. The amount of time we each have in the day is also limited! Automating certain onboarding tasks gets them off of teammates’ plates and into systems which will run things consistently.

With Donut Journeys, many of the manual tasks involved in Onboarding can be automated. Journeys then takes it a step further and offers efficient views into related metrics, task completion, and team feedback.

Set Up Your Buddy System

Buddy systems are a great way to kickstart building connection at work. With a Buddy, New Hires are connected to a peer-level teammate there to offer support. Social connection can be a key element to creating a fulfilling onboarding process, and a positive Buddy experience may then motivate New Hires to go on to become Buddies themselves.

Managers should choose and connect with Buddies ahead of a New Hire’s start date to make sure everyone is on the same page.

You can learn more about what makes for a successful Buddy System here.

Create Accountability

Onboarding processes contain important steps that involve multiple stakeholders. It’s important to keep an eye on progress and make sure no important to-dos get missed. Have certain people met? Are key tasks completed? Is there any important feedback from the new hire or team?

However, following up on these moving parts individually can be time consuming and may result in things getting missed.

A tool like Donut Journeys provides at-a-glance insight into a New Hire’s progress, from task-completion to pulse survey replies and from a high-level view to thorough reporting. Donut also has a number of Prebuilt Journeys that can be used for reference and a way to get started.

We’ve also put together a downloadable worksheet to use as a checklist for making an onboarding plan that you can access here.