In today’s competitive environment, the speed and effectiveness of the onboarding of new hires has become a focus for operations and a key to overall performance, growth, and stability for every successful company. Most onboarding plans include the following aspects:
- Completion of HR paperwork, benefits, and other documentation
- Overview of firm culture, history, values, and mission
- Introductions to key staff and the firm organizational structure
- Development and training of role-specific skills
- Assignment of a mentor
- Initiation of touchpoints and accountability throughout the first 30-60-90 days in the new position
There is one key aspect that is frequently overlooked: the unique and essential business processes that every employee must know and follow to be successful. These processes may be documented in a handbook or communicated verbally and are typically reactive, after the need is present, instead of proactive as part of the onboarding process and related curricula. Teaching these processes in advance will save time and resources, not to mention a lot of frustration and rework.
Processes vary by company and even by department or role within a company. Here are some critical processes that you will want to document and teach, as part of an optimized onboarding plan for both new hires and those moving into new roles:
Recruitment and Onboarding Process:
Start: Creation of a job requisition and posting job openings on platforms.
Finish: Employee integration, including document submission, training sessions, and company assimilation.
Offboarding Process:
Start: Employee submits a resignation notice or is dismissed.
Finish: Ensuring continuity, disabling access to internal systems, and conducting exit interviews (if voluntary resignation) to understand motivations.
Performance Management Process:
Start: Goal setting and tracking, coaching, and feedback from managers.
Finish: Formal and informal performance reviews, rewards, and recognition.
Product Development Lifecycle:
Start: Idea generation, market research, and concept development.
Finish: Product launch, marketing, and ongoing support.
Project Management Process:
Start: Project initiation, scope definition, and team formation.
Finish: Project closure, evaluation, and lessons learned.
Sales Process:
Start: Marketing outreach, lead generation, and opportunity identification.
Finish: Deal closure (won or lost), contract signing, and customer handover.
Customer Support Process:
Start: Customer inquiry or issue reported.
Finish: Resolution, follow-up, and customer satisfaction assessment.
Inventory Management Process:
Start: Receiving goods, updating inventory records.
Finish: Stock depletion, reorder, and replenishment.
Financial Closing Process:
Start: Recording financial transactions throughout the accounting period.
Finish: Preparing financial statements, reconciling accounts, and closing the books.
Expense Reimbursement Process:
Start: Employee submits an expense report with receipts.
Finish: Finance department reviews, approves, and reimburses the employee for valid expense.
Purchase Order (PO) Process:
Start: Requester creates a purchase requisition.
Finish: Procurement team issues a PO to the vendor after necessary approvals.
Client Onboarding Process (for Service-Based Businesses):
Start: Client signs a contract.
Finish: Successful integration of the client into service delivery.
Health and Safety Incident Reporting Process:
Start: Employee witnesses or experiences an incident (e.g., injury, near miss).
Finish: Investigation, corrective actions, and prevention measures.
One of the best ways to teach these processes (and many others) is to create two deliverables, that stand as asynchronous support and guides for each process:
- High level visual overview of the process, from start to finish
- Learning asset that lives in an LMS, on SharePoint, etc. that can provide all the necessary details, steps and supporting information, links and references