The Importance of Pre-Boarding

From the moment your desired candidate signs the offer letter all the way to their day 1 experience… This time frame is crucial to engagement and retention. It sets the stage for the onboarding experience and what is to come throughout the duration of new employment. Often, HR professionals and hiring managers forget this portion of the process. After signing the offer, they ghost their new employee until they log in on day 1 crippling with anxiety and uncertainty over how this new opportunity will play out.

Key here: Don’t let them question this decision, make them sure of it. There are a few tips to remember when creating the best pre-boarding process.

1. Get the administrative stuff out of the way

   1. Collect personal information, set up company email, tax forms, direct deposit information, etc. It is important to ensure that all the paperwork is done electronically leading up to day one. This carves the way to have a first day filled with ensuring the new hire has all the information on the company mission and values and helping to align their role in order to reach that.

2. Communicate, communicate, communicate

   1. This allows you to build trust and rapport with your new hire. Let them know exactly what is to play out on day 1 all the way to the details of where to park, what to bring, and what to wear. This helps relieve anxiety for your new hires and they will feel much more refreshed and prepared for what’s coming when walking in the door or logging on to their remote session. In this step, it would be important to have the hiring manager take over communicating some of the expectations for the upcoming days and weeks. This allows the new hire to build more rapport with their supervisor and ask any detailed questions they may have of their role beforehand. Also, this lets the new hire know that management is expecting you and looking forward to your first day and continuous involvement.

3. Excitement

   1. Have some enthusiasm! This is a new person joining the team so make them feel welcomed, excited, and refreshed over this new opportunity. As a recruiter, we go through the process of hiring all new people all the time. However, it is so important to remember that each one of these new hires has their own experiences and this process doesn’t occur redundantly for them… make it special and make them feel valued.

When we hire, we want to bring on engaged and excited new members to the team. We want to align our values with theirs and give them all the essential tools to be successful on the job. An important step to getting there is having an effective pre-boarding process. This process allows HR to complete all of the administrative paperwork electronically, communicate expectations and alleviate anxieties, and instill excitement and a strong welcome to our newest team members.