My 6-Step Talent Onboarding Process

March, 3rd 2024

You can increase the length of time your talent stays with you by 256% if you onboard them correctly 

If you don't master team member onboarding, you’ll create a churn factory that will destroy your company

Preface:

Team member onboarding has two distinct parts:

1. Technical onboarding

2. Emotional onboarding

In order for us to increase the length of our employee's stay at our company, we must master both

First, let's define terms:

Technical onboarding: This is the process where we onboard talent smoothly and in an organized manner. Each step of the process is either automated or executed well by the individual owning this step.

Emotional onboarding: How a company engages and onboards its employees on an unconscious level. Unconsciously, employees form beliefs and connections with a company during the onboarding process. Effective emotional onboarding results in the employee feeling they are in the right place, feeling they have a lot of confidence in their employer, and feeling a deep level of excitement for the opportunities ahead. 

Now, let’s dive in

Grow Now

1 Onboarding begins during sourcing

The first impressions of your company begin while your prospective candidates are applying

The overwhelming majority of marketplace candidates wait many days to hear back from prospective employers

Our goal with all of our new hires is to maximize the length of time they work for our company

The sourcing & interviewing process is the first interaction our candidates have with our business, meaning, this is where they begin to form beliefs and opinions about a potential employer

How to crush this phase:

A- Respond quickly

At 8F, we have a team member who is responsible for screening job applicants daily

All applicants must get a response within 24 hours of their application to 8F

This shows we have a good process which primes our potential hires to believe the entire company does

All of my team members have checklists of items they must complete daily

These checklists are submitted each day

We have a line item on our sourcing admin to ensure she is clearing the LinkedIn candidate pool

2 Pre-onboarding, Technical Set Up

1 Pre-Day One Technical Set Up

In a virtual world, we can have our talent get set up on everything they need before starting on day one

Sending out an onboarding email 1 week before or a physical package that includes all the info prior to day one is a best practice

This email/package should include 3 things

1. Welcome Message

2. Technical Set Up

3. Schedule 

4. Swag 

5. 1 on 1 Prep

A-Welcome Message 

A welcome message is a simple way to bring in a personal touch and elicit confidence in the new hire 

Welcome messages can differ per company, but here are some things to consider including:

• Introduction of self 

• What to expect on day one 

• How to be successful on day one 

• What to complete prior to day one

Here is an example template below

We want the specific calendar sent to them 

B- Technical Set Up

Having a simple checklist sent to them prior to day one continues to show talent they are joining a strong company 

Here is an example document of what this can include:

Example tech onboarding

C- Schedule 

Providing a schedule for day one, week 1 (and sometimes beyond) is an easy way to reduce stress & anxiety for our new hire

Remember, if we effectively onboard this person, they will stay a lot longer with us

Part of that is reducing their anxiety 

Here is an example new hire onboarding schedule 

NHO Doc

D- Swag

There are two options for this

If we are sending an email to onboard the employee, we will want to include an option to fill out a form to receive company swag

If we are sending them an onboarding package, sending them the swag is a great way to elicit an emotional tie & pride in the company 

When I joined Hampton (an entrepreneur community), I received the below package of swag which created a deeper level of connection to the organization

Here is a resource you can use for day-one swag:

https://caroo.com/blog/employee-welcome-kits/

E- 1 on 1 Prep

The first 1 on 1 meeting between an employee and their manager is a pivotal meeting

When done well, it can set up a long-term professional relationship

Having the employee set aside time before onboarding to complete a form and giving their manager a bunch of information on them helps set up a deeper & more effective relationship

Here are questions to include:

• What should I know about you? 

• Why did you take this job?

• Short/long-term personal goals

• Short/long-term professional goals

• Long-term income goals

• Please complete this assessment and share the results with me

Important note:

The assessment shared above is the 5 Love Language assessment

Many people know the 5 love languages in relation to personal intimate relationships 

On a professional level, knowing this about your employee is a way to unlock a deeper level of loyalty and performance

If we are able to manage employees and appreciate them in a way that makes them feel valued, we'll unlock a different level of emotional connection

The 5 love languages:

• Words of affirmation

• Physical touch

• Act of service

• Quality time

• Gifts

Knowing which love language a team member leans towards will change the behavior of their manager when done well

Killer Content (My favorite pieces of content from last week):

Podcast Ultimate: How Thibault Louis-Lucas Built & Sold TweetHunter for $10,000,000

Youtube: You’ll Go BROKE: Real Reasons Why Your Agency Will FAIL!

3 New Hire Orientation

A- Day 1 Warm Welcome

Having a warm welcome on the first day for a new employee is very important

When done well, this primes the employee to associate positive emotions with your business

Remember, an employee who is positively onboarded increases their time at your company by 256% 

If you are onboarding your employee virtually:

Have the start of their day be a welcome meeting

In that meeting, having the first moments feel good for the employee will help us build momentum

Here are 3 options to succeed here:

• Prepare an icebreaker for the initial conversation

• Bring on many employees to welcome the team member

• Have an authentic welcome video from the CEO (even if that's you)

Here is a good example of one from True Car

B - New Hire Orientation Meeting

For virtual companies, having the NHO meeting oftentimes will be in that first onboarding meeting

To kick off effectively, here are the important things to include

B1- Mission, vision, purpose

As humans, we make decisions first emotionally and then back them up logically 

Kicking off your NHO meeting with a video from the founder sharing the company's MVP (mission, vision, purpose) is an easy way to get immediate buy-in from your new employee and capitalize on day-one excitement

Here is the 8F Example for our current MVP

It’s important to note these don’t have to be epic productions 

Just a heartfelt message from the founder

Creating a prompt for the manager to ask questions after allows for open discussion and for the employees to express their opinions and emotions

B2-Why we do what we do & why it matters

The company MVP is both its core and where it is heading

The why behind what we do creates a tie between the employee and the customer

At Amazon, the mission of the business was to be the world's most customer-centric company

The why behind it was to create the best experience for its customers

Every month I was exposed to great stories from Amazon 

8F Example

Here is an example from Salesforce 

B3-About the company

This one is pretty self-explanatory

Your new hires benefit from learning about the business, its origin story, and why the company is where it's at

Your company story becomes their story

Another simple item to include in your NHO meeting

8F example

B4-Scheduling & Expectations 

After the initial rounds of videos are done, there are a few items to get your employee off on the right foot for onboarding:

Icebreakers

If you haven't already, this could be a good time to do an icebreaker exercise with your employee

This matters because it enables your new hires, on an unconscious level, to feel safety

Daniel Coyle, the writer of The Culture Code, discovered in his research that safety is the first thing that must be accomplished to have a high-performing organization 

Here are some icebreaker ideas

Schedule review & tour 

Doing a walk-through with your new hires on where they need to go (physically or virtually) allows your employees to feel comfortable on their first day 

Walking them through their first day schedule enables them to move through their first day in their new job with ease and less stress

C- Initial 1 on 1

A one-on-one can be defined as a meeting between a manager and an employee

The first 1 on 1 meeting is a great opportunity to begin the relationship on the right foot

Whether you’re consuming this for yourself, or your management team, follow this 1 on 1 structure to have an effective first meeting

• Introductions

• Intention for meeting

• Get to know one another

• Red light, green light

• Expectations for onboarding

• Review of pre-form answers 

C1- Introductions (5-10 Minutes)

This one is obvious, but if you or your management staff do not know how to get into rapport, the purpose of introductions is to initiate rapport.

C-2 Intention for meeting (1 Minute)

I credit Oprah for this one

All meetings, in my opinion, should start with an intention.

“The purpose of this meeting is to ABC. Here is our agenda for the meeting (show a visual).”

Doing this grounds both parties in the meeting on the same page.

Here is an example from a first 1 on 1 meeting template:

C3-Get to know one another

Management should lead off this section of the meeting

Here is a simple prompt for both parties in the meeting:

Share one thing:

• About yourself personally

• About yourself professionally

• You enjoy doing on the weekends

• You’re currently interested in personally

C4-Red light, green light (5-10 minutes) 

One of the most important components of your initial 1 on 1 meeting is learning how to best manage your employee

The red light green light exercise is a simple way of accomplishing this

Pose two questions to your employee

Based on previous work/professional experiences, please share with me things you didn’t like about the company/managers you’ve worked with (red light)

Please share the things you have enjoyed about previous jobs and managers, what do you want me to know so I ensure you see a lot of that in this role (green light)

Here is a video explaining how I run the red light green light exercise 

C5-Expectations for onboarding

One of the biggest mistakes employers across the world make is setting improper expectations

Expectations presented in this 1 on 1 meeting should be written down on a document and presented prior to the meeting

These expectations should be very black and white.

30,60 & 90 day expectations should be presented to the employee to determine where they should be

Onboarding typically takes 3-6 months for a given role

If onboarding takes up to 6 months, I would recommend making a 6-month benchmark on where you would like this employee to be

When reviewing expectations with the employee, have them review the document and give them the opportunity to express their thoughts

C6-Review of pre-form answers (10-30 minutes)

Prior to being onboarded, team members should have filled out a series of questions about their personal & professional goals

These goals should be logged inside a team member management systems

If you do not have this already set up, you can start by using a folder and putting Google Docs into that folder

In this section of the meeting, the manager and the employee should have an open discussion on the answers revealed

Management should use this part of their meeting to learn what motivates the employee

For my managers, I set the explicit intention that it is their job to help their employees accomplish their goals

I would strongly recommend mentioning that at the start of this section

“Before we dive into the answers you shared from your onboarding form, I want to let you know that at XYZ company, one of the key functions of management is to help employees accomplish their goals. It's something we track across the management team and take very seriously. So, just know I am here to be an advocate and a champion of your personal and professional goal.” 

From here, management and the employee should have an open discussion with management taking extensive notes

Everything revealed in this section is a blueprint on how to maximize the potential of this employee

Here is a deeper breakdown of how to execute this step

C7- Email Post & Scheduling 1 on 1

After the initial 1 on 1, management should send an email scheduling the 1 on 1 meetings on an ongoing basis

Below is a template that you can use for your email:

Hi [Name],

I wanted to let you know that I’ll be scheduling recurring one-on-one meetings with everyone on the team. We’ll spend this time discussing priorities, sharing feedback, working on career development, and answering any questions you might not be able to ask me during the week.

These one-on-one meetings are your time with me, which means that your talking points will be the primary focus of the meeting. 

I’ll share the agenda for our first one-on-one meeting with you soon so you can prepare your answers in advance.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

[Name]

4 Training

Training is WILDLY poorly executed by nearly every company 

We DO NOT want team members to shadow team members if we don't have to

4A- Training Library

In order to avoid this, we must build massive training libraries

This works for nearly every role and function

Moving forward, starting now, record everything:

Sales→ Record all sales calls

Account management→ Record all client calls

Fulfillment→ Have A+ team members record themselves completing the work and explaining the how and why 

During the initial days of onboarding, there should be several hours dedicated to watching the best in the business complete the job task

As a benchmark, a new sales professional should consume, at minimum, 40-50 sales calls in this section 

Here is your action to begin building this:

1. Build a training library for every major function

2. Have A+ staff record everything they do 

3. Log all training videos into the LMS

4. Transcribe the relevant FAQs

IMPORTANT: Transcribe the relevant FAQs

Transcribing common FAQs is critical 

For 8F, I sent over 50 sales calls to a transcriber I hired off of UpWork before onboarding a new sales rep

This sales rep was directed to consume all my sales content and then review the FAQ document

Providing the FAQ document, for prospect & client-facing roles, is like giving all the answers to the test they’re going to be assigned 

4B- Working Sessions

One of the best things we can do with a new employee is to schedule working sessions with them

In the first month or so the manager and the new employee should have recurring meetings, either daily or multiple times a week, where the manager helps complete the work with the new employee, works with the employee, or reviews the work of the employee

This is the fastest way to ramp up from a training perspective

5 Wrapping up Onboarding

Onboarding can be considered finished with the completion of a 1 on 1 meeting on the 30, 60, or 90 day meeting

The intention of these meetings is to establish if the employee is on track or off track

Here is a simple meeting agenda you can follow to execute this

1. Check-in, get into rapport

2. Progress update

Have the employee share if they are on track or off track

The manager will provide feedback on the employee's self-assessment

Referencing the specific 30-60-90 day goals is the most effective way to provide unbiased feedback here

3. Assign actions for the employee to focus on post-meeting

Ensure the actions are focused on inputs, things the employee can control and easily execute on

4. Check-in on personal progress for their personal development goals (yes, we start this as soon as the 30-day meeting)

5. Check-in on employees' overall experience for onboarding

This is a great time to get candid feedback to improve the process or provide feedback to the team that owns the onboarding process

6. Wrap meeting, thank them for their time 

6 Next steps

I understand that this is A LOT

Candidly, this can take several months to build out alongside everything else you have to do while running your business

If you want help building this out for your company, reach out and we’ll set up a consultation to help identify how you can build an epic operation that creates great employees and  big profits as a result

Stay Happy

Stay Hungry,

Jordan Ross

CEO & Founder @ 8 Figure Agency

Let's Stay in Touch!