Challenges of Recruiting in a Growing Business – Part 2: The First Day Induction Process

This is article 2 in a series of 3 about the Challenges of Recruiting in a Growing Business. This article covers “The Induction Process”. Article 1 explored “How to appoint the best talent to work for your company”, and Article 3 will discuss  “Performance Appraisal and Performance Management”.

So, you have successfully navigated the hiring process, selected and appointed a candidate, and signed all the paperwork. But there are still challenges to navigate to make the new hire a long term fit for your growing company.

The New Team Members First Day

Your new team member’s first day is where the rubber hits the road. You should ensure they receive an appropriate induction into your company’s culture, processes, and systems. This will put them in the best place to settle into their role, amidst an overwhelming range of new experiences and skills to learn.

The first day for a new team member can be very stressful. As a leader in an organisation, you should aim for a new team member to finish the day feeling inspired and encouraged. Taking this sort of initial action can set the tone for their entire career at the company.

Preparing for the First Day

To achieve a successful first day, start with simple administrative tasks to ensure that the new team members have everything set up before they arrive. This includes their desk/office, computer, email, phone, logins and passwords and anything else that is required to help them settle in. Remember to inform your IT Department well in advance. This gives them time to order and set up all the necessary equipment.

A week or two before the team member’s start date, everyone in the company (or if it is a larger company, those in the appropriate department) should be notified of the new starter. Make an internal company announcement. Include a few details, such as which department they are joining and what they will be responsible for. Sharing some information about them at this stage, for example, where they come from and what their previous experience was, will help your your team understand how they fit into current operations. It will also make it easier for your existing team to get to know the new starter and encourage initial conversation when they begin.

Planning the first couple of days and providing the right training and support will help the new team member to assimilate into the organisational culture. Giving employees structured training and guidance will increase their productivity, which is, after all, the goal.

Take care of the paperwork before day 1

The first day should be spent learning, not completing paperwork. If you are still collecting paper TFN declarations, IRD forms, or other onboarding paperwork on the first day, you are taking away time that your new team member can use to familiarise themselves with their new role and team. MYOB Advanced Payroll and MYOB Advanced Workforce Management are integrated payroll solutions that form a part of the MYOB Advanced (Acumatica) platform. They have dedicated onboarding workflows so that new team members can arrive on day 1 with all the administration tasks already taken care of. Employee information can be collected, contracts signed, tax forms submitted, and even other compliance information gathered as part of a digital-first onboarding experience. This onboarding workflow also saves time for your existing payroll administration team, as all the information is synced securely with the payroll system. This means your new hire can be paid on time as part of the next pay run, with no additional manual data entry.

On the day

Make sure your new team member has a positive experience from their first point of contact through to the introduction to the team. It is important all the team members are welcoming. Allocate someone who will help to make the first coffee. Show them all the facilities and share lunch spots around the area to make them feel ‘at home’.

We all know that the first day in a new workplace consists of processing a lot of new information. Make sure that your new team member doesn’t walk away feeling overwhelmed.  A simple way to do this is to engage in casual conversation before diving into company processes.  Give a very brief run-through of what matters most and what the values and expectations within the company are.

A good outcome for a new team member’s first day is that they are not left to figure out on their own what their role is in the company. A team leader should state what is expected of the new member, communicating the values of the business and the goals of the team. Make sure you appoint someone that the new member can go to whenever a question may arise. Additionally, going through upcoming training and what will be taught in the coming weeks will be useful in preparing them for the role.  Now, the team members can end the day knowing exactly what is expected of them. Ultimately they can feel confident they are in a position to give their best in the company and love their work.

MYOB training to get up to speed

If you manage your organisation’s operations through an MYOB business management system, then it is likely that your new team member will require training. Formal and accredited training helps get the new team member up to speed quickly and efficiently with all the information they need to perform their role in your Business Management system. Additionally, if you use a payroll system with Employee Self-Service, your new team member will need to understand how to submit and view leave applications, change personal details, and more. Kilimanjaro Consulting offers detailed MYOB training courses to streamline the training of new starters:

• MYOB Exo Headstart Training Course
• MYOB Advanced Training, including on-premise where required
• MYOB Advanced Payroll Employee Self-Service Training Course

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Further down the line

It is important to check in on your new team members in the weeks and months they need to fully settle into the role. A review session should be booked in for the end of their probation period if applicable but be sure to check in and offer support over that period. You should also keep up a regular line of communication with their team leader to stay on top of their time at the company and how they fit within the team.

Where to next?

Article 3 in our Challenges of Recruiting in a Growing Business series covers “Performance Appraisal and Performance Management”. If you would like to revisit Article 1 it discusses “How to appoint the best talent to work for your company”.

Talk to our expert team about strategies to improve efficiency in your organisation. From hiring to onboarding and business management, our friendly consultants can guide you up the technology mountains with clever technology solutions. Email sales@kilimanjaro-consulting.com or call 1300 857 464 (AU) or  0800 436 774 (NZ).