Employee Onboarding - Providing Feedback

How do you know that all the hard work you put into your onboarding of new hires is paying off? Onboarding is not or cannot be a one-way stream of information. You can and should give new hires the chance to share their feedback about the company in general and the onboarding process in particular.

You can use the information you gather during the feedback process to get a sense of what’s working well in your new hire experience and then make refinements to your program as necessary.

In this chapter, we will discuss how the HR team can collect feedback through surveys to improve an existing onboarding process.

One-on-one Sessions

One-on-one sessions are great for collecting qualitative feedback on how employees think and feel. You may be able to condense this information into quick sound bites or anecdotes to share with key stakeholders.

It often makes sense to have an employee’s direct manager conduct the session. But, the organization can have someone from upper level to run the session for effective result.

If you’re planning to hold one-on-one feedback gathering sessions, here are a few ideas for questions you can use −

• How is everything going so far? What have been some highlights of your experience? What are some challenges you’ve faced?

• Do you have enough, too little, or too much time to accomplish your work?

• How does your experience so far compare to how the company and job were presented to you during the application and interview process?

• What feedback do you have about your onboarding experience?

• Is there anything that’s still unclear about our company or your role?

• Do you have everything you need to accomplish your work?

• What would help you do your job better?

• Was there anything that came up during your feedback session that wasn’t covered by the previous questions?

Quantitative Feedback/Surveys

If you’re trying to get more of an overview of how your new hires are feeling overall, you can use a quantitative survey. It’s often useful to send this type of survey at key points during the onboarding process, such as at the end of an employee’s first week or first month.

The following is a specimen of feedback form used in companies.

Step 1 − I received my employment offer & associated information in a timely manner −

Step 2 − The information I received before my arrival helped me settle in −

Step 3 − I knew where to report, who to see and felt welcomed on my arrival −

Step 4 − After completing modules 1 and 2 of the corporate induction I gained an understanding of the University goals, values and work health and safety requirements −

Step 5 − My initial work unit induction was helpful and informative −

Step 6 − Local workplace health and safety requirements were explained and the WHS Checklist completed −

Step 7 − My new role was effectively explained and I was able to start work without unnecessary delay −

Step 8 − My supervisor has advised me of any compulsory training I am required to complete −

Step 9 − I understand my probation and performance management, development and review obligations −

Step 10 − I feel well-informed and comfortable in my role −

Sending this type of message to new hires early on is essential. You want to be sure to catch them during that crucial window when they’re making the decision about whether to stick around long-term.

Benefits of New Employee Feedback

The onboarding process is extremely significant for your new employees as well as for future employees. Surveying your new team members after carrying out a part of the onboarding process for feedback about their experience, strengths and weaknesses of their training process can better your company as a whole..

The benefits of the New Employee Feedback are as follows −

• Collecting feedback from employees will reveal what workers think of the onboarding program in particular and the company they represent, in general.

• Discover whether your organization’s new employee onboarding program is effective. Does the new staff member understand their job functions and are they learning how to perform their position effectively?

• Gain insight into why new hires are drawn to your company. This helps you understand what the perceived benefits of your company are and gives you specific features to highlight during future recruiting.

• New Hire Surveys give the staff member an opportunity to offer areas for improvement in the recruiting and training process and to troubleshoot any issues that they are experiencing.

• Learn details about the candidate’s perception of the recruiting and hiring experience. Did they feel comfortable during the interview?

• When you regularly survey new hires, you are gradually compiling data that can be analyzed over time. This allows you to view whether changes to the recruiting, hiring or training process are improving feedback by new hires or, if perhaps, a new plan of action should be implemented.

• Response reports grouped by: job satisfaction, supervisor support, training and orientation, company policies and processes, help you to quickly recognize trends in new hire experiences.

To conclude, feedback from the newly hired employees after a few days of their stay in the organization help the management to analyze the utility and capacity of the ongoing onboarding program towards getting experienced and skilled manpower as desired. If the ongoing onboarding program is found to be deficient in delivering the expected to the new hires, the management brings changes in it and make it refreshed and renovated to suit to the needs of onboarding for the entrants.