What is employee onboarding?

Like many modern buzz words, employee onboarding actually describes a very simple process. It is the procedure for welcoming a new employee to the firm, making sure that they have the knowledge and tools that they need. Coupled with equipping them with a mentor and channels of communication for help and support. In short, it is an essential part of any firm’s HR processes, although it may go by various names.

How a good welcoming process can help you recruit

All companies need talent and, regardless of the state of the employment market, most organisations will be dedicated to building a team of the most highly-skilled and able staff that they can find. In order to be able to attract talent at all times, employers need to be able to offer job packages that talented employees will find attractive. However, the recruitment and welcoming process can also form an important part of a company’s profile among prospective employees. A badly-organised recruitment process may reflect badly on the firm itself, even if it has little bearing on the actual job that the candidates are being hired for.

Questions examples for an employee onboarding questionnaire:

Be sure that your employee onboarding is in shipshape condition by asking for feedback from your firm’s newest members. Questions could include:

• How did you find the recruitment/interview process?
• What was your impression of the staff you met during recruitment?
• How was your first day at the firm?
• Were you given all the necessary information/tools to do your job?
• How would you improve the recruitment and onboarding?

Other good hints for success

It is also important to ensure that an employee onboarding questionnaire remains on topic. As a rule, general questions related to the employee’s work should be avoided, as these have no bearing on the onboarding process. Questions relating to the employee’s level of engagement and current job satisfaction also have no place here. While employee engagement and satisfaction are important things to measure. You should run a separate engagement or satisfaction survey at a different point in time, in order to avoid confusing the issues.

An onboarding questionnaire can be fairly long as there are various aspects of the recruitment and settling-in process to cover. The subject matter may also be quite sensitive, as new employees may be unwilling to criticize their new employers. It is, therefore, a good candidate for an online survey which streamlines the collection and processing of data and can ensure confidentiality.

Check out Netigate’s options for online employee onboarding questionnaires.