Discussing onboarding today can become complicated quickly. On one side, most people are familiar with concepts like company culture and candidate experience. On the other, it’s easy to fall into a pattern of repeating buzzwords, diminishing the true value offered to candidates.

It’s excellent that onboarding now receives deserved attention, but what does it mean to “onboard” an employee?

The challenge is that mentioning onboarding often results in as many interpretations as there are listeners. For some, it’s a one-day overview of software and facilities. For others, it’s a month-long immersion into team dynamics and company culture. What often gets overlooked, however, is that onboarding significantly impacts existing team members as well.

Orientation vs. Onboarding

First, onboarding is much more than just showing people where they sit and how to use the tools at their disposal. Naturally, you hire the person to do a job, and you’re inclined to ensure they do it well. However, don’t forget that you most likely hired them because you have reason to believe they will do it well.

Therefore, onboarding should focus on non-productivity matters at least as much as on productivity training. And this is where your team members can step in.

Research supports the claims that new hires benefit significantly from a peer mentoring program. This program can be anything from a buddy system—a person they can turn to at any moment with any question—to a full-fledged mentor.

A team member who is skilled at their job, as well as in transferring knowledge, can do wonders for a new employee, and this can include:

  • getting to know the building and the office,
  • setting up their workplace,
  • presenting formal and unwritten office rules and regulations,
  • introducing tools for project management, internal comms, staff scheduling software, etc.
  • I was filling out the paperwork required for the job.

As new hires work closely with their mentor or buddy, they have a unique opportunity to do something that brings even more value.

Transfer of the Company Culture

No one is a better fit for transferring your company’s culture to new hires than the people forming it and bringing it to life day after day. Peer mentorship is like a one-on-one with your company culture personified. This means you need to choose a team member who carries these values close to their heart in terms of both worldviews and personal integrity.

Brand books and culture memos are great, but there’s only so much they can do. Having someone who is a walking example of what you meant in those documents will do a much better job instilling those values in new hires.

Remember that this is closely connected to productivity, personal accountability, and responsibility — but in the end, it’s much more a cultural thing than a productivity hack. This is how you should approach choosing the right person for the job.

Integration in the Workplace

Your new hires will become team members at one point in their trajectory. At this point, they will need to be integrated into your team and collaborate on deliverables. A peer can guide the candidate to this point, but remember—you must also prep your team for a new player.

A great way to do so is by standardizing your onboarding process. Research shows that having a standardized onboarding process can be a shortcut to a 50% increase in productivity and an excellent opportunity for the team to make a team effort.

Lay out the phases of the process and set clear goals you’re aiming for the new hire to reach. Then, choose team members based on their strengths and experience to help with various goals. The more people your candidate works with from the beginning, the more integrated they’ll feel once the onboarding ends.

Remember, candidates feel special because you chose them for your new employee. You can play into those feelings and boost them by providing an inviting onboarding process. Have it delivered by several people who project the same message, and you’re setting yourself up for retention and loyalty going through the roof.

Diversification of Team Members’ Workday

Integrating a new player into the team might be stressful. Maybe you just designed your processes and set them in motion, and they’re doing great—so why risk it by bringing in someone new?

There can be several reasons, such as increased workflows, team promotions, etc. However, it’s also a chance to work on your team’s agility and give some of your current employees a chance to shine.

Working on the same old tasks can get boring—we’ve all been there. Mentoring or just being part of the onboarding process allows your current employees to diversify their workday while transferring the skills that made them join the team in the first place.

When you design the process, take hints from your employees. See how they went through the process, what they’d like to do differently, what they lacked, and what was overly emphasized. These are your most valuable survey respondents, especially the last ones to go through the process.

After that, see who you can match with which new candidate. Not everyone is a people person, and that’s ok. However, some people indeed are, so let them take charge. Ensure you provide the materials and the budget for them to do a good job.

Moreover, create a reporting process for all team members included in the onboarding and a feedback loop from your candidates after onboarding and possibly a few months later. Naturally, have someone use the data to improve the procedure continually.

Onboarding as a Handful of Opportunities

Remember that, when onboarding, you’re not just getting a new employee.

As much as you need to focus on your new hire, remember that integration also happens at the other end of the spectrum.

You’re also giving your current employees a chance to contribute via a new channel and opening the door to working on team dynamics.

Whether you keep your candidate or lose them to a better offer, having your team go all in into onboarding with their effort is a sure way to make sure you come out of the process a more tight-knit and motivated team.

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Rob is a content marketing manager at Deputy, a robust scheduling software that can be used to manage your workforce in a wide variety of different industries. Aside from helping businesses reach operational efficiency, he keeps up to date with the latest trends in SaaS, B2B, and technology in general.

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