Establishing Rapport on an Onboarding Call
When you bring a new employee into your company, you want to be able to show them why they made the right move in joining you.
An onboarding call is an employee’s first and best chance to learn about the rules and regulations of the job, but also the company culture.
When you are onboarding a new employee, you want to be able to make the employee feel comfortable and motivated to be a part of the team.
Why Is Successful Onboarding Important?
If you succeed, you increase the chance of the employee staying with your company and continuing to give the company their all. 86% of employees know if they are going to stick with a company within six months of joining, which means that the onboarding process is one of the most important experiences for the employee.
With this in mind, onboarding is something that you as an employer need to nail. The way you present to the employee and the type of content you share has to be conducive to a prosperous relationship with the employee.
Considerations include the employee's time, the amount of information you think they can intake in a short period, and your own ability to spend time and resources training them.
Successful Onboarding Tips
Here are some of the things you can do to improve your rapport building during onboarding calls.
Be Flexible in Your Structure
One way to make a good impression with an employee going through the onboarding process is to be attentive to their needs before, during, and after it. Understanding your employee’s background could give you the ability to cater to your onboarding in an inclusive way.
For example, having access to people who can help you make your training inclusive with subtitles or ASL components will show that you care about your employee's ability to thrive with your business from the get-go.
Likewise, being willing to repeat things that the employee wasn’t able to hear and providing visual aids that they can use to follow along puts the employee in the best possible position to succeed.
It is also beneficial to use inclusive language that doesn’t demean the employee based on their background. If an employee is a formerly incarcerated worker, do not treat them differently from any other employee based on potential biases you may hold.
A team member needs to feel like they belong right from the start, or else it could take a long time for them to open up, feel comfortable, and be willing to engage with the team as a whole.
Also, don’t get frustrated if an onboarding employee has trouble hearing; instead, be willing to switch to another format or change your settings so that they can hear you better.
Be Transparent
When you bring someone on to your team or into your workplace, it is good practice to make the expectations for the first 100 days clear during the onboarding process. The employee doesn’t want to be left with a task list of things they need to figure out before they can start working in earnest; they want to know what is expected of them right from the start.
An effective communicator presents the company's mission and goals early on so that employees can understand exactly how their role within the company can drive toward the fulfillment of that mission. This transparency allows the employee to feel like part of a team with a shared goal and vision for success.
When working through the onboarding process, be willing to answer questions. Allow employees to voice their questions and concerns in a way you are eager to answer. This begins a pattern of trust for the employee to follow in which they understand that you are willing to listen to them and help them get up to speed to where they need to be.
If employees understand that communication is two-way and that their input and needs matter to the team’s success, they are more likely to see the organization’s value.
Be Accessible
When going through the onboarding process virtually, you want to show coworkers that you exist outside their computer screen. You have to take extra steps to humanize yourself when you can’t work face to face with an employee and make a first impression or during collaboration.
Provide your employee with a multitude of ways that they can reach you if they need to ask questions. It can also be a good idea to connect the employee with other team members who can help them get a feel for the company culture while they are still working virtually.
Team building practices can go a long way towards making an employee feel like what they are doing matters. Dialed is a service that can help you organize your team in a way that is conducive to cooperation and learning.
Dialed helps you organize your team and create a network that makes you approachable and accessible to everyone. The app lets you create teams that you can label and categorize, letting you message groups depending on their role and letting them engage with one another.
It also helps others become aware of your schedule by utilizing a do not disturb function and an office hours function. These allow you to make your work time known to people so they know when you are available to help.
Other Onboarding Best Practices
It’s a good idea to develop these soft skills to ensure your onboarding process is smooth and efficient:
Practice your active listening and communication skills
Empathy
Eye Contact
Use small Talk to build trust, a good rapport, and find common ground
Pay attention to body language such as facial expressions, gestures, and posture and other forms of nonverbal communication
Give and ask for feedback during the onboarding process
Conclusion
The onboarding process may be one that you carry out repeatedly, but for the employee, it only happens once and may determine whether or not you can retain them long-term.
A successful onboarding process makes an employee excited to work and be a part of a team. In contrast, a failed onboarding process can alienate them and encourage them to seek new employment opportunities.
Try making yourself accessible and transparent during this initial onboarding process so that the employee is informed and confident in their role.
Consider using apps that connect teams like yours, such as Dialed. Dialed was created by the developers of Burner, and as such, it values privacy and connectivity.
Using Dialed, you can connect your team intuitively and meaningfully while making your own time and accessibility clear to them.
Whatever tools you use, put yourself in the best possible position to stick the landing because the onboarding process may be the most important time to do so.
Download Dialed now to begin improving your onboarding process.
Sources:
Why Your New Employee's First Six Months Matter Most | Forbes
How to Set Up a Remote Employee for Success on Day One | Forbes
