1. A Written Onboarding Plan for Each New Hire. Tailored for each position, it should include a daily schedule of meetings, people to meet, training, mentors, objectives, assignments, and the like, for the new hire’s onboarding period. Consider building a standard template so as to easily replicate for each new hire. While this may seem like a lot of work, there is no better way to ensure the new hire receives all the training and onboarding support they need during this critical time period. Provide a copy of the onboarding plan to each new hire so he or she can measure daily progress and see the organization’s commitment to their success.

2. Establish 2-Way Feedback Early and Often. As part of the onboarding plan, establish frequent touch-point meetings to both receive and provide feedback for the new hire. These meetings should be daily at first, then tapering off to a few per week, and finally to one every other week. Make sure these touch-point meetings are scheduled on the written onboarding plan. Three great questions to ask during these meetings are:

• What were the most important things you learned today?
• What has gone well for you today?
• What did not go as well as you would have liked?

These questions, and their responses will allow you to tweak his or her onboarding plan.

3. Catch Them Doing Things Right. There is no faster way to build self-confidence and competence than by catching people doing things right.

• Receiving no feedback begs the question, “Does anybody really care about me or what I’m doing?”
• Negative feedback makes people feel as if you are waiting to punish them for making mistakes. Catching them doing things right lets them know you care and that results matter.

4. Keep Pointing to the Higher Purpose. If you want self-directed staff members, you need to always point out the reason the assignment, task, learning, project, achievement, etc. is important.

• How does it impact the organization?
• How does it serve the ultimate customers?
• What happens if the company fails in this area?
• By better understanding the importance of even the most mundane tasks, most people will strive for excellence in what they do.

5. Schedule Alignment Activities. Alignment activities build a sense of teamwork and camaraderie and help to align the individual with the overall culture of the organization. Integrate separate groups within the organization to encourage the blurring of departmental boundaries. During such sessions, informal communication is facilitated, and this tends to level the potential silos in the organization.

6. Onboard with Assessments. One of the best investments in a new hire is to have him or her complete one or more diagnostic assessments. My go-to assessment for both hiring and onboarding is the TriMetrix EQ assessment, which will provide specific guidance for how to accelerate your new hire’s onboarding. The guidance allows you to use the approaches that are optimized to the learner. My experience is that this assessment cuts one-third of the time it takes to get the new hire up to full speed, thereby providing an exceptional ROI.

7. Sync Your “Training Period” to the Onboarding Period. Most employers use a training period as a time during which a new hire is carefully observed and evaluated to determine if he or she is deemed a good fit for the job and employer. While most states are at-will employers (meaning that either employer or employer may end an employment relationship at will), it is a best practice for an employer’s handbook to clearly state that the Training Period is not a guarantee of employment but rather a time of onboarding a new hire.