Onboarding new employees is your first step in showing what it’s like to work for your company. Is onboarding, and their new role, going to be tedious and tiresome, or entertaining and efficient? The choice is up to you! We have compiled a list of creative onboarding ideas that will help make the onboarding process enjoyable and engaging for your employees, as well as yourself!
Our top Creative Onboarding Ideas:
1. Have a Welcome Gift
A welcome gift on their desk is a fantastic way to get a new hire excited and boost their mood. Whether that’s a company mug with some candy or a small gift card to a coffee shop, a welcome gift sets the mood and starts onboarding in a positive light.
2. Schedule a Lunch
Providing lunch is always something people appreciate, and scheduling a lunch for the new hire, their direct managers, and the team they will be working with can help your new employee integrate with the team much faster. Ensuring everyone feels equipped and comfortable is a huge part of onboarding.
3. Make Introductions a Game
Gamification is a great way to help your new hire feel comfortable introducing themselves. Set up a challenge, such as bingo or a printing out everyone’s company photo, to encourage them to go out and meet new people. If your company is on the larger scale, maybe choose a few key teams for the new employees to meet.
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4. Send a Schedule Ahead of Time
Sending their first day’s schedule can be incredibly useful as it helps your new team member feel prepared for the day, and it also ensures that you stay organized and are able to prioritize their onboarding.
5. Have an End of Day Quiz Planned
This will be helpful in ensuring that your new employee retains important information such as company policies, office layout, and organization methods, but you can also add in fun questions like the boss’ favourite snack and who the cord thieves are.
6. Have Icebreakers Throughout the Day
There are plenty of icebreaker games you can place throughout the day that will be a fun and engaging way to learn more about your new hire, as well as help them learn more about you. Games like “This or That”, “Two Truths and Lie”, or “Five Favourites” are all great games to play.
7. Set Up a Buddy System
Having a buddy system is an effective way to help your new hire feel comfortable, and there are many ways to make the buddy system creative! You can set up a mix n match buddy system where you pair your new hire with multiple people from completely different teams, this way they will learn a lot about every aspect of your business.
8. Give Your New Hire an Instagram Takeover
This can be great for your social media presence as well as help your new hire feel trusted and valued. Let them do an Instagram takeover for the day, posting stories and going live. Your followers will enjoy seeing all the fun and excitement you create in the onboarding process, and your new hire will experience the company culture first hand.
9. Have a Late Start
You may start work at 9am and end the day at 5pm, but for the first day, or first week, change your new hire’s hours a bit to start late and potentially leave early. There often isn’t a lot for a new hire to do the first week or so as they become acclimated to the work environment, so missing a couple hours won’t be a big deal. This will make the first week easier on them, plus it will give their managers some catch-up time where they aren’t training.
10. Create a Handbook
Not only is a handbook a great thing to reference in the coming weeks as your new hire gets used to the company, but an employee handbook will provide you will a chance to have your company culture and values really shine!
11. Provide Tasks In Between Onboarding
One of the main things that can cause onboarding to be such a drag is the lack of accomplishment. Have a few tasks ready for your new hire that will be simple for them to grasp (for example, if you are hiring a designer, ask them to create a new set of digital ads) and complete in a single day. By giving something industry related to your new employee right away, you’ll establish that you trust them as well as keep them from getting bored.
12. Ask For Their Workspace Preferences
If you’re able to accommodate the kind of office chair, computer brand, keyboard style, etc., asking your new hire what they would prefer is a great way to make them feel valued. It also will ensure that they can work more effectively, if they are given tools they are comfortable using already.
13. Have Some Video Tutorials
If you have a particular software or filing system a new employee will need to learn, consider investing in filming video tutorials. You can use programs like Loom to film your screen and video recording. These videos will be a useful reference for new employees, plus, some time spent watching videos will provide managers and team members a chance to catch up on work.
14. Encourage Coffee Chats
Encourage your employees to get to know new hires during coffee breaks and lunch. After a couple weeks, hopefully your new employees will feel right at home!
15. Make it Picture Day
Get your new employee’s photo taken on their first day (and be sure to let them know ahead of time that this is happening). A photo session will hopefully establish them as part of the team, and it’s a nice way to start off the onboarding process.
Onboarding can be a difficult process, it’s time-consuming and a lot of administrative work. Putting in the effort to make onboarding fun will make all the difference, though. Utilizing some of these strategies will help your new employees integrate into your company, and it will hopefully make training and onboarding new employees more fun for your existing staff! For more help with new hires, contact Recruitment Partners!
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