Speed & scale: How to mass onboard essential staff during COVID-19

Due to the impact of COVID-19, there are a considerable number of organizations employing more new staff than ever before to keep pace with an increasing demand for essential services & online purchasing.

Bringing on high levels of staff in a short time frame (or mass onboarding) calls for a streamlined onboarding process with an emphasis on activities that help your new recruits become productive as quickly as possible, whilst keeping experience top-of-mind.

How can we help?

We’ve put together a 2-part, mass onboarding strategy that is easy to implement, low cost and doesn’t require dedicated onboarding software.

Whether your new hires are temporary, permanent or something in-between, this guide will help transform them into productive, organizational ambassadors, at speed and scale.

Part 1: Lead with an accelerated preboarding-inspired welcome

Right now, you’re unlikely to have much time to offer a full preboarding experience, particularly if you‘re recruiting for immediate start. But you can leverage learnings from effective preboarding to create a welcome pack for your new hires. 

Why? Because companies that do leverage preboarding improve their business results, such as first 6-month retention rates, drastically.

This preboarding-inspired welcome could be delivered anywhere from 1 month to 1 day before your new hire starts, and should contain a selection of key information to help them get started as quickly as possible.

You want to balance two distinct types of information, operational and emotional:

	Operational [Compliance & Clarification]
Operational preboarding focusses on technical need-to-knows that give your new hire a practical understanding of their new role, as well as covering legal compliance. Provide your new hire with the following:

	Emotional [Connection & Culture]
Emotional preboarding focusses on ensuring new hires understand, and feel connected to, their team and the wider organization. Provide your new hire with the following:

Part 2: Prioritize essential learning and employee empowerment

Usually, we would advocate that for best, long-term results, you should drip-feed all relevant content to your newest hire over the course of a 3-month onboarding program. 

But drastic times call for innovative solutions.

You need to create a productivity timeline for your new hires that prioritizes essential learnings that empower them to make informed and independent decisions early, easing the burden on your managers.

The three pillars of this strategy are trust, transparency, and training:

	Trust
	You need to trust your managers and new staff to make decisions. Mistakes are acceptable, so long as staff learn from them. Inaction is not an option at this point.

	Transparency
	It is up to you to establish and maintain open lines of communication with your managers and ensure they are doing the same with their new staff.

	Training
	Don’t overwhelm your new hires. Instead, simplify your training into essential learnings, and think about creating ‘experts’ in peripheral subjects per group of new hires.

The takeaway?

Following this two-part strategy will give your new employees a consistent, bare-bones onboarding that should see them hit basic productivity quickly, and help them feel like a part of the team.

Remember that your new hires will likely be concerned about the future and their health. So be compassionate, understanding and above all, ensure you create a safe and secure environment for them to work.

Want the full picture? Get the free in-depth strategy guide for mass onboarding at speed and scale now!