Steps to take after you’ve rolled out a job offer letter

Any job opening that you post probably receives hundreds of applications. To be more accurate, according to a Glassdoor survey, on average, each corporate job offer attracts 250 resumes.

The study also goes on to say that of the 250 candidates, 4 to 6 will get called for an interview, and only one will get the job.

Depending on the current market scenario and the type of job, the number of applications you receive could be much higher than average. And once you’re sure of the person you want to hire, there are four important things to check off your task list:

• Send them the job offer letter without delay. You know for a fact how difficult it is to find the right person for the job, so be the early bird and act soon.
• There’s no such thing as “overcommunication”. So go the extra mile, call them up, and give them a verbal confirmation about the offer.
• Communication, though, goes both ways. So give your candidate a deadline and make sure they give you the nod before then.
• Confirm the candidate’s last day at their present workplace (if applicable) and by when they can join you.

Selecting the right candidate from all of these applications and sending out the job offer letter to them almost feels like the end of a triathlon, doesn’t it?

They say “Success is a journey, not a destination”

The same could be said about hiring as well.

Sending out the job offer letter means that you’ve just set the ball rolling, and you’ll need to prepare for somebody’s lifelong career with your company. That’s no easy task, but it’s not herculean either.

To begin with, let’s split your tasks into two sets of processes: Pre-boarding and Onboarding

Not clear, on the difference read Onboarding Vs Pre-Boarding a beginners’ guide to employee centricity

What is Pre-boarding?

In most cases, there’s a gap of at least a few weeks from the time they accept the offer to the time they join you. In this time, your candidate might get a job offer letter from other companies, or might have second thoughts about joining you.
It’s a gap that could prove to be an expensive mistake if you don’t take measures to make sure the candidate is convinced about joining your company.

That’s what Pre-boarding is designed to do. It’s the process you begin once the candidate has given their confirmation to your offer letter and it comes to an end on the date of their joining.

What goes into a good preboarding process?

After all the effort and time put into hiring the right person for the job, it makes sense to proactively communicate and be in touch with the candidate until the day they join. This communication period can be used to get them more familiar with several aspects of your company, such as:

Culture

One of the best ways to bond with the candidate is by familiarizing them with your company culture. You can show them your brand values, and get them excited to come work with you. There are very simple but meaningful gestures that you can accomplish this with.

• A welcome email:
  An email from the CEO or the head of the department, telling them how excited the company is to have them aboard can go a long way in terms of first impressions. From the eyes of a candidate who’s undecided between offers, this is sure to make a favorable impact.
• A surprise package:
  A bag of personalized goodies, along with a hand-written note works like a charm. Even if it’s a simple, company-branded notepad and a few stickers, it’s a physical reminder of the effort the employer has put in to make the candidate feel welcome. You can also include the company’s vision statement as part of this to give them a better idea of the culture.
• A guided tour:
  The day of the interview was a day of preoccupied thoughts for everyone involved. A tour of the office outside of that mind frame is a better idea. This is also a good way to show them easy ways to commute to the office and popular eating spots nearby to make the environment more familiar for them.

People

The new employee is going to be surrounded by people they don’t know, working with them right from the get-go. Understandably, this could cause a lot of anxiety for them. An easy way to put them at peace? A simple round of introductions.

• Lunch with the team:
  Arrange for a team catch-up before the candidate’s first day, in a non-formal setting. This could either be in person or through a video call. The aim is to make sure that the candidate is comfortable with the people they’re going to be working with closely. It’s also a chance for the manager to bond over similar interests and understand the candidate’s working style.
  
• Add them to emails:
  If they’re CC’d in the work emails that the team sends, it gives them a better idea of what to expect when they join, and who’s in charge of what. There’s minimal effort involved, but it is a clever way to show them the ropes and that you trust them.
• A Whatsapp group:
  No matter how friendly the new team is, it’s always intimidating for a newbie to settle in with the old crowd. Introducing them to other people set to join on the same date puts them at ease. You can set up a Whatsapp channel where they can ask questions regarding their first day, and it’s also a good way to build relationships with people across departments.

Growth

According to a recent study by Tydy, 81% of new hires want to receive details about their new role in the preboarding stage. And given that Millenials are more likely to stick with a job where they can create an impact rather than a high-paying job, it’s a good idea to show them the sort of growth plan you have in store for them.

• Glimpse into their first week:
  Give them the schedule to their first week at work—their training and induction sessions, meetings set up with other teams, etc to show them how seriously you take their time and growth.
• Clarity of role:
  Consider this a more detailed version of their job description. It’s better if the candidate’s manager sent them an email outlining the sort of day-to-day work that is to be expected, and how important their role is to the team.
• Hall of fame:
  A newsletter of sorts, or a round of introductions with the company’s high achievers—the youngest managers, the employees who’ve been around for the longest time, the team with the most awards—it helps inspire the new candidate, as well as show them the sort of opportunities that await them once they join. It also helps to explain the sort of vertical and horizontal role movement possible within the organization to show how flexible you are.

Pre-boarding is an excellent way to reduce employee churn. It’s a retention process that begins before day 1, and it truly pays off.

But once the employee begins their first day with your company, you need a process that’s much more detailed. You need an onboarding process.

What is onboarding?

We’ve all experienced awkward first days at work—it’s a weird combination of wanting to get started with an all-important project right away and the feeling of not knowing where to begin at all. Despite a good preboarding program that makes the employee feel welcome, they still have a lot to learn with regards to how their new team functions, and how the company on the whole functions. An onboarding process helps the new employee make a smooth transition and integrate with their work efficiently.

To put it simply, onboarding is the process you set in motion once the candidate starts their first day at work. You train the employee with the necessary knowledge required for their growth in the company.

What’s the recipe for the perfect onboarding process?

A study by the Aberdeen Group found that the top companies in the world ensure that 62% of their new hires achieve their first milestone on time, and 91% of those employees were still part of the company after their first year.

In contrast, the worst-performing companies only had 17% of their employees meet their first milestone on time, and only 30% of them remained at the end of the first year. This is proof that a good onboarding process has a direct impact on your retention rate. A good onboarding process covers the following aspects:

Paperwork

First things first, clarify all company policies and perks to the new hire. This includes:

• Leave policy
• Healthcare benefits
• ASH guidelines
• Code of conduct
• Asset policy
• Data security policies

Make the paperwork as streamlined and easy as possible, and make sure you clarify all of their questions before moving to the next step.

Career roadmap

Dissatisfaction at work is major because the employees feel like they are not challenged enough or are unable to create an impact. There are easy ways to tackle that:

• Give them clear, quantifiable targets, and set the expectations right from the get-go. This will help them start sooner, and better.
• Be transparent with the targets, and break down their goals into quarterly or monthly targets—but it’s also important to ensure that you don’t make them feel like a walking data chart. There’s more to them than just numbers.

Train and imbibe

The perfect role consists of equal parts of these two things—responsibility and accountability.

Too much responsibility with little accountability can lead to misuse of their position. Whereas when you don’t trust them with enough responsibilities but hold them accountable for too much, it leaves them powerless and ineffective.

When you train your new hires, make sure you trust them enough with important tasks, and reduce micromanagement. Consider their suggestions seriously and alter their training process accordingly. After all, a workplace where no mistakes are allowed is one where there is no learning.

Induction

Though they may be familiar with their team’s functions, it’s important for them to know how other teams in the company work as well. This helps in building more empathy and better relations between departments. A demo from the heads of each team can go a long way in improving the way the new hire works with them.

The duration of an onboarding process maybe a week or a few months. There is no “one size fits all” approach to these processes, be it pre-boarding or onboarding. It depends on many factors like the size of your company, the org culture, your budget, and the type of industry you operate in.

These are simple measures that you take to ensure that your new hires feel comfortable and are able to be their most productive selves. You can use a combination of these steps, or come up with your own ideas. Either way, it certainly helps to have these measures in place to reduce your churn rate and have a happier workforce.