You have found the perfect candidate for a position in your business, you offer them the job, they sign the contract, and show up for their first day at work.

While you may be keen for them to hit the ground running the moment they arrive at the workplace, it is important to start off with a proper induction.

The ‘onboarding process’ is the first touch point between the new staff member and your business, and it gives them a feel of what the business is about.

It is also a good way to promote staff retention, as well as helping foster continuity of customer service. Some things to consider with onboarding:

Address the Essentials

• An onboarding system should cover your key policies, procedures, and the employment contract, so that your new hire knows what is expected of them, and their rights and obligations.
• It should include all those important documents that should the relationship ever turn sour, you can turn back to.

Consider Automating the Process

• The advantage of having a computerised onboarding system is that it ensures you check off all the boxes and do not miss anything important.
• It allows you to focus more on the strategy and culture aspects of your business because you know you have got all the basic requirements covered.
• If you are a small fitness business, you may think that an online onboarding system will be too much outlay, however many charge on a per-employee basis.

Cover Culture

• Prior to starting in a new role, an employee’s only touch point with a business will have likely been the interview process, so it is important to immerse them in your culture.
• This is easier to do if you have a really strong culture within your business, which comes down to having the right values and ensuring everyone acts in accordance with those values, as well as having an overall strategy or mission or goal for the business.
• Depending on the size and nature of your business, introducing a new hire to your culture could be done formally in a presentation, or more casually with a chat over coffee or a team networking session.