5 Key Elements to Effective Onboarding

Do you know the core principles of effectively onboarding your new hire?

Did you know that onboarding effectively can drastically reduce the speed at which your new hire is functioning at full capacity?  This timeframe can be reduced down from the typical 12-18 months down to 2-6 months.

According to SHRM, the first 45 days of employment account for up to 20% of worker turnover while Sapling HR credits poor onboarding experiences as doubling the likelihood of the employee finding another position.

Effective onboarding is critical to engaging your new hire in their new role and for your business or organisation. This can increase the likelihood that your staff will stay on longer and be performing their best sooner rather than later.

According to ClickBoarding, interactive employees who engage in a structured onboarding program are 69% more likely to stay for three years.

There are 5 key elements that a business of any size can...

Hello and welcome to Episode 134 of the People Powered Business Podcast!

I am super excited to be joined by special guest, Chantel Gilbert from Bluegum Electrical Solutions on today’s episode.

Chantel generously shares with us her business journey, the importance she places on team, and some of the challenges, lessons and wins she has had along the way.

As a member of our People Powered HR community, I have seen firsthand how Chantel has really stepped into the role of CEO in her business, and the passion, dedication and commitment she brings to looking after her people, and creating a culture of trust, reliability, impeccable customer service and high performance.

As she points out in our discussion, you can’t make money without a good team. Realising this has been key to their business growth and success over the years.

If you’d like to reach out to Chantel, you can contact her and find out more about Bluegum Electrical Solutions at ...

Hello and welcome to Episode 133 of the People Powered Business Podcast!

In today’s episode of the podcast we are discussing the importance of onboarding new employees. For many small businesses they see onboarding as something for big corporates only, and something HR should take care of. Noting could be further from the truth. Effective onboarding is even more important for small businesses, because without it turnover increases and retention is lowered, which has a ripple effect on the entire business.

Today I shared with you the 4 core elements of effective onboarding that any business could implement right now. These were designed by Dr Talya Bauer from the SHRM Foundation and include:

• Compliance;
• Clarification;
• Connection;

Like building blocks, you need to start at the base, the beginning, with compliance, but stopping there will see you’re your onboarding efforts falling flat.

If you’d like to ask questions or start a discussion about effective...

How are you increasing the chances of keeping great team members onboard?

If you employ or manage staff in any capacity you’ll know what a sucker punch it can be when a great staff member turns in their resignation, perhaps out of the blue, or even hints at the idea of moving on.

Finding great staff is like winning the lottery but keeping them long-term can prove tricky depending on a variety of factors. Post pandemic, we’re seeing trends that reveal keeping great staff is becoming even more challenging but there are some essential things you can do to keep great people in your team, longer.

Why do you want to keep great staff in your team in the first place?

The most obvious reason would be because they’re great. You can trust them, they are reliable, they show up and they do great work and you don’t have to worry about them – what’s not to love about keeping great staff?

The great players in the team you already have are part of what...

Hello and welcome to Episode 132 of the People Powered Business Podcast!

In today’s episode of the podcast we’re talking about something that I know is top of mind for many small business owners right now – how to keep the great staff they have!

The reality is, it is harder than ever to keep great people right now. They are getting offers and opportunities placed in front of them every day of the week, and at some point in time they might start to think the grass does look greener on the other side.

The stats support this, with data out of the Australian Bureau of Statistics showing us that resignation rates are at a 10 year high and unemployment is at a 50 year low.

So how can we keep great people in this environment? In today’s episode I share with you 3 fundamental concepts you need to be paying attention to when it comes to retaining the best people:

• Making the right decisions;
• Harnessing their greatness;
• Creating complete alignment.

All three concepts...

What are you doing between your new hire’s offer acceptance and start date?

If you employ staff, engage contractors, or rely on people to help deliver your products or services, then you know that sometimes there’s a gap between the acceptance of an offer and your new hire’s start date.

This is what we in HR call the High-Risk Pre-Start Date Zone.

What exactly is the high-risk pre-start date zone?

It’s the period of time between when you extend an offer of employment and your applicant accepts, and their actual start date.

This period of time will vary from applicant to applicant, and a trend that is growing is applicants taking an extended period of leave, up to six weeks, added to their typical four weeks’ notice period at their current place of employment before they get started with you. While not every applicant will take almost three months to begin work, it does happen.

During this zone of time, typical behaviours can be an email the night before...

Hello and welcome to Episode 131 of the People Powered Business Podcast!

In today’s episode of the podcast we’re talking about the High Risk Pre Start Zone. This is the period of time between an applicant accepting your offer of employment, and them actually starting with you.

Right now, you’re probably doing a whole range of things during that period of time to get ready for your new starter, but they know about none of them.

Conversely, they have other employers talking to them and other offers being extended to them. They have no more connection with you than any other employer they are interviewing with, so it’s easy for them to take another option during this period.

By putting in place the 3 strategies I shared in today’s episode you’ll have the best possible chance that they’ll be there to start their role with you on day 1!

If you’d like to ask questions or start a discussion about this dangerous pre start zone, I have an...

The most successful recruitment campaigns rely on you as the business owner or manager being able to choose from a great list of quality talent, a perfectly suited shortlist, who are all skilled for the role you are hiring for – and ultimately are a great fit for your team.

But have you ever found yourself without this stellar shortlist? Instead, you may have found yourself with only one or two applicants, neither of whom are ideal, but you’re desperate, so you’ll probably hire one of them. Or you have a lengthy list of people you’re considering, but none are ideal, they are ok, they have applied, but they are a mish mash of skills, experience and suitability.

The thing is, in order to achieve a high-quality shortlist of applicants to choose from, it’s imperative that your candidate attraction strategies, including any advertising process, social posts or invitations to apply are targeted, aligned to your requirements and engaging to your...

Hello and welcome to Episode 130 of the People Powered Business Podcast!

In today’s episode of the podcast, I’m sharing a 5 step framework to screening applications in a competitive market.

The thing is, when we are short on applicants for a role, our usual screening methods tend to go out the window, and as a result we don’t shortlist effectively, which means we are at risk of making poor hiring choices. And what I know to be true is that you can’t outrun a bad hire.

So whether you have 5 applications or 5000 effective screening is essential, and this 5 step framework is super simple to follow and will keep you on track for great hiring choices.

If you’d like to ask questions or start a discussion about note taking, I have an invitation for you.

An Invitation

Would you like to connect with other like-minded business owners, leaders and managers experiencing similar situations with their team?

Join the discussion inside our free Facebook Group –...

In a competitive market where applicants are in short supply and the struggle to even find one person who might be suitable for your role is real, it’s easy to think that there is no need to screen and assess applicants. Well, there is no one to screen, or so few applicants so what’s the point, right?

Actually, wrong. You see, despite there being far fewer applicants to chose from, the importance of making the right hiring choices hasn’t changed. The reality is you can’t outrun a bad hire. So even if there is only one applicant, hiring the wrong person is guaranteed to cause you more frustration, more stress and cost you more than hiring no one at all.

When we had only a handful of applicants to select from, screening effectively is even more important because in these moments we can lose focus and clarity on what’s really important, out of desperation, overwhelm and stress. We waiver on the previous non negotiables, and start to consider...