Importance of Onboarding Check-ins

Onboarding check-in discussions assist with retaining your top talent, that you have worked hard to attract and recruit. If someone leaves the organisation during their probation period, this can be a sign that there could be room for improvement in the recruitment and/or onboarding process.

As a leader you can start with onboarding meetings within the first couple of weeks of a new employee’s commencement. The purpose of the meetings is to build trust with the employee, understand their motivations, career plans and ensure that your new employees are settling into their role, that the role is what they were expecting, as was described throughout the recruitment process and rectify any issues or concerns.

A recent example is that of an employee that kept looking for another role despite already accepting and starting with the organisation. This employee accepted another role that they think is a better fit and is leaving within 2 months of starting. While this happens from time to time, the leader should reflect on whether there is anything they could have done differently to ensure that the role they were offering was what the new employee was seeking and while they had career plans for this new employee in the future, this may not have been communicated during the interview or onboarding process/discussions.

I recommend asking the onboarding check-in questions in the first couple of weeks in the role and then on a monthly basis throughout the probation period (assuming it’s 6 months).  After probation, you should move onto Stay Interviews.

Onboarding Check-in Questions

Examples of questions you could ask include:

  1. How are you settling into your role, the team and organisation?

  2. Is this role what you expected, considering what was communicated during the recruitment process? If not, what is different?

  3. What are you enjoying so far in your role?

  4. Is there any support that you require to feel more confident/successful in your role?

If as a leader you receive feedback from your employee that is of concern, then you should take steps to understand and address the employee’s concerns. This builds trust and confidence between the employee and leader and is a proactive step to retaining your top talent.

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Benefits of Stay Interviews

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