As it turns out, your employees are not fish. New hires cannot simply be dumped into the bowl of your company culture and expected to start swimming. This, in a nutshell, is why effective onboarding is so critical to the success of your VC firm. Employee Onboarding by the Numbers SMRM‘s “Onboarding New Employees: Maximizing Success” says about onboarding: “This should always be a priority for HR departments, because in the United States, every year more than 25 percent of the working population experiences career transitions. In Fortune 500 companies alone, about 500,000 managers take on new positions each year, and overall, managers begin new jobs every two to four years.” The report continues: “Unfortunately, in the midst of all of these transitions, half of all senior outside hires fail within 18 months of a new position, and half of all hourly workers leave new jobs within the first 120 days.” This high level of employee turnover is costly in terms of time and money invested in recruitment, onboarding, and training. It is therefore evident that effective onboarding must be an essential part of the process of engaging and retaining employees for your VC firm. Ensuring the Effectiveness of Your Employee Onboarding Process To ensure the success of your onboarding initiatives, it is first essential to understand that onboarding is much more than a mere orientation process that occurs in the first few days of employment. Rather, onboarding is a continuing process that, depending on your organizational structure, may last for a year or more. Before the First Day To ensure your new employees integrate smoothly into your company, it’s important that you start preparing for them before the first day. For starters, you’ll want to create an agenda for their first week, which will help clarify for you and the new hire what you expect right away. In addition to this agenda, you can start new hires out on the right foot by utilizing automated HR onboarding processes effectively. For instance, with the appropriate software, you can provide your employee manual, your policies and procedures manual, and the requisite new hire paperwork via an automated employee portal. Doing this before the first day of employment means that your new hire can take the time necessary to truly absorb important company information in the comfort of his or her own home at a time convenient to the employee. On the First Day Regarding the first day of employment, Entrepreneur’s “6 Steps to Create an Effective Employee Onboarding Experience” notes: “The first day of employment is always stressful for both the new hire and management. But rather than expecting your new employee to jump right into getting it done, there is great value in having them listen and learn while still getting their feet wet. The new hire gets immersed in the company’s culture by learning about its history, structure and its industry as a whole. This allows them to soak it all in and understand the core of who you are.” Arrange for the new hire to meet key personnel on the first day. Begin a structured process of orientation from day one. The Forbes article notes: “Although you may be eager to have your new employees jump into projects right away, an orientation time is essential. New hires will be much more effective if they’re comfortable, connected, and aware of the “lay of the land” before they start working.” Ongoing Onboarding for Success In the first few months of employment, a consistent, concerted effort should be made to help new employees integrate into your VC firm’s culture. Regular feedback and performance review in this initial period can lay the foundation for employee advancement as well as company growth. Remember that feedback is a two-way street. Actively encourage new employees to offer their own feedback regarding your organization. Tapping into their unique perspective may reveal areas wherein your organization can make significant improvements. Though your instinct may be to get new hires to jump right into major projects, it is important to invest the appropriate time in training them for success. Superior training practices result in superior employees. The Bottom Line Effective onboarding is not merely orientation. It is a progressive training process that focuses on optimizing the potential of each individual new hire. It represents an investment in the future of your employees and the future of your VC firm overall. To get your talent acquisition and onboarding processes aligned with your overall business objectives, the use of advanced technologies yields superior results. Contact us today to discuss what ThriveTRM can do for your VC firm.