The Best Onboarding Methods for Day One

The Best Onboarding Methods for Day One: SuperPumped Business Episode 041

Ben Walters: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me today as we continue our series on winning the turnover battle. And today I want to talk about one of the times that I see employers fumble the ball, and that's that critical time when the recruiter, or the HR person, or whoever you want to call them, the person who engages with the outside world to get candidates, hands that employee, brand new hire, off to the onboarder, or the trainer, or the manager who is gonna work with them. So often I see this process as super clunky, and if it's done wrong, you can lose them at that moment. We want you to win the turnover battle. We don't want you fumbling it any point along the way. So today we're gonna talk about how do we do a clean, crisp handoff between the recruiter and the onboarder.

Ben Walters: When we think about the recruiting [00:01:00] process, recruiting is the most money, right? Then the onboarding process, and then finally retaining. You still need to spend on that, but it's not as much. So if you fumble the ball in between these two things, you've lost a lot of money, right in between recruiting and onboarding.

Ben Walters: What I talked about last week, just as a refresher, and if you missed it, go back to that episode, it's a fairly short one, but make the potential new hire, or candidate, whatever you want to call them, the person you've chosen to join your company, make them feel good about themselves, about who they are, about what they bring to the table as an employee, and if you do that, they will begin to develop feelings of goodwill toward your organization. And that will help you be their employer of choice, the one they select out of all the people that are recruiting them. Because remember, if you're recruiting good people, so are a lot of other companies, and you may not be able to compete [00:02:00] on benefits, or maybe even pay or, you know, all the different things. But if you make 'em feel some sort of positive way, you've got yourself a puncher's chance and that is awesome.

Ben Walters: Last week we talked about how you wanna get into the space of, why them? Why they matter, that kind of thing. But as you begin that handoff, then you often, as the recruiter are handing them off to their, their next person in your chain. Normally the recruiter doesn't do the actual onboarding or training. Maybe other than pop in a, a video or some kind of computer-based training form. But generally they come that first day and this, if it's done well, they report to work that first day, and that same recruiter who they've already gotten to know right, and feel good about, greets them, meets them, wherever that is. Whether that's hopefully in the parking lot or the lobby or, you know, onsite at a particular location.

Ben Walters: So they meet them. But, at that [00:03:00] same time, what I would like your company to do is have that second person there. So that is the moment of introductions. There begins the handoff. So the recruiter is there, Thanks for coming, Sally. We're glad you joined our team. We're so excited to get you started today. And this is, this is Jim. Jim is gonna be working you through all this and, and working with you along the way. They shake hands. Nice to meet you, Jim. Nice to meet you, Sally. And then, do you know what you do? You double back to why you hired him. So you say as the recruiter, Jim, I know this is the first time you've met Sally, but I've gotten to know her and here are some things we were really impressed with, and you go back through that list of things that you were impressed with Sally.

Ben Walters: Now, if you want extra credit on that, instead of naming the exact same three things that you told Sally over the phone, when you were trying to [00:04:00] give Sally the job offer and get her into your company, if you were to even come up with another, different thing, a fourth thing or a fifth thing, think how great that's gonna make Sally feel. It wasn't just those three things, you know, my recruiter loves me for this and this too. Man, they are already feeling good about this company. They've barely walked into the lobby and you're already complimenting them and making them feel good. Think about the positive association already with your company. They've never gone behind the curtain, they've never done an ounce of work, and already they're feeling good about you.

Ben Walters: So you review all that with Jim, the, the onboarder, the trainer, the manager, right? And then Jim is gonna affirm them too. Wow, that's really cool. Tell me a little bit more about, being the Dayton Daily News delivery person of the year. That sounds awesome. How cool was that? And then they, you know, Sally can say more about that. Go back to this basic why you've selected them.

Ben Walters: This is a good [00:05:00] handoff. So not only does Sally have good feelings about the recruiter, but now Sally has good feelings in connection with Jim. In the best case, the recruiter can then kind of gracefully ease out. And one way I like to do that is if you do a tour of the building, right? And the recruiter goes on that tour to a point, and that point is where that's the recruiter's office. So then at that point the recruiter says, Sally, this is my office. My door is always open. Anytime you have a question, I know Jim is your trainer, but anytime you need anything, my door is open. I would love to see you, just check in with you, help you out, and I'm gonna bow out. Now you are a great hands with Jim. And then the recruiter's able to get back to their office, get recruiting the next wave of great employees.

Ben Walters: They're off and running with Jim and they are feeling right now so good about things. They've been pumped up not only by their recruiter, but also by their new trainer. They've got a feel for [00:06:00] where someone is, they feel like they've got a sense of support and belonging. People in the company that are pulling for them. This, this is really awesome, right? We're rolling here on the handoff. We're not fumbling between recruiting and onboarding at this point.

Ben Walters: Here is a critical piece. Jim, the onboarder, the trainer, the manager has to impress upon them why the work they are about to embark on matters. Let that sink in for you.

Ben Walters: You need to tell them, and explain to them, and convey to them why what you have hired them to do matters. Because not only do people wanna feel good about the workplace and how they feel when they go there, they wanna feel that they're doing meaningful work. We all have an innate, human, just, yearning that our work matters. That our life matters. That we have purpose in the larger [00:07:00] cosmos, right? That we're not just cashing a check, or doing some mindless thing. Dig a hole, fill in a hole. Nobody wants that. That's not fulfilling, right?

Ben Walters: I wanna give you three quick stories. In our coffee shop, we were considered an essential business, so we were able to be open during the pandemic, right? And you can imagine trying to get frontline, fast food workers to work during the pandemic when people were scared, people were uncertain, people weren't sure they wanted to work, plus they also had stimulus money in their pocket, right? It was hard. That's a tall order. One of the things we realized early on was, our work mattered.

Ben Walters: Now you may say, it's just a coffee shop. It's just fast food. It's just, you know, a breakfast burrito, right? So why would our work matter? Well, here's why it mattered. It mattered because all of the doctors, and nurses, and healthcare professionals, those healthcare heroes that were out on the front line, [00:08:00] guess where they were coming through first thing in the morning? To get started on their 12 hour shift or some of them even longer shifts. They were going through that line.

Ben Walters: And so I began to remind our, workers our work matters because you are putting those folks off on the right foot to serve the public. All these essential workers are coming to us because you're also an essential worker. The government thinks your work matters to help all these other people.

Ben Walters: We also had a big Amazon delivery facility, literally right across the street from our business, and so, I was like, these Amazon deliveries for so many who have risk factors during COVID, right, who can't go out of the house. Those deliveries are absolutely critical lifelines, right? You're fueling the drivers that give those critical lifelines. All of a sudden, frontline coffee shop workers [00:09:00] feel like their work matters. And do you know what? They came to work faithfully. I think our, our actual attendance during the pandemic was better than it was prior to the pandemic because we were able to just convey and, and really live out and it was genuine that the work we did matters. So figure out why that work matters for that new hire as you move them from recruit to onboard.

Ben Walters: Second example, in our cleaning business, again, who thinks of cleaning as really mattering? But we had a specific account where people were able to give blood as well as, and this was really cool, it was, at the time, was the largest facility where they harvested organ and tissue donations. So in other words, when you check on your driver's license that you want to be an organ or a tissue donor, this was the place where the cadavers would come and all those useful parts will be harvested.[00:10:00] 

Ben Walters: Now you talk about critical work going on in that building. Literally lifesaving work when people need a kidney, or a heart, or any of the other, skin after a, a burn. And you can say to your workers, we are doing the work to keep this place clean to the standard of one ten-thousandth of a particle, so that those things can be harvested and not rejected, so that that cadaver body isn't given in vain so that it can save the next life of the person, maybe your neighbor, or your friend, or even a family member, who was in a car crash or who was in a fire. All of a sudden frontline cleaning work that didn't seem to matter a few minutes ago? Now that work matters. And so they begin to take that to heart that what I'm doing here is important. I know most of the world might frow upon it or say, it's somehow less than, but this is meaningful work [00:11:00] and I matter because I'm doing it.

Ben Walters: Even in hospitality. And that's a tough industry, right? It's hard to get people, I've talked about this, but hard to get people to do the back of house, you know, food service stuff, hard to get people to do front desk, and housekeeping, and all the things that go into hospitality, but when you can say, Hey, you're the dishwasher here. But if you don't get all the plates, and all the silverware, and the glassware ready, this wedding isn't gonna go off. This important wedding that people have planned and dreamed of since they were just, you know, preschool, like dreaming of being that Cinderella bride, right? Saying to that dishwasher, you have an important part when you put out a perfectly, glistening clean plate, and they can cut the cake, and slide that cake on there. That's really cool. And I know you're not in the room, you're in the back, half-soaking with dish tank water, right? But you're in that room, in [00:12:00] that plate, in that fork, in that champagne flute that they raise and say, let's raise a toast to grandma and grandpa on their 70th wedding anniversary, and everyone gets chills down their spine. You have a place in that.

Ben Walters: If you can, in this process between recruiting and getting them on board, convey why you hired them but also convey why the work they are about to embark on matters, you have an infinitely better chance that they are going to come back on day two, on day three, week two, week three, week four. Versus, you bring them on board, it's a clunky process where the recruiter disappears, they never see them again, some random person they've never met meets 'em in the lobby, and it's awkward. And there's awkward small talk about the weather or the latest Bengals loss. And then you're like, why am [00:13:00] I even washing dishes here? Why am I cleaning this building? This seems silly. I, I don't need to do this. So you fade away, right? And then, from the turnover process, you flushed all this recruiting money, and you flush all that onboarding money, and you are back to square one, having to spend it all again on the next person.

Ben Walters: So remember, let them know why you hired them, but also when you do this handoff, do it cleanly, have the recruiter again tell them why you value them, hand them to the trainer, let the trainer tell them why the work matters. And if you really want to go above and beyond for extra credit, tell that new hire how you see their skillset and their abilities and their passions merging with the critical work that your organization does in the world, and if you can do that, you are well on your way to onboarding your [00:14:00] next great hire.

Ben Walters: If you have any questions about turnover and you're just struggling with this, I would love to help you out. I can jump in and really make a difference. We can get this thing turned around in Q4 and you can launch in 2026. So thanks for joining me today on the SuperPumped Business podcast, and I will see you next time.

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Ben Walters: Thanks for joining me today on the SuperPumped Business Podcast. If you enjoyed today's show, I have two quick next steps for you. First, subscribe or follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. And second, jump on over to superpumped.com to find out all the incredible ways we can help you launch your SuperPumped Business.

Ben Walters: Keep well and I'll see you next time.