Suggestions for a smooth on-boarding process during these crazy times:
1. Have a disaster plan in place, or at least plan for key people being on vacation or out of office (hiring manager, IT, etc).
2. All on-boarding documents should be in a central digital location that is easily accessible and not cluttered in a bunch of document noise.
3. All documents should be written as if your grandmother is reading them. No buzz words, acronyms, or secret handshakes should be required to understand the instructions.
4. All necessary software and account provisions should be completed prior to the start date. Do you want the new hire spending the first week learning how to install Slack or ramping up to be a valuable member of the team?
5. Perhaps most important during shelter-in-place: If your company requires VPN to access systems from home, make sure it is set up and working prior to the start date. There’s nothing worse to the on-boarding experience than feeling lost and without a path to fix a problem. These are extraordinary times. We’re all stressed. But we need to make sure a stress-inducing event like a new job isn’t worse through poor planning.
