Onboarding tips: how to help new employees settle in

Kai Feller from Bark.com offers up some tips on how to make the onboarding process better for new employees

• Look for candidates who show traits such as ambition and drive to make sure they’re a good fit. While having the right skillset is vital, it’s not the deciding factor when hiring. If someone’s personality or way of working isn’t compatible with your culture then you may want to choose another candidate.
• Once you’ve chosen the best candidate for the job, the employee onboarding process begins. Think about pre-arrival legal compliance and IT provisions as well as integration and which key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure from day one.
• High turnover, low employee satisfaction and a lot of money blown on frequent recruitment rounds can be unfortunate consequences of poor onboarding.

At the heart of every business are the people it employs – this is why onboarding is so important.

However, every entrepreneur knows that despite it being an extremely exciting time, recruitment can also be stressful and expensive. Finding someone that suits your culture and ethos is sometimes hard. That’s why when you do decide you’ve found the fight person, making sure they stay with the company and remain happy is crucial.

For me, the onboarding process starts at the interview stages. It’s from that point that you’ll be able to build a rapport with the candidate and gauge whether they’re the right fit for your business’ culture.

I think the biggest fear for new starters is that they’re on their own, in a completely new environment, surrounded by people they’ve never met. Having a couple of the day-to-day people involved at different stages of the interview process works well for this reason.

One of the most important things as a business is culture, and finding people that fit into that should be a main focus when recruiting. Although having an immaculate skillset and CV is key, making sure that they’ll get on with the rest of the team is just as important.

Look for candidates who show traits such as ambition and drive to make sure they’re a good fit. While having the right skillset is vital, it’s not the deciding factor when hiring. If someone’s personality or way of working isn’t compatible with your culture then you may want to choose another candidate.

Once you’ve chosen the best candidate for the job, the employee onboarding process begins.

Pre-arrival legal compliance

The main laws you need to keep in mind in the early stages are:

Employment Rights Act 2025
Update your documentation to ensure that it reflects the Employment Rights Act 2025. This includes Statutory Sick Pay and the right to ask for flexible working from day one.
The Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006
Right to Work compliance checks are the first thing to consider with a new hire. See if your soon-to-be employee has the right to work using the government’s right to work checker. These checks can’t be done retrospectively.
The Equality Act 2010
To stay on the right side of the Act, you must avoid discrimination. If you’ve hired a wheelchair user, for example, make sure your workplace is accessible and give them a larger workspace.
Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
Get your Health and Safety documentation in order ready to give your new employee comprehensive, up to date information which is relevant to their role.
PAYE regulations
Ask your soon-to-be employee for their P45. This will also tell you if they have ongoing student loan payments. If you don’t have the info already, you’ll also need their date of birth, gender and full address. Then register your new hire with HMRC using a Full Payment Submission.
Data Protection Act 2018 plus GDPR
You must handle data lawfully and transparently. Your new hire will also need to receive a privacy notice detailing what data is collected, why it’s collected and how long it will be stored for. Criminal record or background checks need specific authorisation under the Data Protection Act 2018.

IT and accounting provisions

Your new employee will need company system logins and an email address (if appropriate), which should of course be sorted before your they begin. Adjust your licences for new starts. Add a new user to Adobe if you’ve got a new creative joining, for example.

If the role requires something like a company laptop or any other hardware, get that ready to go. Don’t forget about entry fobs or ID lanyards.

Think ahead to the day. Set up instructions for things they’ll need upon starting, such as setting up multi-factor authentication (MFA).

Getting them signed up on payroll is most important from the accountancy side. Oh, and get instructions set up on how the expenses process works.

Day one integration

Remember day one employment rights such as the right to ask for flexible working. They’ll also have enhanced rights to parental leave and access to statutory sick pay. Employees must get a written record of these rules no later than their first day. This could be on the company intranet or in the employee handbook.

Onboarding timeline

The onboarding timeline looks a little something like this.

• Job acceptance
• Pre-boarding (2-12 weeks)
• Orientation (1 week+)
• Training (Day 1-30)
• Check-in (Day 30-90)

KPIs for the first week and beyond

A short survey at the 30, 60 and 90-day marks allows you to hear feedback straight from the employee. Ask questions about:

• The efficacy of the training
• The ability to do their job with the resources they have and what extra training would be useful
• How they feel about their manager
• The overall onboarding process

Their probation performance is a useful indicator of how the onboarding process has set them up.

Qualitative measures, such as how they’re integrating with the team and the wider company, are also useful here.

When a new employee starts

As we’ve already mentioned, a lot is introduced on day one. Disciplinary rules and procedures have to be explained in some detail, which is why they are normally contained in a staff handbook. In a staff handbook, policies for health and safety, equal opportunities and other areas would also be included.

It amply repays any employer to properly inform all employees of the terms and conditions of employment that apply to them – that way everyone knows where they stand; control is easier and, if followed correctly, success at any Employment Tribunal is almost guaranteed.

The importance of relationships

One effective tactic to touch on is social events. The best way to get to know people at work is through more relaxed social functions. So, finding an excuse to get the team out of the office for a lunch or an evening is great when it comes to ensuring new starters feel comfortable and welcome.

With that in mind, always try to plan social occasions and team building events for when a new person is starting. Even though you might think it’s not necessary, giving people a chance to socialise on a less official level can make a big difference to how the feel and behave at work.

The most important thing to get right is that transparent and open relationship between employer and employee.

Making sure there is an infrastructure for constant and consistent support and communication is the best way to engender new starters into the team. Whether this means catching up with them once a week for the first month or so, or just letting them know that you’re free to chat any time, being supportive and visible to them is vital. He said that there also needs to be a level of patience and understanding in those early stages, as it might take newcomers a while to understand your processes and way of working.

A happy workforce is a productive workforce, so any measures you can take to ensure they’re happy from the start will make a huge difference. This idea doesn’t just apply to new starters though, but to all employees.

Retaining staff is much more cost-effective than having to continually hire, so the longer employees stay with you the better. Recruiting can be a time-consuming, expensive and mentally draining process if you’re constantly having to repeat it.

The consequences of a poor onboarding process

Legal difficulties complicating disciplinary action, probation and dismissals risk cropping up if you don’t have a structured onboarding process. High turnover, low employee satisfaction and a lot of money blown on frequent recruitment rounds can be unfortunate consequences of poor onboarding.

Kai Feller is co-founder of online local services marketplace, Bark.com.

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