You might have noticed a lot of new faces here around our office these days.
With our team continuing to expand, we’ve been thinking about how daunting it can be to start a new role. Without adequate management, those first few weeks can feel like a trial by fire. A heady cocktail of new faces, baffling processes, and indecipherable inside jokes can threaten to overwhelm even the most confident new starter.
The meteoric rise of remote and hybrid working models have made onboarding processes even more important. Isolated physically from other team members, the potential for new employees to feel out of their depth, or even alienated, is much higher.
Well, not on our watch.
At DPAS, we try to create a welcoming, inclusive environment for all of our staff, from new starters to seasoned vets. After all, you get more with honey than with vinegar.
What is onboarding?
Onboarding is the process of acclimatising new employees into your company culture and policies. Think dipping your toes into the water to test the temperature, instead of being thrown in the deep end.
A good onboarding process should help new hires:
- Understand their roles and responsibilities
- Settle into their new setting
- Connect with colleagues
- Learn company policies and protocols
- Expedites productivity, benefitting the whole workforce.
Not only will a successful onboarding process set new staff up for success, evidence has shown that organisations who prioritise initiation protocols for new employees benefit from higher staff retention, loyalty and overall job satisfaction. A win-win-win!
What does our onboarding process look like?
- When it comes to working style, we have a mixed bag of fully remote consultants, hybrid workers and those who prefer to be onsite. We encourage our new starters to come to the office–not only because it’s located in beautiful mid-Devon, but so they can meet the team, transition smoothly into life at DPAS and win the affections of our many office dogs!
- Staff spend a few days in the office to ensure that those based remotely meet the team and get to know their management.
- New starters will have a day with our office manager Emma, talking through our policies with an office show-a-round and meeting the team.
- They are then provided with a mentor who will look after them and show them the ropes after their training has finished.
- All of our staff are encouraged to take advantage of our bespoke (and often BCS accredited thank you very much) training courses. During the first couple of weeks our new starters will take the BCS Foundation Certificate in Data Protection course. We can’t remain market leaders in the industry without keeping our team at the top of their game!
- We like to end our onboarding process with an invitation to our weekly Thursday pub nights, for strictly teambuilding and serious business strategy discussion only of course!
