Finding and hiring the right people for the right roles is not an easy task. In order to hire the right person, recruitment functions have to navigate a variety of painstaking steps that can quickly exhaust a hiring team’s resources (and patience).

After the search has ended and the employment contract is finally signed, organizations must remember that they’ve still got a big responsibility ahead of them, arguably one of the most important – onboarding.

In short, great onboarding sets a new professional up for long-term success. Among the many benefits, onboarding helps individuals understand what’s expected of them, how to navigate stakeholder environments and how they can be most effective in their role.

So, what should human resource teams keep in mind to stay energized through the process of finding, hiring and most importantly, onboarding the right people for the right roles?

Here are a few things that are helpful to remember.

Onboarding isn’t just for the new employee.  

Filling a position can be a long awaited occurrence for a team and organization. When the new person finally arrives though, you can’t just throw them in the deep end. In fact, it’s just as important to orientate the new hire to the organization as it is to orientate the organization to the new hire. For the well-being of both the new hire and the organization, the introduction between the two is slow and deliberate, in a way that builds trust among the group. This is crucial to set up the new hire, the new team and the whole organization for success.

Onboarding is a great thermometer for other functions in the organization.

Onboarding should not be run solely by a human resource function, but embedded into the framework of how other functions operate as well. Because onboarding is a process that impacts employee engagement and job satisfaction, it should be regarded as a process that is mutually owned by the specific team receiving a new hire, the recruiting team and the organization as a whole. In fact, the onboarding process can glean insights that can be fed back into the business to address areas that need attention or reinforce areas of the business that are known to be working well. In addition to benefitting other functions of the business, onboarding also feeds information and insight back into the human resource function that can impact training, development and learning programs.

Onboarding is an exercise in navigating change. 

Just like organizations face change in the form of mergers and acquisitions, onboarding is a similar kind of exercise in navigating change. It’s very possible a new hire could be coming into a role that was just preceded by a messy lay-off or the departure of a beloved manager, both of which would affect the way onboarding programs will be received and accepted by new employees and the organization. Onboarding requires accommodation and adjustments on the part of the team accepting the new hire and the entire organization, and this type of consideration and care is the same thing that is required in stewarding change. Essentially, you’ve got to get everybody through and on the other side of the change curve in order for the group to begin to operate at their most productive and effective levels.

Onboarding requires organizations and new hires to know who they are.

One of the key ways individuals, teams and organizations can successfully navigate change is to develop a keen sense of self-awareness. The new hire experience can be incredibly daunting because new hires basically have to do things they’ve never done before, with people they don’t know, in environments they’re not familiar with. Being self-aware throughout this process, for both the new employee and the organization, can have a big impact on how easily that new employee will be integrated into their new community. All new hires should be offered self-assessment tools and development opportunities in order to be able to identify their interpersonal preferences while also recognizing, adapting and connecting with the interpersonal preferences of their new colleagues and their new organizational culture.

While it’s hugely important to source and recruit the right people, remember it’s just the beginning of setting up a new hire and organization for success. Onboarding is where an employee starts what a human resource function should hope to be a long and prosperous journey with an organization. To do this, it is important to develop and execute onboarding plans and programs that are deeply rooted in a company’s culture, values, expectations and people. When a new hire can only be as successful as their onboarding, it’s paramount that it gets the attention it deserves.