Looking for insight to aid your new employee onboarding process as we approach a "new normal" at the office? Here, we outline advice from Applied community experts Crystal Olmstead, team manager for implementation services at Applied, Kerrie Koestner, vice president of employee development at FBinsure, Sue Larkins, service development leader and trainer at Hylant, and Britton Witter, training and development associate for P&C at Hylant. The group gathered together last summer for a virtual educational session titled "Expert Panel: New Employee Roadmap and Training". The goal of the session was to help agency and brokerage leaders determine how to develop a timeline for new employees and how to adapt to the evolving changes post-pandemic.
Whether you're planning to train your new hires virtually or in-person, this roadmap should help you build the best approach for your business. Read through and consider sharing how your unique approach to agency/brokerage onboarding in the Applied Client Network (ACN) forums.
Timing Is Everything
The First Day
According to our expert panelists, Day 1 is all about comfort and ensuring you do not overwhelm your new employee. Whether they're starting out virtually or in-person, Kerrie, Sue and Britton suggest making sure they are set up with variations of the following resources:
- Onboarding Infographic – Prior to an employee's start date, FBinsure provides an infographic to new hires that walks through its company structure, staff team and more. This helps welcome your new employee and sets expectations before Day 1 even arrives.
- Welcome Team – Also a pre-Day 1 step, establishing a "welcome team" for onboarding is critical. Whether you are at a large agency or brokerage and have dedicated staff for onboarding, or you're part of a smaller team, this may look different, but the sentiment is the same: having a team with set responsibilities is important to helping not only welcome new staff, but also to ensure you're filling up their onboarding week with activities that engage them during a time they may be doing less day-to-day work.
- Welcome Email – This email should outline your new hire's onboarding schedule and orient them to general company resources (i.e., intranet, supervisor contact information, etc.).
- Welcome Kit – Make your new employee feel special by gifting them (either at their desk or through the mail) with a welcome kit full of agency/brokerage goodies. This can include restaurant gift cards to nearby locations (think: lunch on you!), a binder of company resources, and even agency-/brokerage-branded swag (such as a Yeti mug or blanket).
Tip: The most important thing — especially if you are training remotely — that you need to do on Day 1 is make sure new hires are engaged throughout the day and that they feel prepared and confident in where to go with questions and what is expected of them.
The Next 1–2 Weeks
While our experts acknowledge that onboarding is, truthfully, a year-long process, they shared several suggestions to make the first two weeks robust in helping get new hires ready to dive in. These include:
- IT Training – A definite priority for Day 1 or 2, IT training is critical to ensure your new hire is set up with the technology they need not only to do their job in the months ahead, but also that they're ready to tackle Weeks 1 and 2.
- Applied TAM or Epic Training – For our ACN community, this one is critical, and different agencies and brokerages handle this differently. Whether you're orienting multiple new hires with customized videos as to how your agency or brokerage uses Applied, or directing employees to Applied University modules, make sure the expectations are clear and encompass every skill they may need to tap. The Hylant suggests breaking training into tracks — such as Beginner and Advanced — and customizing which track new employees follow based on their skillset coming it as well as their job role/function.
- Training on other software/technologies – For agencies and brokerages small and large, it's likely you use other technologies that you may need to consider training new hires on. This could be anything from meeting software to learning management systems. Make sure there is time dedicated to these trainings (and follow up) throughout the first two weeks.
Tip: If you’re migrating from Applied TAM to Epic, the team suggests holding off on onboarding (if possible) so new employees can either join during migration or after. It’s best not to have to train a new hire on two separate systems.
Post-onboarding
So, what's next after the onboarding days or weeks are over? Everything else! It's crucial to make new employees feel welcome, included and like they're contributing to the company positively. To make sure this sentiment is carried out through an employees' first weeks and beyond, the group suggests keep the below items top-of-mind.
- Feedback Loop – Make sure you're working with teams and supervisors to ensure a regular feedback loop for all employees, but especially new employees. For agencies and brokerages using Total CSR, this tool offers a great way to engage new employees by checking and celebrating scores and certifications that the platform issues.
- Employee Audits – Use Applied's built-in reporting to audit employee activity in order to track new employee progress as well as to identify areas that may need to be revisited. Specific report types noted were:
- Activity Report (to track general activity across teams)
- Attachements Report (to review for proper file-naming conventions, if applicable)
- Client Repots (to identify specific client activity and areas of improvement)
- Re-training – At Hylant, all new employees are encouraged to re-take Applied module trainings at least once each as a refresher during their first year.
Tip: Consider establishing low-pressure “hot seat” sessions in which teams can role play client and company scenarios with new hires to test their knowledge post-orientation. FBinsure finds that these are a great way to identify areas that need more attention in a fun environment.