Tag Archives: company

Ideas to Help Onboard New Employees

With today’s competitive labor market, it’s important that your company has an onboarding system ready to go when you get a prospective employee to say “Yes!” to joining your company. Here are some ideas:

  • Engage before day one. Once a contract is signed or a verbal acceptance given, candidates may still be hearing from other companies that they have interviewed with and could easily rescind their acceptance. So, keep your company front of mind until day one by making periodic check-ins to answer any questions and ensure your new employee knows what to bring and do on their first day of work.
  • Immediately schedule one-on-one meetings with the supervisor. A study by Microsoft Analytics found that employees who got little or no one-on-one time with direct managers were more likely to be disengaged. Similarly, in a LinkedIn survey, 72 percent of respondents said that such one-on-one time was the most important part of their onboarding process. Whether these meetings take place in person or virtually, consider scheduling several one-on-one meetings with the new employee’s manager throughout the first few months of employment.
  • Schedule meetings with other team members. In addition to scheduling one-on-one meetings with the new employee’s supervisor, consider scheduling meetings with other team members. These meetings will help the new employee further develop more personal connections with people throughout the company.
  • Ensure equipment arrives on time. With widespread supply chain disruptions still plaguing many industries, double-check with your suppliers that all necessary equipment arrives and is set up and tested prior to your new employee’s first day.
  • Develop milestones. Many new employees are unsure of their performance during the initial months of a new job. To help both the employee understand how they are doing and to give your business an idea of what tasks you want your new employee to be responsible for, consider developing a list of milestones to ensure the new employee is being properly utilized.

Don’t Make These Business Website Mistakes

Your company’s online presence leaves a lasting impression—positive or negative. When people check out your homepage, will they stick around? Will they buy? Will they return? Make your website easy to use and current, and new orders may be just a click away. Annoy visitors and they’ll flee to a competitor.

Steer clear of the following website mistakes:

Designing the website for you—not the customer. Studies have shown that online visitors form an opinion of a company’s brand in about three seconds. If your home page is well designed, they may stick around for another ten to twenty seconds. Don’t waste these precious moments spouting details about the firm’s stellar history and the owner’s credentials. Consumers are visiting your website to get answers. Provide these answers quickly or they’ll click elsewhere.

Heavy graphics, poor load time. Many consumers are surfing the web from smart phones and tablets. Don’t make them waste valuable time waiting for a fancy webpage to load. Consider projecting a professional image with text-based content that answers the most pressing questions about your products and services. Graphics can work well, but only if size and load times are fully vetted to ensure a seamless load experience.

Unfriendly navigation. If your homepage looks cluttered, potential customers will become frustrated. Make it easy for users to navigate your site from home page to supplemental pages and back again. Use a handful of clearly-labeled tabs in a top-level menu. Deliberately design each page to have the same look and feel.

Stale data. When you visit a webpage and note that it was last updated five years ago, do you sense a vibrant, cutting-edge enterprise? Keep your site up to date. Consider subscribing to content services that will keep your information fresh. Remember, developing a web presence is not an event, it is an ongoing journey. Your site must display current prices, merchandise that’s available right now, with up-to-date details about new product offerings.

Sloppy content. A website riddled with typos, grammatical mistakes and industry jargon will turn customers away. Visitors may ask themselves if your business doesn’t care about the quality of its website, how can they trust your products and services?

A carefully crafted website can draw customers in, enhance their buying experience and leave a lasting impression of professionalism and quality.