On-Boarding for Success.
How a powerful on-boarding helps you to turn new employees into loyal team members!
Let’s start this Blog Post with some questions:
How many jobs have you started in your career?
What are your memories from each of your FIRST DAYS at those new jobs?
While you find back these memories, try to remember the feelings you had… the days and night before, the morning of getting ready, when commuting to your new job, when walking for the first time through the employee entrance…
I truly hope that you had some great experiences! Experiences which put you at ease, which made you excited to come back, and which confirmed you took the right decision with this new career move. If not, let’s dig into what went wrong!
On-Boarding within the department, the Spa, is such a crucial step as part of the hiring process - beyond the generic HR on-boarding addressing the company’s culture and providing a hotel-wide orientation. In busy operations, the importance of a thorough and creative Spa on-boarding though is often underestimated. Few preparation and small efforts are done prior to the first day of a new team member — excused by lack of time.
Knowing this struggle??! I get you. I have been there too!
I had those days on which a new team member started and frankly I was NOT READY. Thinking back of those days and remembering my feelings as a manager during and at the end of such days, looking back at the last 10 hours… clearly I had feelings going from embarrassment, lack of pride, shame, guilt, being unhappy to being sorrowful…
The good thing is when you realize this, you can make a CHANGE! I made a change. A change for a fantastic experience for new employees and for ourselves. With my supervisors and assistant managers, we made a commitment to aiming for an enjoyable first day at work - for us all. We wanted to wow each new employee and to give them a memorable experience.
What did we do? We started brainstorming and created a checklist in order to hold ourselves accountable. A standardized welcome binder was brought to live which included a cover page with all team members leaving a personal note and touch, emphasizing the welcome feeling; a detailed, personalized training plan for the first 3-4 weeks that includes many different departments in the hotel; a welcome gift linked to the Spa’s concept; Forbes standards and verbiage; the most important hotel policies and procedures. - There is no limit to your creativity… but one thing is certain: The more you invest into this moment of welcoming a new team member the greater is the return!
Take a look at this article on forbes.com, to get even more insight in how on-boarding a new employee to your team is a success and make a change!
I would love to hear how YOU welcome employees to your team. To start the conversation, comment below and share your experience!