How Recruiters Can Assist with Onboarding

One of the key values of a recruiter is to provide assistance to your HR team.  Traditionally the main goal of a recruiter is to help with staffing to ensure great people are brought in to fill a specific need.  The Human Resources team then attempts to work with these new team members and helps train them so that they become an even better team fit and become a loyal member of your organization.

One of the areas where recruiters can provide additional benefit to your HR team is in regards to the transition of new hires into your team.  The onboarding process is where this transition from recruiting to HR begins.  Without a proper onboarding process your company could lose a lot of talent potential within the first weeks of the new candidates starting.  BambooHR has a great piece on onboarding which describes some of the things that you can give new hires so that they can be more productive more quickly.  At the top of that list was on-the-job-training and review of company’s policies.  So the need for a proper onboarding process is a must.  Some other interesting notes from the article:

  • 43 percent of HR believes “time and money are wasted because of ineffective onboarding processes.” And how much money? The largest percentage—45 percent of HR—believes they waste more than $10,000 year on faulty onboarding practices.
  • HR believes they should update their onboarding process by:
    • on-the-job training (41 percent)
    • create a mentor/buddy program (37 percent)
    • update the employee handbook (28 percent)

How Recruiters Can Assist with Onboarding

So then how can recruiters help with your onboarding process?

  1. Onboarding Process Definition – Well for one they can work with you to either create or help updated your existing onboarding process. Quite often, recruiters will have experience in developing onboarding plans and may even have templates that they can provide your HR team with to develop an effective onboarding plan.  As an example recruiters can help prepare onboarding processes and protocol for things like:
  • Onboarding New Hires – Day One
  • Onboarding New Hires – First Week
  • Onboarding New Hires – First Three Months

Using the Day One example, a recruiter may already have an establish onboarding process for the new hires first day on the job.  This might include instructions for:

  • Send out an e-mail to everyone in the office so they’re prepared to welcome a new employee.
  • Get the new worker a security badge if he or she needs one.
  • Set up the computer.
  • Configure the new employee’s e-mail accounts.
  • Provide guides for any necessary software he or she will be using.
  • Set up his or her phone system, and provide instructions for using voicemail.
  • Answering common questions around parking, where the restrooms are, a tour of the office, introduction to team members, where the lunchroom is etc.
  1. Providing onboarding checklists – recruiters can also provide assistance in developing onboarding checklists so that your HR team does not overlook anything when it comes to the onboarding of new team members.
  2. Onboarding process revisions and refinements – leveraging a recruiter for the onboarding transition of a new hire can also be useful in refining your existing onboarding processes. There is a good chance that the recruiter has multiple policies or practices that they have developed or used with other organizations that can be applied to your own onboarding practices.
  3. HR Consultation – perhaps you already have a solid onboarding process and just need a little HR support. A recruiter typically has a background in Human Resources and as a result can be a great sounding board to bounce ideas off of.  The recruiter can provide consultation on onboarding practices as needed.
  4. Onboarding Process Check In – a recruiter can be used as a third party feedback mechanism to obtain feedback from the new hire around the onboarding process after they have been with your company for a defined period (i.e. one week, one month, three months) whereby the new hire may feel less pressure in sharing feedback with the recruiter than with the HR department.

A recruiter can be useful in helping your HR Team be proactive with your onboarding process.  It is critical not only to recruit the right fit with your team but to also ensure that the new hire has a smooth transition into your company.

Need help developing your onboarding process? Contact Aspire Recruitment Solutions at 778-484-0161.  Aspire Recruitment Solutions is the leading human resource solution and employment agency provider to clients in Kelowna, Vernon, Kamloops, Northern BC and Alberta. We connect great employers with the best candidates every day.  We provide a wide variety of HR Consulting services as well.