Mastering the Onboarding Process for your Hospitality Workforce
Designing the perfect onboarding process for your hospitality workforce can seem challenging. It’s more than simply choosing the right candidate for each role. Ensuring each employee can achieve their full potential means creating a long-term development plan. One which aligns your new staff with your company culture, goals and the results you want to achieve.
The correct onboarding doesn’t just prepare your candidates for success when you first integrate them into your team. It also ensures they can continue to thrive for as long as they work in the business. Onboarding has the ability to enhance company culture, inspire teams, and boost staff retention.
So, what exactly should your development strategy entail? Here’s what you need to know about building the perfect development plan for your hospitality staff members.
Employee Orientation vs. Employee Onboarding
First, it’s worth defining what onboarding actually is. Many people still use the terms “onboarding” and “employee orientation” interchangeably. However, orientation and onboarding are two very separate concepts.
Employee orientation is a one-time event, focused on embedding new hires into your company. This process, formerly introduces employees to the organisation.
The idea behind employee orientation is to get your staff members prepared for their new roles. Employee onboarding is a more long-term concept. Onboarding encompasses the entire employee journey, starting from the moment they meet their colleagues, all the way up to the point where they are fully performing.
Used correctly, this process not only strengthens your [sector] employer brand and employee engagement, but it also paves the way for a more successful, productive, and efficient team. It helps to acclimatise staff to the company culture, set expectations, and keep team members aligned with the vision, mission, and goals of the business.
How to Design an Onboarding Process
Studies show an effective onboarding process and employee development plan have a significant impact on the success of any company’s team. Organisations with the right onboarding and induction programs achieve 50% higher new hire retention.
While there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy for onboarding, there are some steps you can use to improve your chances of the right results for your hospitality team.
1. Choose a Strategy for Onboarding
First, it’s worth considering how you’re going to deliver your onboarding experience to candidates. Traditionally, onboarding took place within the business building. It consisted of regular face-to-face meetings, training opportunities, and induction processes.
However, more recently, hospitality businesses are beginning to implement new virtual and hybrid onboarding efforts. While some meetings and interactions may continue to take place in-house, others may be delivered via video conferencing and online software. The key to success is figuring out which parts of your onboarding strategy require in-person interaction.
Consider asking your new hires which parts of the onboarding journey they may want to tackle in person, and which they’d prefer to do virtually, or in their own time.
2. Onboarding Buddy’s
Onboarding is a long-term development strategy for each employee. It requires staff members to have someone they can turn to whenever they need assistance. This might be to ask questions or help with long term goals.
An onboarding buddy is someone your employee can turn to, to get the most out of their role. This could be a hospitality supervisor or manager. It could also be simply someone with authority and history in the business. You could even consider using mentorship campaigns to connect new hires with senior staff members across the organisation.
Encourage regular communication between your new hire and their onboarding buddy, so they can develop a more transparent, authentic relationship. Some companies even use informal coffee chats and video calls between staff members and their “mentors” to help further integrate new hires into the company culture and track their progress.
3. Prioritise Regular, Transparent Communication
For a hospitality business to have a successful onboarding process, every member of the team needs to feel as though they have a voice. Scheduling regular meetings between individual employees and managers where they can discuss progress, challenges, and opportunities is key.
Team members should be able to contribute to their own development. Allow them to suggest areas where they feel like they need to improve, and requesting training opportunities where necessary. They should also feel comfortable reaching out when they’re struggling with their workload, experiencing burnout, or feeling disconnected from the business vision.
Regular and transparent communication will also ensure business leaders can consistently set expectations for team members, based on the values and mission of the company. Make sure each employee knows how their performance will be evaluated, and what kind of qualities they need to demonstrate in their day-to-day work.
4. Your Onboarding Process Should Include Goals
Up to 33% of employees quit within their first 6 months with a new company. In one survey 86% of respondents said they would still switch jobs if it meant damaging their CV. Hospitality business owners need to be extra sensitive to the engagement and satisfaction levels of their staff members.
This means providing every team member with a clear vision of the future they have in the business. Helping them to set and achieve their goals. During regular meetings with each employee, you should encourage staff to discuss their strengths and weaknesses, and share insights on how they can grow moving forward.
As an employee’s position within the business continues to evolve. The individual or team responsible for their onboarding process should work with them to expand and update their goals. This will ensure staff feel as though they’re consistently moving in the right direction.
5. Invest in Employee Development
Remember that developing and empowering your employees is a long-term process. Creating a plan for consistent employee development through consistent and engaging onboarding will ensure you can retain your top talent for longer, and achieve the best results from every member of your team.
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