The Administrative Professional's Role in Crafting a Stellar Onboarding Experience
Many administrative professionals are involved in the onboarding process for new employees. It could be the Office Manager who gives a tour, the Administrative Assistant who trains the new person on their team’s systems, or an Executive Assistant helping to onboard one of their exec’s direct reports. One of my biggest beliefs is that an onboarding process needs to be clearly defined, or a new employee is not being set up for success. Why? Because I had a not-so-good onboarding experience.
My first day at Biola University was…well, let’s just say my mom had to convince me not to quit after my first day. My cubicle was packed floor to ceiling with storage boxes and I could barely get to the desk, I attended a divisional meeting with no context and was overwhelmed by the unfamiliar terminology being used, and then, mid-afternoon, my new supervisor forgot to tell me they had a leadership team meeting and I had no clue where they were and had direction on what I was supposed to be doing. I am forever grateful that one of my new coworkers checked in on me and showed me how to access systems, pointed me to things I could do for onboarding, and encouraged me that it would get better.
After that day, I took special note of the major things that were lacking in my onboarding experience, such as:
No one showed me where the bathroom was (I finally had to ask on my 4th day).
I had to ask for a campus tour.
I had to ask who I should meet with to get an understanding of each department in our division. I then had to reach out and schedule those meetings myself.
It took almost a month, but I was finally able to go through all of the cardboard boxes in my cubicle and get my cubicle to a point where I could be comfortable in it….part of which was dealing with all of the silverfish bugs infesting the cardboard boxes!!!
I was in that role for about 20 months and then…COVID. The campus was shut down, so I was working 100% remote. Our division had a restructure, and then an 18% reduction in force. While my role supporting a single department within the division was eliminated, I was offered a new role that supported the two leaders who oversaw the entire division between them. As part of this new role, I oversaw onboarding new team members, and I worked with a couple of other folks to create an updated comprehensive onboarding checklist. I kept updating the list every time we onboarded a new team member, ensuring that things weren’t missed.
The list became really handy in Summer 2023 when I was charged with onboarding a new team member, but my grandpa was hospitalized. I used the checklist to create a comprehensive onboarding calendar for the new team member for his first three weeks in the role. I booked all of his 1:1 and group meetings, created blocks for specific training modules or reading certain materials, and so on. It was within the first couple of days of his onboarding that my grandpa passed**, and I was subsequently out of the office on bereavement for the following two weeks. Upon my return, I was told by that employee that it was the best, most welcoming onboarding experience he had ever had, in spite of the fact that I wasn’t even present.
So my charge to you, administrative professional, is to think critically about your role in onboarding and work with your HR department to determine what options you have to participate. As administrative professionals, we know the ins and outs of our areas. We know who is the authority on things, and who is a good contact for what. We see the puzzle pieces that need to be put together, and can play a strong role in ensuring that our new teammates are being set up for success. Because we see all of the inner workings, we should absolutely play some role in the onboarding process!
In particular, I would highly encourage the creation of a centralized onboarding checklist. To help spark your thought process, I have provided a basic onboarding checklist template in the Digital Downloads section of the website. While this template is an Excel file, I would encourage you, once you’ve completed the process, to put the list into the project management software that your organization uses, such as Asana, Trello, or Todoist.
Here are my recommendations as you begin this process:
Make the onboarding list template comprehensive! List out everything that needs to be done, including things as minor as “give a tour of the office” or as major as “assign X training, to be completed in the first week.” It’s easier to remove unnecessary lines for a specific role vs. needing to add them. While I am primarily speaking about a list created for your individual division/department that is supplemental to HR’s processes (such as the I9 or background check), I believe that this process could also be beneficial for an administrative profession within the HR department! Add as many links to resources as possible so that, if you are in a situation where you aren’t able to be present during the onboarding, everyone can keep the process going.
Activate the onboarding list no later than the completion of the final round of interviews. This will give you time to get all appropriate parties on board, track the offer letter being sent, and schedule a start date. There are plenty of things that need to be done prior to the start date, so the sooner, the better! In particular, you will need to ensure that the comprehensive list is updated to reflect the role-specific onboarding needed.
Add all involved individuals to the list. Whatever program you use to track the list's completion, ensure that it is able to be shared with all individuals involved in the process can collaborate in a singular place. This includes the new hire, as they will need to do some things themselves (such as setting up their email signature or voicemail message), and they should have full transparency on the process.
Schedule out the new employee’s calendar for their first two to three weeks. You know who they need to meet with, whether it’s department heads, a member of IT, a member of the leadership team, etc. You also know what training modules they need to go through. Rather than leave it up to the employee to try and figure out how to schedule all of those meetings or trainings, or hope that HR will cover everything role-specific, work with all appropriate parties to create the schedule for them. I like to create a separate “Onboarding” calendar (in either Google or Outlook) that I reuse for each onboarding. This way I have full access to all of the calendar events, but don’t have to deal with them cluttering up my own calendar. This is especially helpful if you are starting the scheduling process before your IT department has set up the employee’s email account.
Before the employee starts, schedule send their “first day need to know” emails. There are various things that the employee will need to have on their first day, including their onboarding checklist, links to the company intranet, department repository, staff info sheet, and training modules. For them to better track the specific items, I would highly recommend preparing and scheduling one email per pertinent thing vs. a long email with everything, which raises the chances of items getting lost, and I would recommend scheduling them to be delivered 2-3 minutes apart. I have provided templates for five “first day” emails that I used in my last role , which I scheduled to be sent on the employee’s first day at 8:02am, 8:04am, 8:06am, and so on and so forth. That way, they will be in your anticipated arrival order and ready for the new employee when they first log in. This gives them clear directions, access to important links, and some easy tasks to complete right at the beginning.
Ask the new employee for feedback on the process. Tell them on day one that you are continuously looking to improve your onboarding system and ask them to provide candid feedback on anything that was missing or needs to be adjusted. Additionally, give them the authority to follow up with folks who are assigned to do an onboarding task that hasn’t been completed by the deadline!
Based on the employee’s feedback, update the template! Your template should be adjusted and updated after every use. Keep up with the times, ensuring that everything is set up for the next new hire.
What role have you played in onboarding? Are there any non-negotiables you include in the process? Drop your thoughts down below!
**side note, I am blessed that I was with my grandpa as he passed, alongside my mom, grandma, husband, and younger siblings. Do not EVER prioritize work over these important life moments! No one at work will remember that you missed a week, but your family (blood or chosen) will remember if you weren’t there for them.
