How to Onboard your First Employee

Onboarding is just as important, if not more, when you are choosing to hire your first employee. Follow a few key steps to ensure your new team member feels valued and is set up for success. If you’re unsure of how to curate the onboarding and orientation experience, these takeaways will help you start forming your own onboarding playbook.

For solopreneurs, hiring your first employee is a huge milestone—but it also comes with its own set of challenges. As a one-person operation, you are used to doing everything yourself so much so that you can often go on autopilot. By investing time and effort into preparing for your first hire, you’ll set both yourself and your new employee up for success from day one.

Benefits of an Effective Employee Onboard Process

When you are hiring your first employee, you want to invest in curating an onboarding experience that gives them the tools they need while also make them feel welcome. A lot can ride on an employee’s first days, weeks, and months so that they stay for the long term. In an article by Arlene S. Hirsch (2017) on the importance of onboarding, the local Twin Cities onboarding software company, Click Boarding, compiled statistics, one of which revealed that “69 percent of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experienced great onboarding.”

Now, if you could retain an employee for 3 years, wouldn’t it be in your and the company’s best interest to really invest in the onboarding experience for your first employee?! 

6 Steps to Effective Employee Onboarding

The key to preparing for your first employee is a clear and structured onboarding plan. Here's how you can make sure you're ready:

• Define Roles and Expectations Clearly
  Before hiring, take the time to define the role clearly. What will the new hire be responsible for? What outcomes do you expect, and by when? Being transparent about expectations from the start will help immensely! 

• Implement Business Systems for Small Businesses
  Have you done the work yet to document the who, what, when, where, how and why of your processes? If the answer is no, then that really is your first step. Let me help you design systems and processes, as well as document them so you are ready to post that position. Then you can provide your new hire with an operations playbook that clearly outlines workflows and will help them adapt more quickly.

• Develop an Onboarding Checklist for Small Business Onboarding
  Onboarding is more than just signing paperwork. It’s an opportunity to set your employee up for success. Create a checklist that includes all the things your new hire needs to learn, such as company culture, key processes, the correct access and tools. Include specific milestones for the first few weeks to ensure they’re integrating into your small business systems smoothly.

• Provide Ongoing Training and Support
  As a solopreneur, you may have gotten used to wearing many hats, but as a boss, your role now expands to being a mentor. Ensure your new hire has access to training resources, whether it’s internal documentation, online courses, or even shadowing you as you work. Regular check-ins during the first few weeks will help them feel supported, have questions answered, and any concerns addressed. Make a plan for their first 90 days so that they have plenty of opportunities to observe, learn and then confidently do the work!

• Promoting Connection and Empathy
  There’s a whole lot more to onboarding than just the paperwork and onboarding playbook. Remember they are human too! This human has decided to take a risk and join you in your venture. Therefore, put in the extra effort to develop a relationship and help them feel at home. Little things like giving them a tour of where to go to take breaks or personal calls, bringing them to the local lunch spot, or sharing tips for parking, all contribute to them feeling welcomed. 

• Invite Feedback and Listen - This is also your opportunity to demonstrate to a new hire that you value their feedback along the onboarding process. What would they have included or maybe left out when you do this again? Are there other more helpful materials that could have provided a leg up? What could be updated to prepare for employee number two? Be intentional about making this a priority from the beginning. I believe this will help build trust more quickly in your working relationship.

Ready to make onboarding smoother?

Starting this relationship off right is the best way to ensure that both you and your new hire succeed—creating a win-win situation from day one. If you’re feeling unsure, consider reaching out to me for business coaching for small businesses or business coaching for creatives to help guide you through building the right processes and systems. A systems audit can also help identify areas where improvements in your small business systems can make onboarding even smoother.

Let’s empower your first hire together! Schedule a free discovery call today.

Remember: this post is for informational purposes only and may not be the best fit for you and your personal situation. It shall not be construed as legal, financial, or medical advice. The information and education provided here is not intended or implied to supplement or replace professional advice of your own attorney, accountant, physician, or financial advisor. Always check with your own physician, attorney, financial advisor, accountant, or other business or medical professional before trying or implementing any information read here.

1. Hirsch, A. S. (2017, August 10). Don’t underestimate the importance of good onboarding. Society for Human Resource Management. https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/talent-acquisition/dont-underestimate-importance-good-onboarding