Retaining workers is key to creating a stellar environment at work. Rampant turnover can directly impact employee morale. How do you create a company culture that keeps workers around? Well, it all starts with how you onboard employees.
At WorkBright, we make it easy for you to do the paperwork related to onboarding. We make it seamless for your employees to fill out necessary documents on the go. While this part of onboarding is crucial, we know that we have to do more to make great employees stick.
A Successful Onboarding Program Is About More Than Filling Out I-9 Forms
You need to take the proper steps to cover your company legally, but onboarding should go beyond filling out forms. Onboarding programs that go above and beyond to get your new employees acquainted with the company win.
How do you successfully integrate your new employees with your current ones?
A brilliant way to do this is through a mentorship program.
You Want Your Employees To Connect To The Workplace
A mentorship program will connect all of your new employees to someone they can look up to in the office. Your mentors will become your new employee’s first connection with your company.
In a time where your new employees may be disoriented and scared, their mentor can be an anchor that pulls them into the company. Mentor/mentee relationships are powerful, especially when you train your mentors on how to be successful leaders.
Mentors do not have to be leaders in the traditional sense. They likely won’t be your managers unless you have a small business. You want your mentors to be influential leaders, careful listeners, and sage advice givers.
Humans have a profound love of connecting and being part of a team. If your new employees feel connected to the workplace through mentor/mentee relationships, friendships, et cetera this will lead to a ton of benefits. Studies have found that more connection means fewer workplace incidents, more engaged customers, and higher profit.
Mentoring Identifies Future Company Leaders
We aren’t always perfect at spotting up and coming company leaders. When you are just one person, it can be hard to take the time to get to know every new employee, their strengths, their leadership potential, et cetera.
Creating a mentoring program with amazing leaders in your company allows you to build your future generation of leaders more effectively. The best part about creating a mandatory mentorship program for new employees? By investing in your new workers, you are creating future leaders that may have never realized their full potential.
Investing in your employees’ success is the thing that separates the middle from the top tier of your employees. Can you imagine only employing the best because you chose to invest in the future of your employees? Letting mentorship opportunities naturally grow in your company is one way to go about creating connection, but deliberate action can genuinely create a wondrous path for your company.
Mentorship Programs Boost Everyone’s Morale
Mentorship programs do more than create the best environment for your new employees to thrive. Asking an employee to be a mentor can be incredibly motivating and help bring workers back into the fold.
When creating a mentorship program, it’s important to connect new employees with employees that get them and where they are coming from. Who is the best personality match for your new employee? This may not be the most obvious choice, and you may not find a good mentor with the same leaders you usually turn to.
For example, sometimes the best mentor to understand someone who is quiet and reserved is someone who also has those same traits. You may think that pairing an extrovert with an introvert is an excellent pairing because opposites attract, but your extrovert mentor could end up scaring away your introvert mentee. Working with someone occasionally versus seeing someone every week is a huge difference. You want to make sure your mentor and mentee work well together.
Overall, the mentors and mentees who participate in your mentorship program will have a new connection that will make them more passionate about the work they get to do every day.
Mentoring Programs Can Be A Powerful Employee Perk
While mentorship programs shouldn’t be your only employee perk, they can have a powerful effect on the people who go through the program.
Not only can building the employee relationship be a perk, but you can also create more structure around your program to increase its effectiveness.
For example, you could:
- Have an awards ceremony where you honor mentor/mentee relationships that went above and beyond.
- Do weekly drawings for things like gift cards or paid time off for employees participating in your mentorship program.
- Promote company sponsored outings and activities to bring your mentors/mentees closer together.
For more powerful perks, check out our article highlighting perks that will incentivize your workers.
Let’s Recap
A successful onboarding process is about more than filling out I-9 forms. To create an onboarding process that connects your new employees to your company, you might choose to do a mentorship program. That mentorship program can have an immense impact on all of your employees if you:
- Produce a plan for what you want your program to look like.
- Invest in leaders that connect with your new workers.
- Create a perk system that encourages your employees to work together.
Are you ready to take your onboarding process to the next level? Invest in WorkBright to help you with your legal obligations then in creating a mentorship program.