The document outlines essential socialization tactics for onboarding new employees, emphasizing the importance of making them feel welcome and connected from the moment they accept an offer. It advocates for the creation of a centralized onboarding portal to facilitate communication and provide new hires with necessary information, enhancing their engagement and integration into the company culture. The text also highlights the ROI of effective onboarding, including reduced administrative costs and improved retention rates.

1. Get Connected:
Socialization Tactics
for New Employees

2. From the moment an offer
is accepted, you have a
new employee to bring in
to the fold. You need to
be sure he or she:
• Learns all the rules
• Signs all the forms
• Follows all the
company protocols
But it’s much more than that…

3. First and foremost, you need to make them feel welcome.
And connected.
And you can start, even before their first day on the job, by
using some essential socialization tactics.

4. Even before Day 1, start communicating…
• Who you are and what you
believe in
• How you work together
and what you do for fun
• What it takes to do this job
• How you can help them
reach their goals

5. Communicating
this important
information
upfront can
transform new
hires into
engaged
employees.

6. How to do this consistently across your entire
organization? Create an Onboarding Portal.
Having a centralized employee portal that serves as a hub
for everything your new hires could possibly want to know
requires some upfront investment, but will save you time
and resources in the long run.

7. • Consistent information and
messaging to all new hires
• Accessible at any time
• Includes all onboarding forms
One place, online,
for everything a
new hire needs
to know.
To bring new hires there, send
a series of planned emails on
each topic - containing a link
directly back to the portal.

8. As soon as new employees receive job offers, they also receive
access to the onboarding portal.
Here, they discover content that’s designed to engage them early, such as:
• A friendly note from their manager
• First-day information
• Welcome messages from and photographs of their new teammates
• A glossary of company buzzwords and acronyms
• And your organization’s social, sports, or volunteer calendar

9. Did you know…?
83% of best-in-class organizations
start onboarding prior to Day 1
by welcoming new hires warmly
and tackling administrative matters
in advance.

10. So, what
kinds of things
should you
communicate
to make your
new hires feel
connected?

11. “Who we are and what
we believe in”
Organizational values, goals,
and culture
• Message from CEO, division
manager, department manager,
supervisor
• Company's values and goals
• Company's culture
• Introduction to your mentor
• Video Introduction to department
head

12. “How we work together
and what we do for fun”
Work group values, norms, and
relationships
• “A day in the life of department”
• Division, department, team values
• Formal and informal norms: dress, speech,
appearance, group functions, outings
• Relationships: customers, vendors,
internal customers, groups, introduction to
peers, blogs
• Employee committees, activity clubs,
events calendar

13. “What it takes
to do this job”
How to do the job, needed skills
and knowledge
• Specialized language and product
knowledge needed for new role
• Suggested readings and websites
• Videos showing an employee in similar
role
• Top 10 tools to use to be successful

14. “How we can help you
reach your goals”
Personal change relating to
identity, self-image, and motives
• Employee career development
• Available training
• Personal development

15. 86/6
A study by analyst firm Aberdeen Group found that 86%
of respondents felt that a new hire’s decision to stay
with a company long-term is made within the first six
months of employment.

16. Less paperwork. More people time.
NO MORE one-day HR orientations, a series of unrelated administrative tasks, and a folder
of forms. Especially with the new generation of workers who expect speed and automation.
TODAY managers and HR can have visibility through dashboards to organize and track
onboarding tasks and manage forms electronically (like W-4 or I-9, benefits, payroll) for on-time
completion.

17. As you know, the cost of replacing employees is
astronomically high:
An entry-level employee 30-50% of annual salary
A mid-level employee 150% of annual salary
A senior-level employee 400% of annual salary
Plus, at every departure,
morale and productivity suffer.

18. Socialization matters!
New hires are expensive. You want to protect your recruitment
investment.
Holding on to your people starts by providing a well-designed socialization
process to welcome new employees and make them feel at home within
the larger culture.

19. Challenge: With nearly 33,000 employees in 28 countries
around the world and minimal HR resources, eBay
recognized their need to improve the new hire experience
and create efficiencies through a comprehensive technology
solution.
Solution: By using SilkRoad Onboarding, eBay improved
the new-hire experience by automating both tasks and
socialization aspects of onboarding.
Results and ROI:
• Reduced the administrative cost of onboarding by 25%
• Reduced its onboarding process steps by 60%
Case Study

20. Key Objectives of
Smart Onboarding
Programs
• Reduce time-to-productivity
• Reduce stress
• Reduce turnover
• Develop job knowledge
• Make a positive, lasting
impression on a new hire!

21. Get Connected:
Socialization Tactics for
New Employees
Thank you!
Learn more!
Download the
Ultimate Guide
to Onboarding.