As a business owner/entrepreneur it is a good practice to have an onboarding process in your business and in this blog post I am going to share 3 tips why you need an onboarding process in your business so let’s begin.
Before I begin with the 3 tips lets first define what an onboarding process actually is.
Onboarding: the action or process of integrating a new employee into an organization or familiarizing a new customer or client with one’s products or services.
Now when it comes to your business you want to ensure you have this practice in place because it limits confusion and allows you to form relationships with employess and customers as well.
Tip #1 Onboarding A New Employee
When I think of the countless jobs i’ve had over the past yrs not many if any of them had this process in place, when you think of the high volume of employee turnover is it a wonder that this could have been prevented if this process was put in place?
When you as a business owner take the time to set processes in place for your business you are being proactive to ensure that not only your customers but your employees have a great working experience.
Many business owners overlook giving their new hires an employee handbook so this speaks volumes when it comes to the type of productivity a job may require yet fail to implement written guidelines for employees to excel at their given postions.
If you are going to bring on employees or a VA there should be written guidelines so there is no miscommunication when it comes to their duties and what’s expected of them to do their jobs efficiently.
Onboarding new hires shows you not only take your business seriously and you are willing to take time to allow your new employess to adjust to their jobs.
This may come in the form of training them on various software programs getting them familiar with how the business funtions on a day to day basis.
Developing The Onboarding Process
In the case of a new hire if you are a one person operation and you don’t have time to sit down with them for an extended period of time to train them, another option could be to make a video of the duties as well as how the software works giving them the key aspects of what their job entails and how the software works to streamline the process.
I remember when I was being trained on a payroll software (PeopleSoft to be exact and the employee who trained me was not computer savvy so they took the scenic route to get to the end goal) being I was very computer literate I developed a short cut to get my job done in less time.
Although you may train your new hire on your system allow them to get comfortable enough to develop how they will utilize the system to get the required results.
Another key point for business owners who have multiple employess and various departments, you may have a designated person who trains new hires, a good practice to implement is to give those new hires a feedback or questionaire form on how the trainer approached the training.
This is so key many business owners may have a trainer that they use for yrs unaware they their training skills needs improvement.
I’ve been in situations where the trainer either had a heavy accent and it was hard to understand them as they presented the material, or they were very short tempered when you had questions and this hurts the business because the new hires are now in fear of becoming a problem in the training phase so they just wing it, and when it comes to their performance it’s lacking because the trainer didn’t present the information in a way that was clear and concise and made sure that all questions were answered.
Depending on the type of business you have the onboarding process should never be rushed especially if there are many components that the employee must perform on the job.
Determine the level of difficulty that the new hire will face when learning your software programs and provide ample enough time for them to familiarize themselves with the software so there is less room for mistakes.
My last word on this tip is please business owners update your equipment the number one time suck is working on outdated equipment that has seen better days, this slows down your employees productivity and makes for a frustrating enviroment.
Why You Need An Onboarding Process In Your Business
Tip # 2 Course Content Creators
The reason’s why you need an onboarding process in your business is to allow the members of your course to receive the value of what they paid for. As I shared in the podcast being a member of a membership course I had no clue of where I was to start or what modules I needed to begin working on first.
As content creators you do a dis-service to your members when you overload them with to much information, we always believe that bigger means better, however it can transalate in your members failing to take action and you overwhelm them to the point where they discontinue their membership.
Your goal as a content creator is to break down any areas of confusion and overwhelm and simply a process for them that when they finish that tasks they feel a sense of accomplishment.
When you are onboarding new students into your course or membership create a video onboarding training that breaks down where they should be, if they fit into certain categories and what modules they should start with.
This is why I titled my training The Entrepreneur’s Roadmap because at each step there is a tasks that needs to be completed in order for them to reach their next goal.
The key point in any course is not to fly through the trainings the foundational points are do you understand what you need to do or develop in order to have this result, it’s not an overnight process.
I believe that’s what hinders most entreprenuer’s because they are so quick to get to the end goal but miss the key points in getting there.
Your goal as a content creator is to learn where the dis-connect is and to bridge that gap, learn what are their biggest struggles and provide a framework for them to begin the process of developing a system that works for their business.
As a content creator when you create a course you are not giving them something they can plug-in their information and it’s done no.
Your vision, mission and purpose is all apart of what makes your business unique your clients should not be purchasing a cookie cutter version from you you should be creating a framework or process that equips them to develop their own roadmap from the tools that you presented them with.
This what great course creators do they are not trying to sell you a finished business model you can purchase a franchise for that. They are showing you how to take foundational business practices and develop systems and processes that works for your business.
I know in my journey when starting out in this digital space I was not clear on what I wanted to offer, I knew I had certain skillsets but I didn’t know how to package that and offer it to my audience.
Now your job is to take your expertise and present it in a way that supports and equips your followers to achieve the results they are looking for.
Tip # 3 Strengthens Working Relationships
When you create an onboarding process in your business you are now becoming proactive to see your clients needs met.
Onboarding helps with…
- Introducing new products or services that the client may not be aware of that you offer.
- An understanding of how long the project will last and any required deliverables to meet the project deadlines.
- How often you will communicate with the client and through what mediums you will use.
- Business hrs and days off.
Having an oboarding process just makes good business sense, I’ve seen and had clients who had no respect of your time and would call and text you anytime they felt like it because they were paying you.
I’ve seen entrepreneurs take on nightmare clients just to get a client who turned out to not pay them in the end.
When you put an onboarding process in place what you are saying is I am a professional and I approach my business in that manner and I only want to do business with clients that will respect my guidelines and if not they you are not my client, that simple.
As an entrepreneur never lower your price just to get a client, now if that client wants an ongoing working relationship with you then you may give them incentives if they sign on for an extented period of time, however know your worth and the value that you bring to each perspective client.
I had a potential client contact me yrs ago, I met with them over coffee and discussed how I was able to help them, sent them my onboarding package, within the next day they wanted all these different things that were not what we dicussed at the intial meeting.
What was said to me well if you can’t do this and this and this then i’m going to look somewhere else, and at the amount of money that this person was looking to spend I said well good luck with that because I am not going to frustrate and sell myself short to end up working on a project that I cannot truly be proud of because I took it out of deperation. As an entrepreneur that is never the energy you want to bring into your business.
So in closing I hope these tips have helped you see why this is such a needed process to have in your business. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
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