The Purpose of New Hire Onboarding
As a supervisor, a critical part of your role is creating an environment designed for your staff to succeed, grow, and feel valued and connected. It is essential to prepare and give the new person a smooth transition to their job, your office, and the College community. As soon you make a verbal offer to a candidate, you have initiated the onboarding stage of the employee lifecycle.
The information on this page is intended to stimulate your thinking, provide ideas and resources, and help supervisors plan an effective welcome and provide ongoing support to a new employee during the onboarding through the new hire's first year. The onboarding process is a shared responsibility and partnership between the Office of Human Resources and supervisors. For this process to work, the Office of Human Resources and College departments need to work together so that every employee can reach their full potential as a new member of our campus community.
Onboarding is an opportunity to:
- Welcome the employee. 91% of those who received effective onboarding feel strong connectedness at work, compared to only 29% of those who had ineffective onboarding (source).
- Provide the necessary information to launch the new person on a path to success in their new position. 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experienced great onboarding (source).
- Create an environment that will foster pride in Amherst College and build a strong sense of belonging so that each employee remains motivated throughout their careers here. Employees who felt their onboarding was highly effective were 18 times more likely to feel highly committed to their organization (source).
Please feel free to contact the Office of Human Resources if you have any questions about the process of onboarding a new employee or want advice about creating an effective onboarding program in your department. If you have developed other resources and ideas that are working in your department, please send them along to us so we can share them with other departments.
