So you’ve landed a new hire—now what?

Employers across the country have struggled in recent years to find and keep qualified employees. The pandemic exacerbated the problem, making it more important than ever to keep new employees engaged. Of course, onboarding is essential to helping a new employee get off to a good start, but employers have learned waiting to start the process until a new hire starts the job is too late.

Don’t wait for the first day

Employers eager to help new employees hit the ground running are now designing “preboarding” programs. Human resources professionals and hiring managers often swap stories about new hires who quit soon after starting a job or don’t even show up for the first day.

To lessen the chance of those horror stories playing out, employers are reaching out as soon as the employment is official. Using this preboarding strategy to let new workers know someone is looking forward to their arrival sets the stage for a happy relationship.

Every new employee will have questions—maybe even serious anxiety—about how to go about starting the job. Preboarding can provide answers about such things as where to park, what time to arrive, what they need to bring, and other things that trigger first-day jitters.

Even fully remote workers will have questions about how to get started on the first day. So, having a process for providing information and answering questions can be a relief for any new hire.