The onboarding process is critical to employee success, and in the engineering industry, you’ll need a specific process for onboarding engineers. Onboarding processes and the knowledge communicated during the process can determine how prepared new employees are for their position and how quickly they can adapt, affecting their view of the company.
When employees view onboarding as a positive, helpful experience, it can boost morale in addition to communicating vital information. Unfortunately, traditional onboarding faces many challenges for HR professionals and companies around the globe. Remote employees can pose additional obstacles to onboarding.
In this article, discover challenges companies and employees face during the onboarding process, how onboarding should be oriented for engineers, and even how to manage onboarding remote employees. TechTeamz shares all the details below.
Typical employee onboarding challenges
Onboarding is about establishing a partnership philosophy between a new or prospective employee and the company. It starts with the hiring process and typically continues into the new employee’s first days or weeks, but it can prove to have many challenges.
Communication
Communicating with prospective employees throughout onboarding is critical to making them feel comfortable and excited about a new position working for your company. Communication with the new employee provides details about what to expect and answers questions before the first day, which can alleviate anxiety and foster confidence in new employees.
Employee Introductions
Sometimes we get wrapped up in contracts and other requirements and forget that the onboarding process should serve to introduce the employee to the company and culture. Include a tour or virtual introduction to facilities, where to find things and any rules and regulations employees are expected to follow. Employee introductions should be personal when possible. The new employee may also be introduced to co-workers and other essential personnel and provided with necessary contact information at the same time. When the process does not offer new employees this information, they may become confused and frustrated with nowhere to turn for help.
Company Culture
One component easily overlooked during onboarding is communicating the company culture. Initial emails, tours, and employee introductions can all provide opportunities for this. Visual and written means offer a fantastic way to express your culture. Consider organisational charts in the new employee packet or create a section on your intranet to house this type of information.
Clear Expectations
Another crucial challenge to the onboarding process can be ensuring the expectations of the employee in their new role are clear. Clear communication of the position, including responsibilities and expectations, should begin with recruiting and follow through at least the introductory or probationary period. Providing role-specific information, perhaps even an overview or tips from others in a similar role, is highly beneficial. Giving such details and contact with other employees in the same or similar roles can help new employees feel accepted and a part of the team too!
Company Support
It is also vital to ensure that new employees feel supported, not only in the day-to-day operations but also in managing personal change. When new employees face challenges, including lack of clarity, unexpected expectations, personal transition, time‑management concerns, management issues, difficulty fitting into the company culture or relocation trouble when applicable, they should feel supported by the company.
How onboarding engineers is unique
The process for onboarding engineers should ideally include a framework to get new engineers to a point where they are fully integrated into the organisation and achieve the necessary results. The quicker this adjustment occurs, the sooner the employee becomes a true asset. One way to accomplish this is to begin the process early and provide clear-cut expectations. Ensure the new employee knows what to expect from the company:
- Will they receive training and other support?
- If specialised tools and equipment are necessary, are these provided? Under what terms?
- What are the stipulations and benefits provided if/when travel is required?
- What projects or types of projects can they expect to be assigned to?
- Are there any issues, current or anticipated, such as with the product or processes the new employee should be aware of?
Engineers often require specialised tools, equipment, software, or publications to meet expectations. It is crucial to ensure that new engineers have everything they need to do the job requested while not overwhelming the new employee. If there is a process, the new engineer can be introduced to the various documents and tools in a stepwise fashion, bringing them up to speed slowly so as not to feel inundated.
Training new engineers on any internal or external procedures they will be expected to follow are also essential. Are there potential compliance issues? Are procedures or other documentation in place to help avoid compliance issues and maintain quality? Does the new employee know where to find applicable documents and, more importantly, understand them? It can be helpful for new engineers to have a co-worker or mentor they can look to when these problems arise and perhaps even shadow during a project or complicated tasks.
How to improve the engineer onboarding process
Provide new engineers with a single location where they can access important documents. Automatically distributed information received when required, ideally. Include the following types of data; the environment setup, high-level overview of the architecture, resources, tools, training, coding standards, technical procedures, company or client-specific jargon, team and organisational structure, mentorship and other important details. Provide them the opportunity to provide feedback about individual onboarding experiences.
- A process where engineers are provided with the appropriate tools to allow them to work independently minimises the impact on the rest of the team.
- Feedback can help the new engineer feel like they are part of the process and contribute immediately while also providing the opportunity for improvement to the onboarding process.
- Mentorship and other interactive experiences not only provide the new employee with critical insight and information but can also provide the mentor with a different perspective which can help the team’s growth.
- Provide opportunities to discuss performance expectations and results.
Onboarding engineers who work remotely
The onboarding of remote engineers can provide specific challenges. Initially, giving an in-person welcome to remote employees who may be spread across the globe can be tricky. It can also pose particular challenges with delivering documents; how do you effectively provide documents to remote employees and ensure their receipt and understanding? Will the remote employee understand any internal or specific details, and if not, who will they ask?
Providing the necessary tools, resources, and a welcoming environment becomes even more critical with remote teams where workers can feel isolated. At TechTeamz, we believe that making the experience welcoming and personal is vital to effective onboarding. Engineers who join us have a mentor or reference person to help them through the onboarding process. The administration department sends a welcome email with all the information regarding the employee contract, tasks, obligations, rights, incentives offered by the company, clocking of hours, and any other specifics before the new employee’s first day.
We emphasise ensuring that employees understand the company’s culture, and we meet them in person to welcome them during their first week of work, even if they are working remotely.
Onboarding poses its own set of unique challenges. Onboarding engineers and remote employees can add to these challenges, and remote engineers require special considerations for an effective onboarding process. A poor onboarding experience can lead to reduced productivity and retention rates. Turn to TechTeamz today for your engineering staffing needs. We provide engineers and remote teams, plus we offer our proven onboarding process and handle the HR, letting you concentrate on the projects and your business.