An Inspired Approach: Acceptance to Onboarding

You’re in a fantastic position. You’ve interviewed a range of profiles for a role, held some inspiring final rounds and have had an offer accepted by your preferred candidate. The process is over and all you need to do now is to get back on with your day job and wait for the candidate to start, three months later. Right? 

Not quite! 

This period, between making an offer and onboarding the candidate is a crucial, and highly underrated, part of the process. What you do over the course of the next few weeks or months could be a game changer for how the potential employee (because remember – they are still a potential employee) feels about starting, or in some cases – feels about whether they will start. We know just how much work goes into a recruitment process: designing the Job Description, managing the advert campaign, curating the interview panel and questions, providing feedback and negotiating an offer. It’s all a hugely valuable investment in identifying and securing the right person for your vacancy and we don’t anything to risk this! This is why we have compiled here for you our top tips in how to manage the process during the candidate’s notice period so that you have all the tools to retain their engagement through to onboarding: 

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1.Communicate

Regular communication is key. This could be informal check ins or more structured in-person meetings. Agreeing a timetable up front with the candidate is helpful for both parties and will ensure that you’re communicating in a way that’s realistic for them as well as you (they may well be wrapping up a full-time job during this period).  Making it clear whom they should contact for different queries will alleviate any anxiety they may have about who to ask for what and so introducing them to HR for instance, in case they have particular questions around the policies, is a good idea and allows your communication with them to be about the business and vision. 

2. Pre-boarding 

You may well have finessed your onboarding programme with a robust calendar of induction meetings but what about pre-boarding? There will be things that you don’t want to share, of course, especially if your prospective employee is at a competitor and so it’s important to think clearly and carefully about what is included here. Typical pre-boarding information may include: company vision and values, information on the team they’ll be in, information on the leadership team, further information on staff benefits, an outline of what to expect in their first month and instructions for Day One. 

3. Include them in staff meetings or events

Where appropriate, invite them to join wider team events or meetings. Again, you’ll want to be mindful about what information is shared with them at this stage but for example if your summer party falls within this period, invite them along for all, or part, of it. Allowing them to see what life is like at your organisation will turn the opportunity into something much more real than a hypothetical new job and show them how much you value their presence already. 

4. Don’t ignore their concerns 

Most concerns will have hopefully been addressed throughout the process and answered positively, hence the acceptance. However, if you know there was a concern on their part about a particular aspect of the job, this may be growing while they wait to start, before they can really see how it plays out. This is your chance to overcome that with reassurance and honesty. If they were worried about the commute, perhaps a member of your team does a similar one and you can check in with a positive update of how they found it that day. 

5. Tools for success

Practical things like ensuring they know that they will have a work station in the office with everything they require, or have all the tools to work remotely effectively, will not only reassure the candidate about starting with you but also reiterate how much you’re thinking through the logistics of it and what their physical experience will be like. Show that you want them to be successful by setting them up for it. 

Where possible, use this period to create a sense of belonging between them and your organisation. This could be the beginning of a long career with you and the greater the sense of belonging, the quicker they will feel part of the team, feel empowered to contribute their ideas and bring all those skills that inspired you in the interviews to your vision. 

So next time you have an offer of employment accepted, remember that before they start with you, you can absolutely get back on with your day job. However, part of your day job is the above – creating a welcoming, collaborative and empowering environment for all your employees… even the prospective ones! 

For further discussions about this, or any part of the recruitment process, do get in touch with our team. You can find us here: https://www.inspiredselection.com/about-us/our-team