How to Create Onboarding Strategies with Inclusivity in Mind
Put yourself in the shoes of a newly hired employee. Starting a new job in an unfamiliar place can be pretty nerve-wracking. But, if you’re lucky, your new employer will have a good understanding of inclusive onboarding best practices.
It’s not unusual for personnel changes to cause short-term dips in productivity. After all, new employees need to get their bearings before they can perform to the best of their ability. If only there was a way to help them to figure things out and get stuck in. Hang on - there is.
What is employee onboarding?
Onboarding is the process of familiarizing new employees with their workplace, colleagues, and overall responsibilities. As well as any tools, systems, or policies they’ll need to know as part of their job.
You also need to identify any support requirements new employees might have. These include diversity and inclusivity support for employees with disabilities, health conditions, or other needs. But also personal development-related things like employee upskilling. So, it falls to HR and management to create a consistent, transparent framework for all of this.
This should include some form of welcome packet. And even if you provide a physical packet, the information should also be available online.
Remember to consider accessibility options. Like a conversational AI solution to help people browse resources. Or even simple accessibility features, like text size alteration, transcription, or text-to-speech options. The more comprehensive it is, the better it’ll serve a diverse range of people.
Why does onboarding matter?
Knowing the point behind all of this will help you to understand why we’ve included certain inclusive onboarding best practices on our list.
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For one thing, employee onboarding is a pragmatic business decision. Getting new hires up to speed helps them hit peak performance faster. But what we really want to talk about is how onboarding benefits your employees.
Onboarding is about ensuring a smooth transition into working life. And this should be the case for any employee, no matter their background or personal requirements. Fostering a culture of disability inclusion at work means giving employees the support they need to thrive.
Inclusivity starts long before onboarding
Proactiveness is one of the ultimate pieces of inclusive onboarding best practice. And that means engaging in what’s known as “pre-onboarding.”
Inclusivity is also an essential part of your role advertisement and recruitment processes. If you don’t promote inclusion and diversity in your hiring process, you’ll find alienated applicants declining job offers
Inclusive hiring practices
When you’re recruiting for a role, it’s important to be able to think beyond yourself. To hire inclusively, you need to consider what barriers you’re creating for potential applicants. Things like exclusionary language, or lack of job flexibility options.
But you also need ways to check your unconscious biases. For example, “blind” CV comparisons, where names and other identifying markers are removed. That way, you’re comparing candidates on purely professional merit before ever learning things like their gender identity, racial or cultural background, or disability status.
Reviewing working conditions and accessibility
Before you commence an intake of new hires, it’s important to review the state of your workplace and policies. After all, you can save yourself a big headache down the line if you’ve already taken accessibility and inclusion into account.
So, see what preemptive steps you can take. Like finding the best predictive dialer software for disabled call center employees, or creating a more wheelchair-friendly office layout.
Policy-wise, you should review anything that may limit career accessibility for employees with health conditions, disabilities, or out-of-work commitments. For instance, consider implementing more flexibility options, like remote work or core hours.
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Informing your team
Before you introduce fresh faces into the mix, give your existing staff a heads-up. After all, they’re likely the ones who will pick up the slack and show new hires the ropes. This gives them time to adjust, and to create a welcoming work environment.
The best practices for inclusive onboarding
Everything up until now is important groundwork. It’s vital to confront discrimination in your hiring process, unintentional or otherwise. These issues are why people often don’t disclose disabilities in job applications. And you might never know there’s something wrong unless you’re willing to reflect critically.
But let’s say pre-onboarding was a success, and you’ve got a diverse range of new hires through the door. Where do we go from here?
Introductions
As an inclusive onboarding best practice, introducing new hires to their colleagues is more important than it might seem. This is their chance to break the ice and turn a sea of strangers into a room of acquaintances. Maybe even friends.
Professionally, this is their chance to meet their line manager or direct reports. And to start networking professionally within the organization.
Ongoing communication
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It’s important to communicate every step of the way. Better too much than too little. It’s not much of an onboarding process if you wait until the end to see if they sank or swam. Check-in regularly to see how they’re getting on. Bonus points if you establish a series of phases and steps. For instance:
Pre-start communication
Virtual welcoming packet
Personal introductions and 1:1s
Ongoing weekly check-ins
Review after the probationary period
Guides and maps
A key part of inclusive onboarding best practice is making sure new hires know everything they need to. For one thing, the employee rights they enjoy, that are enshrined in laws that define exempt vs nonexempt employees. They also need to know workplace policies and everything else related to their role.
For site-based employees, you should also make sure to include maps for office building layouts and worksites. And it needs to be easy to use. Anyone can benefit from these. But they’re especially important for neurodivergent employees who may struggle to recall verbal directions.
And, really, that’s the trick. Include this material in their welcoming packet, and online, so they can review it in their own time.
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Buddies and mentorships
The worst part about being a new employee is not knowing how things work. Will you annoy people by asking for help, or will you make a horrible mistake in ignorance?
That’s why inclusive onboarding best practices should include buddies and mentorships. Give new hires someone to answer their questions and help them find their feet. These mentorships are particularly valuable for those at risk of discrimination for things like race, gender identity, disability, or sexuality. Especially when they have a mentor able to relate to their experiences.
Plans for the future
It’s important to help new hires think optimistically during their introductory period. So, during check-ins, work with them to create a plan of what they want to achieve. You can even break it into phases. Their first 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days.
Beyond their probationary period, you want to get employees thinking about career growth. As well as what skills and support they’ll need. Helping every employee achieve a solid career trajectory is essential for diverse succession planning.
Onboarding is ultimately a human experience
As companies race to find the best solutions, onboarding is just one area we’re seeing change and evolve. And it’s thanks, in large part, to the state of tech. But, regardless of the tools you use, the broad strokes of inclusive onboarding best practices remain the same.
And that’s to treat people fairly and equitably. To consider their needs as an individual, and how your organization can support them. This is why we can’t do away with the human element of employee onboarding. Truly good onboarding should be empathetic by its very nature, and that’s something humans can be rather good at.