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There are many ways to tackle employee onboarding, but one of the most important steps is to learn as much about each new employee as possible. One of the best ways to do this is by taking their resume and diving into their career history.
Your new employee is just that – new! Of course, they’ll be going through a lot of onboarding and training sessions as you seek to absorb them.
But you don’t want it to look the same for everyone. You want to tailor your onboarding experience to them so you can maximize your investment in resources for their development.
This brief guide highlights several ways you can personalize your new employee’s onboarding experience, using the very tool that made your organization used to notice them in the first place – their resume!
What Is Employee Onboarding?
Now, many new employees encounter various challenges while settling into a new role or workplace environment. And for new employees to be fully engaged in your business, there comes the need to remove any roadblocks to becoming productive quickly and providing you with the results you want.
Employee onboarding simply means making the transition process as smooth and efficient as possible for a new staff member.
It’s not intended to be overly taxing on a new employee’s abilities. It’s more about getting them on board in the best way possible.
Why You Need to Tailor Your Onboarding Process
One of the biggest mistakes that organizations make is assigning tasks to new hires that aren’t helpful for their personal and professional development, let alone the organization’s achievement of goals and objectives.
When this happens, it can put a massive strain on the new employee, often pushing them into a state of reactivity – instead of focusing on getting things done.
This is among the reasons why businesses need to tailor employee onboarding to every new employee’s needs, all of which can be abstracted from the various sections of their resumes.
Ways to Use New Employee Resumes to Improve Their Onboarding Experience
1. Assessing Resume
Did the employee create an old-school resume in word or use a resume builder? While HR departments still consider traditional word resumes when hiring, resume-building tools come with several perks.
With a free resume builder, for instance, a job seeker can save time and effort trying to impress a potential employer. The resumes are automated, customizable, and can be created to specifically target a particular role or job position.
By scrutinizing the new employee’s CV, employers can easily develop a customized onboarding experience. This is because CVs can sometimes clearly tell whether the employee might love to get stuck in with new tools or whether they could use a bit more help.
For what it’s worth, a resume can also help you discover hidden talents you may want to explore to the advantage of the organization or the new staff member!
2. Consider Their Personal Goals, Hobbies, and Interests
From the different sections of a resume, you can deduce a ton of information about your employee that might help better their transition into their new roles in your company.
For instance, you can write down any interesting facts or tidbits you find in the “About Me” section and use them for this purpose.
You can also note any hobbies they mentioned on the resume as a discussion point to find ways to make them feel welcome in your organization during and after onboarding. These can as well serve as a basis on which you prepare helpful educational and training content tailored to their needs, which brings us to the next important point.
3. Put Each Employee’s Learning Needs in Mind during Training
Resume sections like educational background, awards, and experience can come in handy in understanding the training needs of a new hire. You can use this to figure out if you need to do any extra training for them – especially if they have only worked at one company for many years.
When developing a training plan for new employees, don’t forget to consider their past roles, the technologies they were exposed to, and how long this exposure lasted.
4. Understand Their Career Timeline
While most HR departments consider work experience more than anything else when making hiring decisions, it could also go a long way in making a new employee feel at home in your organization. For instance, you can use their durations at past and previous jobs to figure out where you can help them with career growth.
Also, you can use employment gaps, if any, to ask questions about possible new skills and interests.
By taking the time to tailor onboarding to each new employee, you’ll show them that they’re important to the company, set them up for success, and retain top talent. Your new employee’s resume can help personalize your onboarding experience for them.
5. Pair Them with a Buddy, Partner, or Mentor
Whether you’re hiring an intern, a freelancer, or a full-time employee, pairing them with a buddy can help them get acclimated to the company culture and the environment in the shortest time possible.
An ideal buddy or mentor can be someone who:
- Has a similar experience at previous workplaces
- Has worked with your new hire elsewhere
- Has mentorship skills to mold your new hire
- Has similar background
- Is someone the new hire trusts
- Can be an extension of the company in a way
Moreover, sharing their personal space with a new employee can build trust and help reduce stress, thus helping your new employee settle in.
To wind it up, many job applicants include “team player skills” in their resumes. So, don’t forget to provide them with resources that help them understand your company culture and the importance of connecting with other team members.
This way, they’ll feel at home, appreciated, and an essential part of a team with common goals.