Employee onboarding
Topics
5 min read
Employee onboarding is the process of helping new employees settle into their roles to ensure a positive start to their employment. Successful onboarding starts with pre-arrival preparation including legal documentation and introductions. This extends to activities during the initial days, weeks, and months, setting clear expectations, providing essential resources, encouraging teamwork, identifying training needs, and regularly checking in with your new employee.
A good employee onboarding will improve outcomes for your business as it sets a great tone for your employment relationship, helps clarify expectations and contributes to greater job satisfaction.
Here are some tips for a great onboarding
Get existing team members involved. This helps create a sense of pride within the team and helps builds relationships between team members early and takes pressure off you. Ideas include:
- Getting their ideas on what to include in the onboarding. They may suggest something you hadn’t thought of.
- Have them explain their role or demonstrate a task.
- Being a buddy – a trusted source that can check in with the new employee and answer any questions.
- Making a ‘this is how we do it’ list – the things that may not be written down formally but are important to the smooth running of the team and farm.
Consider what training your new team member may require. These skill gaps can then be incorporated into their training and development plan.
Have frequent team meetings in the first couple of weeks/months. This helps the new employee get to know the team better, pick up on what is happening on the farm, and ask questions.
Look at the communication methods you are using around the farm and office. Having visuals such as whiteboards, checklists, pictures, and calendars helps new employees be more independent and find answers to some questions themselves.
Before your employee starts
- Ensure you have completed Step 9 in the hiring process to allow for a smooth start.
- Prepare accommodation, PPE, tools, and vehicles.
- Gather appropriate documentation for completion on day one of employment and check the rest of the steps on this page to see if any other forms need to be printed.
- Ensure you keep all documents like CV, training information and reference check notes, relating to your new employee together, it helps if there are any questions or problems that arise.
Before employment starts and day one
Resources
Onboarding
Checklist with template and tips, showing things to do before your employee starts work and what to do on day one.
Days 1-2: Getting started
Paperwork first
- Complete a tax code declaration: Tax IR330 form
- Automatically enrol employees into KiwiSaver: KiwiSaver deduction form
- Fill in an employee personal info sheet: Staff personal information template
Health & Safety walk-through
- Farm tour - point out hazards
- Safety culture and rules
- Accident reporting
- Emergency procedures
- First aid & fire equipment locations
- Where to find policies and SOPs
- Sign Health and Safety acknowledgement (page 5 of this document)
Accommodation (if needed)
- Walk through house together
- Note any issues: use a Property inspection report
- Sign a tenancy agreement: Tenancy Services forms and resources
Welcome to the farm
- Farm tour - how things work
- Explain your goals
- Introduce to the team
Plan the first week
- Give them their roster
- What time and where to show up
- Daily plan (mix learning + hands-on work)
Tip: Get them milking early - they'll feel useful while learning
Week 1: Finding their feet
Cover these key areas
- How the farm is organized and who does what
- Important policies (must-knows first)
- Job description - what it means day-to-day
- Their priorities
- Where everything is on farm
Regular check-ins
- Catch up regularly
- Ask how they're going
- Use the First 90 days kit templates
Week 2: Building confidence
Keep the mix going
- Training and doing real work daily
- Build relationships with the team
- Help them understand farm operations
End of week 2 catch-up
- Use the First 90 days kit templates
- Review job description together
- Ask what skills they're good at
- Ask what they need to learn
- Create training plan together
- Show local area (doctor, bank, shops, Young Farmers)
- Take to local social event
Training tips
- Get them involved - work on plan together
- Mix it up - formal training, buddying, coaching
- Explain the WHY - builds confidence and ownership
Months 1-3: Monthly catch-ups
Schedule monthly meetings
- Use the First 90 Days Kit templates
- Ask open questions - how are they feeling?
- Really listen to feedback
- Give honest feedback on performance
- Remember: new jobs are tiring - mistakes happen
- Celebrate what's going well
End of 90 days: Review and plan ahead
- Look back at the training plan - how did it go?
- Build a new training plan together for the next few months
- Focus on what the employee and the farm both need
Staff who get proper training are:
- More motivated
- More efficient
- More likely to stay
Yes, training takes time upfront, but you'll get that time back many times over.
Additional resources
Catch-ups and training - the first 90 days
Resources
Performance management
Templates for catchups and training plans for the first 90 days.
Staff Personal Information Template
Resources
Onboarding
Template for recording personal information for staff records.
Additional links
Quickstart recruitment toolbox
https://www.dairynz.co.nz/resources/people/?page=1&searchterm=quickstart
Recruiting and Hiring Employees
/people/finding-and-employing-good-people/the-hiring-process/
Immigration
/people/finding-and-employing-good-people/immigration/
Tags related to “Employee onboarding”
