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PortugalOnboarding
Tips for having a company welcome manual for workers
The welcome manual of a company can be enhanced with these simple ideas. Perfect your onboarding process with us. Read us!
Isabel García
HR Consultant
20 of February, 2025
An employee onboarding manual is a document that all business entities hiring workers should have. The labor market has lost 81,900 jobs in the last quarter of 2022, but it is professionalizing a lot.
Therefore, everything that facilitates a quick incorporation of employees is beneficial for both parties.
Any worker likes to be well received when starting a new job. This is very important. However, the manual we are talking about is not about that. It has to do with their adaptation to the position.
We are going to give you advice on how to develop it. But, before, we have to explain to you what an onboarding manual is.
What is an employee onboarding manual?
This document has to do with company onboarding. In turn, this English word is used to denominate the entire process of arrival and integration of a new employee to your company.
To create this procedure and to write the employee onboarding manual, you have the invaluable help of some software. And, among human resources, you have Sesame HR.
Therefore, we could say that the manual is the document that details the onboarding of the new worker. It is the guide that will serve him to quickly adapt to his newly acquired job.
Consequently, it should contain a series of basic points that we are going to explain to you below.
Content of the employee onboarding manual
Interesting, right? There are many things that an employee needs to know when joining a new job. The most important things can be transmitted verbally, but we do not advise it. If they make a mistake, they could justify it by saying that they were not warned.
This does not happen if you give them all the information in writing and that’s what the manual is for. Written things are recorded and can be proven. Therefore, the content of the onboarding manual must include the following:
- Welcome letter. It is an introductory greeting to the new employee. It can also be done through a video.
- Company organization chart. It is a document in which the different departments and their responsible appear. So the worker will always know who to turn to.
- Exhibition of the rights and duties of your company’s employees. Some of these data will already appear in the employment contract. But it is convenient that they have them in a single document.
- Key rules for using technological devices. If, for example, he’s going to work in accounting, he should have access to the tax and accounting program used by your business.
- Entity safety and health rules. Regarding this point, you can also add a summary of the occupational risk prevention plan. However, he must also know this in its entirety.
- Delivery certificate for him to sign.
A folder that contains all of this is a good example of an onboarding manual in the company. However, you can add other documents depending on the peculiarities of your company.
The face-to-face meeting
However, it is not enough to give the onboarding manual to the new worker. It’s always better that you give it to them in a face-to-face meeting during which you will explain it to them. Another option is to give it to them and have that talk the next day or after a few dates.
In any case, this meeting is necessary. Your employee will better understand all that amount of data. But, above all, they can raise all the doubts that have arisen when reading it.
And, even more importantly, you will create personal connection with the new worker. In addition, you can instill in them your culture and good work climate.
On the other hand, if you are very busy and do not have time to dedicate to it, another possibility is to assign a partner. Some entities call this person a partner and others refer to them as a godparent.
The idea is that, in their first days of work, they have at their disposal another employee who acts as a sort of tutor.
Tips for following a good manual
We also want to tell you more about the employee onboarding manual. This should be a clear guide for the new employee to quickly adapt to his job. In addition, it must follow the same line as the rest of the company’s internal communication.
To achieve this goal, the one you create should take into account these tips:
- Make sure it uses clear language. You can introduce technical and legal terms of your business activity, but always explaining them. Otherwise, it will be heavy and tedious.
- Include only the essentials. For the same previous reason, the manual should not be very extensive. If you need to introduce legal norms, use links to other pages.
- Use images, schemes and even drawings. The more graphic the document, the better. This helps to fix ideas and concepts.
- Speak from “us”. Don’t use impersonal phrases. On the contrary, use “the us” so that the new employee feels part of a team. This is as important as the salary they are going to earn.
- Explain well how they should behave on social networks when they speak on behalf of the company. In these cases they must abide by some rules common to all workers.
Maybe it’s time for you to review how you were communicating until now in your company. Review our guide on internal communication to clear any doubts.
Ideas to create an onboarding manual in a company
To finish our advice, we are now going to give you original ideas for an onboarding manual in a company. With them, you will make it more complete. In addition, your new employee will read it with more attention. Some are the following:
- Use more current supports. Instead of giving them a paper document, use other methods. For example, do it through a virtual reality support or through a video game.
- Decorate the workspace of the new employee. Along with the manual, you can involve the new worker by decorating the workspace they are going to occupy with corporate products from the company.
- Prepare a rotation for them. You can also make the new employee rotate for a few days through all the departments of your company. This way, they will get to know its operation and also all their new colleagues.
To speed up the writing process, you can also opt for the help of new technologies. You can discover this in our guide on Artificial Intelligence in Human Resources.
In conclusion, keep in mind these tips about the onboarding manual of a company. By following them, the adaptation of your new employee will be quicker and easier.
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