Onboarding new employees: This is how TomTom and Wortell do it.

Onboarding new employees

If you want to learn more about onboarding new employees, you've come to the right place. At Pluvo, we're big fans of the topic of onboarding. It leads to happier employees, less turnover, and accelerated productivity!

Onboarding means the process of getting your new employees up to speed. This not only means that they are productive, but also that they feel at home within your organization!

Implementing an onboarding program doesn't mean reinventing the wheel. We interviewed representatives from TomTom and Wortell to learn about their onboarding process. Read on and be inspired by these success stories

Onboarding new employees? This is how Wortell does it!

Wortell was named Employer of the Year 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 for good reason! They owe this title in part to their excellent onboarding program for new employees. We spoke to Sara Piets, Corporate Recruiter IT at Wortell.

Preboarding

You can't start onboarding too early. That's why at Wortell, they not only do onboarding, but also preboarding! This starts before someone has even signed their contract.

“Preboarding is het moment tussen het tekenen van het arbeidscontract en de daadwerkelijke start bij het bedrijf”

When someone has signed the contract, they immediately receive a well-filled welcome package consisting of gifts and information about Wortell. That creates a warm welcome. A while later, it's time for the Wortell Car Wash.

The first week

The Wortell Car Wash is the introductory week for new employees. The new employees receive information about all the teams and get to know the organization. They also learn, for example, how to book hours.

Wortell also has a Company Day every month, where all teams come together. On this day, issues or new technical innovations are discussed, for example. The day ends with a drink, where new colleagues present a task they have received as a team. This is a great way for the rest of the organization to get to know the new colleagues in an original way.

"Through this pre- and onboarding, employees are productive sooner. Almost every new colleague says they feel at home in the company because of the onboarding!"

An extra tip from Sara: try to answer the questions of candidates and employees before they're even asked. Be proactive as a recruiter instead of reactive!

Use Pluvo for the digital part of your pre- and onboarding. Create a free account and see how easy it is!

Onboarding a new colleague, but don't know how? TomTom will show you the way ;-)

TomTom, who doesn't know the company as the replacement for road maps? Thanks to TomTom, you never ended up at the wrong destination because you accidentally held the map upside down.

But the classic TomTom is not their only product. TomTom also licenses maps and creates navigation software. Did you know that TomTom is also incredibly large in the field of fleet software? This allows you to track vehicles and communicate with drivers. They do all this (and much more) for many customers worldwide, and employ a lot of people to do so.

Fortunately, the company understands the importance of properly training new employees, both online and offline. We spoke to Brogan Brown, Senior Project Coordinator HR at TomTom, about this.

The first day

During the first week, on the Induction Day, new employees are first presented with a history and culture of TomTom, as well as an introduction to all the different brands owned by the company, by a founder or senior executive. Then their knowledge of TomTom is immediately put to the test with the TomTom quiz. After lunch, there is a kind of job fair, but with the different departments of TomTom.

Each stand represents a different department, and at the stand, you can talk to a colleague from that department. This way, you quickly get to know the company and the people behind it.

During the onboarding period, new colleagues do not have to feel lonely. They are paired with a buddy who can help with work-related questions, whether they are substantive or about the refrigerator layout. At the end of the first week of work, there is a toast and a drink. Welcome aboard! But, of course, the onboarding does not end after this week...

Day 30

On day 30 of the onboarding process, there is an evaluation moment.

• How is the onboarding going, and what does the new employee think of it?

• What impression does the new colleague have of TomTom?

This allows the HR manager or manager to immediately respond to any doubts or address any pain points. By the way, the new staff receives new information about TomTom every week. After 90 days, everyone is officially trained!

Wat levert het op?

Dit onboardingtraject leverde veel positieve reacties van nieuwe collega’s op. Deze manier van inwerken werpt dus z’n vruchten af. Nieuwe collega’s zeggen zich namelijk sneller thuis te voelen en weten bovendien veel meer over TomTom dan voorheen.

“Veel collega’s zeggen dat ze nog nooit zo’n fijne inwerkperiode hebben gehad”, aldus Brogan.

De komende tijd kijkt de HR afdeling hoe ze dit onboardingtraject ook kunnen inzetten in andere vestigingen.

Onboarding checklist

This onboarding process has received many positive responses from new colleagues. This way of onboarding is therefore proving successful. New colleagues say they feel more at home and know much more about TomTom than before. "Many colleagues say they have never had such a pleasant onboarding period," says Brogan. In the coming period, the HR department will look at how they can use this onboarding process in other locations.

Brogan has a few tips for companies that want to take onboarding of new employees more seriously:

• Ensure that new colleagues are involved and enthusiastic before they even set foot in the company. It's really fun to feel beforehand what kind of cool company you're going to work for. So, preboarding!
• Make sure managers also invest time in onboarding. It is essential that they realize how important onboarding is. The little things really make the difference. For example, warmly welcoming new staff, or decorating their new workplace in a friendly manner.
• Make sure to have a good first day of onboarding! Make it interactive and don't just fill it with presentations. Create an experience that new colleagues will remember. It's also good to celebrate the first week or month of new colleagues. Arrange some drinks or a nice lunch for the group and let them catch up on their first experiences within the company.

Do you want to onboard new employees yourself?

s you can read above, onboarding benefits large companies greatly. But onboarding also has a positive influence on job satisfaction, lead time, and productivity for smaller companies. Do you want to get started with onboarding too? It's useful to use an LMS (Learning Management System) that's suitable for HR-related matters.

For example, start with digital onboarding in Pluvo! Create a free account and get started!