We often talk about how important it is to create an onboarding plan to welcome your new employees. Onboarding benefits your HR team, giving them a blueprint for how the process should go and your people, preparing them for their new roles and boosting retention, engagement, and performance. That’s why effective onboarding for healthcare employees is so essential.
Healthcare organizations of all types are facing many challenges when it comes to hiring and retaining employees today. The industry is expected to be short 3.2 million workers by 2026, and many employees are leaving the healthcare profession — 30% of nurses want to leave direct patient care. On top of that, high turnover isn’t unusual. In the past five years, the average hospital experienced a 100.5% turnover rate.
You can fight the turnover trend and boost employee retention to prepare for labor shortages with an onboarding program. Keep reading to learn seven best practices for welcoming new healthcare employees.
7 Onboarding Best Practices for Healthcare Employees
Follow these healthcare onboarding best practices to improve or start the process at your company. As you revamp or create a brand-new onboarding process, look for ways to add personalization and engage your new hires.
1. Develop Comprehensive Onboarding Plans
Healthcare staff range from physicians and surgeons to nursing assistants and technicians. You might be hiring emergency room nurses or custodial staff for assisted living facilities. Rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach to onboarding, there’s a need for detailed, role-specific processes.
For each role or department, be sure your onboarding plan includes:
- A timeline to full productivity
- A support or contact person in HR and on the employee’s team
- Clear objectives or goals for the onboarding period
- Information about company culture
2. Get Stakeholders Involved
Successful onboarding is far more likely when leadership, management, and the employee’s new team members are involved. When managers take an active role in the process, employees are 3.4 times more likely to say it was successful.
Get others involved in onboarding and make new employees feel welcome by assigning new hires a mentor, training “buddy,” or onboarding group. Building these connections early helps create a sense of belonging at your workplace. When employees feel someone cares about them or they have a friend at work, they’re more engaged and, therefore, less likely to quit.
Need tips for creating your own onboarding process or taking yours up a notch?
Download ClearCompany’s New Hire Onboarding Checklist.
3. Train Your Staff on Compliance and Regulatory Requirements
Many new hires need to pass a standard background check and employment verification, at most. Healthcare workers, on the other hand, often need to provide specific documentation, like licenses or certifications, during the onboarding process. Your HR team then must keep meticulous records to ensure compliance. Healthcare workers are also far more likely to require important training on regulations and protocols during the onboarding process.
With role-specific onboarding plans, your HR team can rest assured that they’re collecting all the right information from new hires. You can also be sure to build in time for new hires to complete these trainings and ask questions, as well as understand where to go for support after onboarding is complete. Show new hires you’re invested in them by implementing ongoing education opportunities, which you can discuss during their first few weeks on the job.
4. Prioritize Company Culture
Did you know that 32% of new hires who quit in the first three months say it was due to issues with company culture? Make it a point to get your new healthcare employees invested in company culture during onboarding. This is a crucial step in onboarding because it’s another way to create that sense of belonging and build a strong connection between employees and your company.
In a healthcare setting, a team of individuals with a shared purpose and values who trust each other can be the difference between adequate and excellent patient care. Talk to new hires about your company values and how they impact the work environment, including decision-making and daily processes and procedures. You can also build culture and connection by setting up team-building activities and social events like volunteering or welcome lunches. By fostering culture, you can create a collaborative and supportive workplace where every member feels valued and empowered to thrive.
5. Provide Ongoing Feedback and Support
Starting a new job is a nerve-wracking experience, especially in healthcare, where the stress — and the stakes —can be very high. To help put new hires at ease, ensure they’re receiving regular feedback from managers and HR by scheduling a series of one-on-ones throughout the onboarding process. That gives your teams the chance to answer questions and provide timely support and helps new hires feel empowered and encouraged.
Onboarding is also an excellent time to introduce new hires to your performance review process. One way to do this is by setting up a new hire review cycle for the length of the onboarding process. That helps new employees understand what is expected of them and what it means to be successful, and puts them at ease for future review cycles.
6. Offer Continuing Education
Continuous improvement through education isn’t optional in a healthcare setting — it’s a requirement. Several healthcare professions require practitioners to regularly attend classes to maintain their licensure and expand their knowledge. If your new employees fall under these requirements, use the onboarding period to show them how your organization facilitates continuous education.
Another way to retain new employees is by talking to them about their professional goals. If your organization offers financial assistance, leave, or mentorship programs to assist with career development, use these opportunities to motivate and engage new employees. Investing in their growth enhances your workforce’s expertise and fosters a culture of lifelong learning and innovation.
7. Implement Onboarding Software
Find the best Onboarding software for your healthcare organization with our
Onboarding System Buyer’s Guide.
Onboarding is a complex process in any industry, let alone the fast-paced, high-stress healthcare sector. Using employee onboarding software can ease much of the friction for both HR teams and your new hires. With the right software, HR teams can automate routine tasks and give real-time visibility into onboarding progress, as well as enhance efficiency and reduce their administrative burden.
Onboarding software revolutionizes traditional onboarding, digitizing and streamlining various tasks and workflows. It offers a centralized platform where your team can collaborate and communicate throughout the entire onboarding journey. It also enables you to customize workflows, personalize onboarding experiences, and automatically assign tasks. Software can also integrate with HRIS and other systems for quick data transfers, eliminating redundant data entry.
Using onboarding software strategically elevates your onboarding practices, drives operational excellence, and fosters a positive employee experience.
Streamline Healthcare Onboarding With Software
Healthcare onboarding software gives you the tools you need to design and manage engaging, informative onboarding processes. It can take many important but time-consuming tasks off of your HR team’s plate, freeing up your time to focus on your new hires.
Onboarding software tools include:
- New hire portals where employees can complete their paperwork, access files, and learn about the company and their team
- Automated workflows, including task assignment and notifications, to ensure onboarding tasks are completed on time
- Integrations with your HRIS systems to eliminate manual data entry and quickly get employees signed up for benefits and enrolled in direct deposit
- Checklists and templates for onboarding plans you can customize to fit your employees
Onboarding your healthcare employees isn’t just a formality —it’s an integral part of the employee experience and your talent management strategy. Combined with the power of onboarding software, your process lays the foundation for a resilient, engaged workforce committed to your organizational goals.
See how HR software for healthcare can make a difference in your organization with a demo of ClearCompany. Sign up to see the best Onboarding system for the healthcare industry in action.
