Do you still remember your first day? Were you excited, nervous, apprehensive, or all this? The first day on a new job is exciting, but it can also be nerve wracking. You want to impress your colleagues from day one, but you also want to take some time to get settled in so you can start working efficiently.

A good onboarding plan can help alleviate some of that stress by providing structure and direction for new staff who are joining the team.

Create an Onboarding Checklist

You want to make sure that your new employees get started on the right foot and what better way to do this than creating and having an onboarding checklist. This means you are prepared even before they arrive on their first day. First impressions last and making sure that their first day is smooth and organized will make them feel happy to be part of the team.

Your checklist should include all the things you need to get your new hire onboarded such as filling out necessary forms and designating someone to conduct the orientation. You may also want to give them a copy of your office policy manual and office training manual (if you have them already) that they can refer to later.

However, word of caution here, do not overwhelm and scare your new hire away. Your onboarding checklist should cover all the basics and leave the rest for your 90-day training checklist.

Introduce the Practice and the Team

You can do this part of the onboarding process during the morning huddle with everyone present. You can provide a quick overview of your practice, including its mission and vision statements as well as its values. It will help them understand why they are there and where they fit into the picture. 

Another part of the process is, of course, introducing the rest of the team. This can be done in a number of ways, but one of the most effective ways is by having each member of your team give a short speech about themselves, what they do and how they can help. You can also provide contact details for all staff members so that new employees know who to go to with questions or concerns.

The 90-Day Training Checklist

Like mentioned above, do not overwhelm your new hire with all the things that keep your practice working like a well oiled machine. Just like you created that onboarding checklist, you must also develop a 90-day training checklist to ensure everything is covered but doing the new staff training in a more sustainable way.

Imagine being bombarded with information all at once. Talk about information overload!

List down all the tasks and responsibilities that the role requires, prioritize the list based on the tasks they need to learn first, print it out, and give this to your new hire on their first day. You need to inform them that they will be responsible for ticking items off the list. They need to show it to you or the lead CA at the start of every shift to determine which topics that can be covered that day. This way you are approaching their training with better aim and control rather than throwing everything at them all at once.

Follow a Schedule

For new hires, four hours a week would be a great starting point. As your staff gains more experience and knowledge, you reduce this accordingly. And yes, that’s right, following a training schedule should be applied not only to new staff but to your seasoned employees as well. Learning is a lifelong endeavor.

The best times to schedule your training sessions with the new staff would be during your exams and consultations blocks, when the office is less busy. Senior CAs would also be more available to help them out. This way they can better focus on learning about the services offered, your new patient procedures, the travel cards and office forms, and everything else they need to be proficient at. 

The onboarding process is important to the success of your new staff. It’s the time when they learn about your practice and become familiar with their new role, which means that if you don’t have a good plan in place, it can be easy for them to feel lost or unprepared or overwhelmed.

Check out our free resource on the employee hiring process and train an A-player for your growing team!