Keep New Employees: 5 Onboarding Tips

A few days before beginning Impexium my phone rang. It was Allison, Billhighways’ talent manager. I immediately felt nervous. Why was she calling? Did I somehow fail the background check? Did they change their minds? Or worse, was there more paperwork? 

Turns out, she was just checking in. Ensuring I had everything I needed. Making sure I was ready to begin. Seeing if I had any lingering questions.  Her gesture of a short phone call made me feel like a valued team member before I first stepped foot into the (virtual) office.

The weekend before I began, I received three boxes from Impexium. One was my laptop. I thought it was a law to give marketing employees the most archaic, slow-running machine possible. Imagine my surprise to receive a brand-new PC, plus two, yes two, monitors. I get that it’s not always cost-effective or possible to buy new equipment for all employees. Receiving equipment that wasn’t buried in the back of the IT closet, can make people feel special. Are your employees onsite? Have their workstations ready to go, so they see you are prepared and ready for them to be part of the team. 

Starting a new job virtually is different. It’s easy to feel like you’re stuck on an island by yourself. The by-chance connections normally made in person don’t happen. There are no run-ins at the community coffee maker. No noticing baby and/or dog photos on desks as you walk by. No introductions in conference rooms when meetings run long. 

Luckily, Impexium set up 1:1 meetings for me to meet a variety of different employees in a variety of different business units. There’s huge value in helping employees immediately feel like part of the team Four days after I began, I had already made several valuable connections, including:

• Drew in Client Success shared how he and his team help associations implement the cool stuff. You know the pieces of the software that make you ooooohhhh and aaaaahhhh in the demo (looking at you, Power Automate), but given your long to-do list, you need help getting them up and running.
   
• One of our sales engineer’s walked me through an Impexium demo (not so subtle plug: you too can see the AMS solution in action). Jonathan answered every.single.one of my questions with zero eye-rolling. 
   
• RJ in sales gave me some of his cold-calling secrets. Plus, we discovered we both volunteer with non-profits that provide safe havens and resources to homeless individuals and families. It was awesome to make a personal connection. 
   
• A highlight of the day was talking with Jose in Client Support. His positivity is infectious. It was interesting to hear Impexium’s SLAs for responding to customers versus the teams’ self-imposed shorter deadlines. Helping clients succeed is their top goal. Period. He failed to mention that he is known for bringing in pastries. An apple turnover may help me get over it.

On several occasions during the interview process, executives referenced the Billhighway Playbook —the roadmap for how Billhighway does business. I was impressed. I was even more impressed seeing how employees truly incorporate the Playbook into their day-to-day tasks.  

For example, the play Customer Commitment 365 states, The people we serve, whether clients or internal customers, are the reason we exist. Our commitment is to meet the client’s needs and to WOW at every touch point. 

I saw examples of this in action on numerous occasions. See the last bullet above about the Client Support team’s commitment to go beyond what’s required. From Team Member Success and IT’s perspective, I was the customer. The time team members spent with me to ensure I had not just what was required for me to begin, but everything I needed to be successful demonstrated a true Wow at every touch point.