If you are reviewing your preboarding or thinking about automating it, here are Cognology’s top 10 must haves to include in your Employee Welcome Pack:

1. Personalised welcome messages
The welcome message says a lot about the personality of your company. For an elegant and formal touch, you could include a video message or a personalised letter from the CEO. Alternatively if you want to reflect a more fun and youthful vibe, you could enlist the help of the entire team to create humorous GIF’s or lighthearted videos. The options are endless, so get creative.

2. Employment Contracts and New Employee Forms
Unfortunately, forms are a necessary evil. However, with onboarding software, employment paperwork can be completed, submitted and processed with minimal time and fuss.

This is also a great opportunity to provide your new employee with information about the benefits and perks they can take advantage of when they come to work for you.

3. Corporate History, Vision, Mission and Strategy

The key here is to keep it simple. Your goal should be to paint a picture of where your company started out and where it is headed in the future (in the most interesting way possible). That said, make sure to provide links to annual reports or strategy documents for those staff who are eager to learn more.

4. Culture and Values
Rather than just talk about the corporate values, think of ways you can show them at work. Photos and video footage of staff are a great way to convey the company culture in action. Real people relaying real stories about their jobs and experiences with the company.

5. Organisational Structure
Laying out the organisational map also tells your new hire a lot about your business. Is it hierarchical and structured? Or flat and fluid? Are there centralised functions? Most importantly, where does the new hire sit in this picture?

6. Onboarding Plan Overview
Sharing the onboarding plan with the new employee demonstrates that you have thought about their learning needs and gives them confidence that they will be supported through the transition into their new job. More than that, it tells the new hire that you value them as an individual.

7. Logins and Social Media Access
A computer login, email account and internal social media access immediately opens up communication, helps establish connections, and promotes a sense of belonging. Imagine your employee’s delight at finding an announcement on the company’s social media page about them starting with the firm.

8. Staff Profiles
Staff profiles help your recruit get to know their colleagues before they even start. In addition to contact details and a photo, employee profiles reveal a person’s work and educational background, areas of interest and expertise, hobbies, and recent social media activity.

It is amazing what your new hire will find they already have in common to talk about with their new team members.

9. General Information
To reduce first-day anxiety, provide your new recruit with some general information like:

• office location and directions;
• parking information;
• details of facilities and shops in the area;
• what they should wear; and
• what they should bring on the first day.

10. Survey
Send your new hire a survey about their experience so far. Once again this will reinforce that you care about them as an individual and value their feedback.