Onboarding new employees: this is how TomTom and Wortell do it

HR/learning in organisations
4/1/2022

Onboarding new employees is very important for the success of your organisation. But how to do this? TomTom and Wortell talk about it in this blog!

Onboarding new employees

If you want to know more about the onboarding new employees you've come to the right place. At Pluvo, we're a fan of the topic of onboarding. It makes for happier employees, less turnover and accelerated productivity! But what is the onboarding meaning exactly?

Onboarding means onboarding your new employees. This doesn't just mean that they're productive. It also means that they will feel at home within your organisation!

To implement an onboarding program, you really don't have to reinvent the wheel. We interviewed TomTom and Wortell representatives to learn about their onboarding process. Read on and get inspired by these success stories!

Be sure to check out our latest free tool: the E-learning Needs Scan. Answer the questions within 10 minutes and receive a personal advice report written by our own e-learning experts.

Onboarding a new employee? That's how they do it at Wortell!

Carrot is the employer of the year 2017/2018 and 2018/2019, and for good reason! They partly owe this title to their wonderful onboarding program for new employees. We spoke about this with Sara Piets, corporate IT recruiter at Wortell.

Preboarding

You can't start early enough with induction. That's why at Wortell, they do not only onboarding, but also preboarding! This starts even before someone has signed his or her contract.

Preboarding is the moment between signing the employment contract and the actual start at the company”

Once someone has signed the contract, the candidate immediately receives a well-filled welcome package, consisting of gifts and information about Wortell. This ensures a warm welcome. A while later, it's time for the Wortell Car Wash.

First week of work

The Wortell Car Wash is the introduction week for new employees. The new employees receive information about all teams and get to know the organisation. In addition, they also learn how to book hours, for example.

In addition, Wortell has a Company Day every month, where all teams come together. On this day, for example, problems or new technical innovations will be discussed. The day ends with a drink, where new colleagues present an assignment they received as a team. This way, the rest of the organisation gets to know the new colleagues in an original way.

“Thanks to this pre- and onboarding, employees are more productive. What's more, almost every new colleague in the company says the onboarding makes them feel at home!”

An extra tip from Sara: try to answer candidates' and employees' questions before they're 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 test how easy it is!

Invite a new colleague, but you don't know how? TomTom shows you the way ;-)

TomTom, who doesn't know the company as the replacement for road maps? Because of the TomTom, you never got to the wrong destination because you accidentally turned the map upside down.

But the classic TomTom isn't their only product. TomTom also licenses maps and makes navigation software. And did you know that TomTom is also incredibly big when it comes to fleet software? This allows you to track vehicles and communicate with drivers. They do all of this (and much more) for many customers worldwide.

TomTom employs many people to do this and this number continues to grow. Fortunately, the company does not forget how important it is to train new employees properly, both online and offline. We spoke to TomTom Senior HR Project Coordinator Brogan Brown about this.

First week

On the first day, the Induction Day, gets it new staff first, a presentation by a founder or senior manager. They learn about TomTom's history and culture and about all the different brands that TomTom has to offer. After that, their knowledge about TomTom is immediately tested with the TomTom quiz.

After lunch, there is a kind of job fair, but with the various TomTom departments. Each stand represents a different department, and at the booth, you can talk to a colleague from that department. This way, you can quickly get to know the company and the people behind it!

After all, during the induction period, the new colleagues don't have to feel lonely. This is because they are linked to a buddy who they can always go to with work-related questions. It does not matter whether these are substantive questions or questions about the refrigerator layout.

At the end of the first week of work, you can toast while enjoying a drink. Welcome to the board! But, after this week, the onboarding of course not over yet...

Day Thirty

On day thirty of the onboarding process, an evaluation moment takes place. Because:

  • How is the onboarding going and what does the new employee think about it?
  • What does the new colleague have about TomTom?

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

Looking for a smart way to keep on teaching your new employees over the course of these 90 days? Read about the possibilities of microlearning!

What does it give?

this onboarding process received a lot of positive reactions from new colleagues. This method of interaction is therefore bearing fruit. This is because new colleagues say they feel at home more quickly and also know much more about TomTom than before.

“Many colleagues say they have never had such a pleasant induction period”, says Brogan.

In the coming period, the HR department will look at how they can also use this onboarding process in other locations.

Onboarding checklist

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

  1. Make sure new colleagues are engaged and enthusiastic before they even set foot in the company. It's really nice to know in advance what kind of cool company you're going to work for. Preboarding so!
  2. Make sure managers also invest time in onboarding. It is therefore necessary for them to realise how important onboarding is. The little things really make the difference. Think of warmly welcoming new staff. Or setting up someone's new workplace in a cozy way.
  3. Make sure you have a good first day of work! Make it interactive and don't fill it up with presentations. Make it something the new colleagues will remember. It's also good to celebrate the first week or first month of new colleagues. Arrange some drinks or a nice lunch for the group and let them catch up on the company's first experiences.

Are you also curious about how bol.com, for example, provides its onboarding? So read: Insertion program example!

Onboarding new employees yourself?

As you can read above, onboarding brings big companies a lot of benefits. But onboarding also has a positive influence on happiness at work, turnaround time and productivity for smaller companies.

Do you also want to get started with onboarding? It is useful to use an LMS for this, which is suitable for HR-related issues. For example, get started with digital onboarding in Pluvo! Create a free account and get started!

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