An inclusive onboarding experience is an important aspect of any business relationship — whether that relationship is with a new employee, a new client, or a new partner. From the very beginning, this experience sets the tone for a new relationship with your company, and it’s crucial to ensure that everyone feels valued, supported, and included.
Here at Varsity, creating inclusive experiences is very important to us. It stems from our commitment to “Relentless service to others.” We always strive to go above and beyond for our customers, our team members, and our partners. Through our work supporting nonprofits, healthcare organizations, and education institutions with custom technology solutions, we can make a greater impact together.
Here are some best practices we adhere to when creating an inclusive onboarding experience:
Diversify the Process
To create a truly inclusive workplace, we start by ensuring both our recruitment process and our clientele is diverse and equitable. Everyone should have an opportunity to build a career. Our approach to diversity, inclusion, and equity starts with engaging and supporting people. This involves actively seeking out underrepresented groups, providing equal opportunities to all, and avoiding unconscious biases during our hiring process or business decisions.
Great Place to Work notes that prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion in your workplace can bring many benefits, including:
- Higher revenue growth
- More innovative opportunities
- Increased ability to recruit a diverse talent pool
- 5.4 times higher employee retention
Personalize the Experience
One size does not fit all when it comes to onboarding. Each new hire, client, or partner has unique experiences, backgrounds, and needs, and it’s important to tailor the onboarding process to meet those unique needs. We achieve this through one-on-one conversations — truly getting to know our team members, clients, and partners, understanding where they’re coming from, and seeing how we can support them. For new team members, this may involve performance check-ins that create measurable performance goals, while for new clients, this may involve creating an IT roadmap that supports their overall business objectives.
Encourage Open Communication and Feedback
Open and transparent communication is key to creating an inclusive workplace culture. In fact, it’s one of our core values. We encourage anyone new to Varsity to ask questions and provide feedback on their experience with us. As new hires, we value feedback from our onboarding experience to make sure our team members have access to the resources and support they need. For new clients or partners, we value feedback so we can continually improve and strive to support our community in the best ways.
Foster a Sense of Community
The onboarding process is an excellent opportunity to help new hires, clients, and partners feel like they are a larger community. Fostering community is another important reason why we do the work we do for nonprofits, healthcare organizations, and educational institutions. We achieve this by continually supporting and investing in our clients with the right technology services to support their communities. Additionally, for our team members, we regularly host team-building activities such as bowling competitions, potlucks, and group volunteering opportunities.
Provide Ongoing Support
The onboarding process doesn’t end on the first day of work or the first day we sign a new client agreement. Providing ongoing support, resources, and opportunities for growth and development can help new hires, clients, and partners feel valued and supported in their roles and their missions. Giving and receiving feedback and support (from both sides!) is a critical marker of success.
The Varsity Way
The Varsity Way serves as our foundation and helps us carry our mission-driven philosophy and purpose in everything we do internally and externally, and in how we work with our clients. We weave our core values into everything that we do. They drive our hiring process, business decisions, and the solutions we bring to our customers. Providing an inclusive onboarding experience is another important component of our overall commitment to high-quality service and fostering community.
If you’re interested in browsing our job opportunities, view our career page here. Or, if you’d prefer to speak to one of our trusted IT experts about how Varsity can customize the right technology solutions for your organization, contact us today.
