Onboarding is a crucial workplace process where both employees and employers assess if they fit each other well. Managing a full-time employee’s first days can already be challenging. But what about onboarding contract workers, where the employer must also coordinate with a staffing firm?
This article will discuss common issues that arise during contractor onboarding to help you navigate this challenging process. We will also talk about helpful ways of enhancing your partnership with your staffing firm to make the whole onboarding experience as seamless as possible.
The Challenges of Onboarding a Contract Worker
Staffing-firm employment commonly involves three essential parties: the employer, the staffing firm, and the employee. Because this is not the usual two-way employment relationship, challenges in coordination and communication can arise as soon as the onboarding starts. It is important to recognize these common issues to ensure a smoother experience for your contract workers on their first days.
- Lack of a Clear Plan. Delayed and disorganized contractor onboarding often stems from a lack of streamlined onboarding plans. This can make the contract worker experience confusion and demotivation.
- Lack of Clear Communication. Miscommunication between the company, staffing firm, and contract worker can lead to confusion about roles, expectations, and responsibilities, causing unnecessary problems in the onboarding process.
- Delayed Access to Resources. Delayed access to tools, software, and accounts necessary for the job can disrupt the productivity and learning process of the employee.
- Unclear Feedback. Contract workers aim to do well as early as the contractor onboarding. But without helpful and consistent feedback, they may not know how they’re performing and how to improve.
- Pressure of the Trial Period. Contract arrangements can also be used as assessments to determine whether the workers qualify for regular employment. This adds a layer of pressure that can affect confidence and productivity levels.
How to Work with a Staffing Firm in Onboarding Contract Workers
In contractor onboarding processes, your partnership with your staffing firm will impact the process. If expectations are not clear and communication channels are not properly used, this can create a lot of disorder and confusion.
On the other hand, if you’re able to plan things well and coordinate with your staffing firm, you pave the way for a seamless onboarding process. Here are some tips for fostering great collaboration with your staffing firm as you onboard your newest contract worker:
1. Prepare a Structured Plan
The first step to ensure a smooth onboarding process is to prepare a well-structured roadmap that you can share with your partner staffing firm. By detailing a step-by-step process in advance, you save time for everyone during the process because you’ll already have a reference for guidance.
This will also help avoid any confusion from all parties about where the onboarding should be at specific points in time. You can use management programs like Trello or Asana to create an onboarding checklist or lay out the entire schedule for all parties to see.
To be more efficient, divide your plan into three key milestones for the entire process:
- Preboarding – This phase commonly includes deadlines for paperwork, sending out welcome messages, and scheduled goals during the first days or weeks.
- Onboarding – This usually begins on the first day of work. For the actual contractor onboarding process, you can plan out orientations, training periods, introduction to various company departments, and regular check-ins.
- Post-onboarding – Major items to check after onboarding include performance evaluations, workload adjustments, and contract reviews.
2. Set Clear Expectations
Setting expectations between your company and the staffing firm should happen before contractor onboarding. This involves clearing out who’s in charge of what. By ensuring both parties understand their roles, you prevent potential misunderstandings and overlaps once the onboarding begins. For example, you can establish that the staffing firm will oversee the contractor’s paperwork, payroll, and attendance, while your company takes care of job performance metrics and programs for integration into the team.
It is also vital to coordinate with the staffing firm as you clearly define the expectations for the contract worker. The initial list of job expectations laid out for the hiring process is already helpful. But you may also consider expanding the list to more company-specific expectations, such as company culture elements, performance standards, project-specific goals, or long-term vision. This also helps the contract worker feel valued and supported, knowing that you also want to see them succeed in the job.
3. Prepare Onboarding Resources
You can run an effective contractor onboarding by preparing company-specific resources that the employee will need. Coordinate with the staffing firm to ensure crucial details like credentials, logins, and passwords are given before the first day. Additionally, make sure that all equipment needed, like laptops and software, is ready to use. Otherwise, you can also tell them which resources your company can provide. Establishing these tools on or before day one helps the contract worker start their job smoothly and be productive as soon as possible.
Resources can also include specific training focused on your company’s needs. While the staffing firm may provide general training for their employees, your role is to help them understand tasks and goals specific to your organization. For example, computer engineers might already have the technical skills they need but scheduling specific days where you will introduce them to your project management tools, workflow systems, and internal processes can help them work more effectively with your team.
4. Hold a Meeting with All Relevant Parties
Consider setting up a meeting with all personnel relevant to the job, which includes the contract worker, their staffing firm representative, and key team members from your company. You can hold this meeting on the first day or on a separate orientation day. Use this time to introduce the company, build rapport, directly answer questions, and discuss any work details that may be easier to clarify in a meeting.
Additionally, this meeting gives you an opportunity to introduce the contract worker to the people they’ll be closely working with. This includes supervisors, team leads, department heads, or specific contacts for IT and HR matters. By clearly identifying who they should approach for different needs, you can help avoid confusion in the future.
5. Maintain Open Communication
Hiring from a staffing firm involves multiple stakeholders. Establishing good communication is key to ensuring that no one gets unexpectedly surprised when major issues happen during the onboarding. Regular check-ins are also vital to maintaining a good rapport and expressing support for contract employees. To do this, make sure that your preferred lines of communication are clear from the start, whether they’re messaging applications or office management software.
You can establish communication goals from the beginning of the pre-onboarding phase until the time when the employee has become fully integrated in the company. A great example of this is asking for updates about the contractor’s daily progress. You can do this simultaneously with updating the staffing firm for any comments, problems, adjustments, and praise. You can also schedule weekly or monthly meetings with your contract worker and staffing firm to address any issues relevant to all parties.
C4 Technical Services is the best staffing partner to hire contract workers.
Ensuring a seamless onboarding experience should not just be on you—you also need a top-notch staffing firm. C4 Technical Services is here to pre-screen top talent that matches your needs and provide comprehensive support to help them settle into your team quickly.
From acquiring high-level talent to providing payroll and management services, C4 Technical Services offers exceptional staffing services that match your needs and budget. With over 40 years of combined experience in the business, you can guarantee that collaborating with us won’t disappoint.
Ready to partner with the best? Reach out to C4 Technical Services today!
