Easy Ways You Can Streamline the Onboarding Process for New Catering Employees

When you hire a new employee, there’s no getting around the onboarding process. There has to be a period of a few weeks where the new hire is getting acclimated to your company culture and learning the ropes. Even if they come from within the industry, there’s a good chance their old company did things differently than yours — that may even be why they were attracted to your opening in the first place.

With all that said, onboarding is still a time-intensive process that requires effort from all sides to ensure that new employees are caught up to speed in the company. Here are a few strategies from our catering pros for simplifying and streamlining the onboarding process.

Start in the hiring process

Onboarding can actually begin before the contract is signed, as it gives you an opportunity to explore a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses. This is the time for you to identify whether or not someone is the right fit and, if they are, where they will succeed the most.

“As part of a recruitment process, you can ask your candidates to take a short series of standardized personality tests before the first interview,” explains Meryl Snow of Feastivities Events. “Personality tests will show how to fit new hires into your team. There are many different personality tests available: Caliper Profile, Gallup Strengths, Myers-Briggs, and DISC are some popular choices.”

Snow continues: “While these tests are by no means foolproof indicators of what your candidate will be like on the job, they can provide valuable information. Remember: while there are many different personality types, none is more ‘superior’ than the others. They are all equal, yet different – but this does mean that some personality types are better suited to particular positions within your company that the others.”

In addition to personality tests, you can also consider doing shadowing exercises and role-playing activities to gauge a candidate’s level of knowledge and professionalism. Once hired, these preliminary tests will have formed a foundation so you can start the onboarding process a few steps ahead.

Foster an environment of mentorship

No employee wants to start a new job and feel lost, as if they have no one to turn to with questions and concerns. In fact, that’s actually a great way to lose staff members early on and raise your turnover rate.

Instead, create an atmosphere where new hires (and existing staff) feel comfortable coming to you or other company leaders when they feel uncertain or simply want to run through some ideas.

“Mentorship is the best way we have found,” shares Lon Lane of Lon Lane’s Inspired Occasions. “We cross-train in all areas. The new employee has someone to talk to and to teach them company policies and best practices. This is for the field as well as the kitchen. When we first started, we all just got in there and did it — but times have changed.”

The more tight-knit your company culture feels, the better your new employees will adapt and engage with your team and your business values.

Be specific about expectations

As mentioned, even new hires from within the industry will have to learn about the intricacies within your business. Every company has different expectations for their team members, so get to the point early on and ensure that they understand your company from top to bottom.

“The most important piece for us is our orientation where we outline in detail our mission, values and culture,” says Anthony Lambatos of Footers Catering. “We make expectations clear for what an awesome team member looks like. Then, we outline the first two weeks for a new hire that is coming on as a full-time team member and included in that is cross-training where, regardless of what position they are being hired for, they spend a day in the kitchen, a day in the warehouse, a couple days working onsite at events, and a day with the sales team.”

Letting your employees experience all sides of the company provides them with a more well-rounded view of how your business operates and will empower them to succeed. They won’t find themselves six months in, wondering who to contact in the warehouse with an inventory question — they’ll be fully prepared to take on anything that comes their way.

Onboarding is a necessary culmination of the hiring process, but with these simple and straightforward strategies, you’ll be on track to having a fully engaged and committed team in no time.