Onboarding: how does the integration process look like at Fit Retail?

First, what is an « onboarding »?

Onboarding is the integration period of a new employee. At Fit Retail, it starts as soon as the job offer is accepted and ends at the end of the trial period. It’s important for us to start integrating new employees as soon as they decided to join us and not waiting for the contract to start. This is a real relay to our recruitment process.

This integration period has several objectives:

• To integrate the newcomer into the teams on a human level,

• To enable the newcomer to become acculturated to the company’s codes and practices,

• To familiarise him/her with our way of working,

• And finally, to train them for their new duties.

When we know that 58% of employees who had good onboarding are still with the company 3 years later, this confirms our decision to pay particular attention to it.

Before the arrival of the employee ⏰

Pre-onboarding is the step before arrival of the recruit. This period allows us to communicate with the team and prepare integration process for our future employee.

Internal communication

You will surely agree that arriving in a company without anyone having been informed – and therefore having made the necessary arrangements to welcome you – isn’t pleasant.

At Fit Retail we want everyone to be aware of the arrival of a new employee. We communicate key information about the newcomer before the contract starts. This first step allows the teams to prepare themselves to welcome their future colleague in the best way and to start building a bond with the teams.

Integration planning

Before the arrival of the employee, we prepare the onboarding plan. This covers the employee’s first week in the company. It’s a strategic stage for the new employee as it’s during this week that he/she will get to know his/her new colleagues and the Fit Retail environment.

In this planning, we include several meetings (more or less formal one-to-one exchanges) and training times. The idea is to be able to understand roles of each person, the organization of the company and to gain skills in his position.

W-1

The week before contract starts, we send the new employee our « Survival Guide for the first day at Fit Retail ». Our aim? To eliminate the various sources of stress so that we can concentrate on the most important thing: meeting each other. It contains a lot of key information (start time, lunch habits, equipment, and so on.).

As you will have understood, at Fit Retail, the integration period starts before the start of the contract. All of these anticipations are essential to be able to enter into perfect immersion on D-Day.

It’s important to maintain this link with the candidate during the recruitment process, it’s our common thread. This pre-boarding allows us to create conditions that are favorable to the successful integration and loyalty of the new employee even before they start.

The first steps at Fit Retail 👣

This is it, the D-Day, our new employee is starting his new job! The first day (and the first few weeks) are always a time for exchanging ideas and getting information.

The first day

The first day is always the same:

• A welcome breakfast to get things off to a good start,

• A time of discussion with the manager to understand the new position and the key stages of the first months,

• Team lunch to get to know your new colleagues,

• Meeting with the « buddy » to familiarize themselves with the company’s customs and practices. This role of the « buddy » is very important to us: they are a kind of “Guide” to discover the new context in a rather informal way and beyond any hierarchical link,

• Detailed presentation of Fit Retail by Manon, our Human Resources and Recruitment Officer, to help the newcomer understand the company and its history.

The aim of this first day is to give the new employee as many points of reference as possible, so that he can quickly find his place in our teams, particularly in terms of human relations.

The following days

The rest of the week will be punctuated by:

• A marathon of integration meetings: These 30 minutes meetings allow the new employee to have a one-to-one discussion with members of the Executive Committee, all the managers and members of the Works Council, in order to understand the roles of each person in the company and the internal organization. It’s also a very effective way of creating links and promoting the diversity of our businesses

We attach a lot of importance to these meetings, because they allow the new employee to get to know all the jobs at Fit Retail. It also allows them to meet and identify the people they can turn to according to the problems they encounter, to discover the values of our company, but also to begin to familiarize themselves with our professions.

• Training: We set up internal training courses (e-learning and face-to-face) adapted to each consultant, according to their level and the knowledge they need to acquire. These training courses are carried out by our expert Consultants.

The coffee break

Our teams are located all over France and Europe, and we want everyone to be able to meet. We have therefore created a ritual called “coffee break” which is a 30-minute hybrid meeting (video & physical) to which all employees are invited.

This exchange allows the latest newcomers to introduce themselves in person to all their colleagues. Everyone can learn more about the newcomers.

This coffee break is a real meeting between all Fit employees, regardless of their geographical location. It’s a sort of integration ritual where we discover the different backgrounds, passions but also anecdotes that are sometimes very surprising! In other words, it’s a fun way to get to know each other and to quickly create a bond despite the distance. The new employee quiz is always a real success.

Monitoring over time 🚀

The integration assessment

The work of our HR team doesn’t stop in the first week, it continues well beyond that! We have created an integration assessment at one month between the employee and our human resources officer. We want to consolidate the link with the employee and HR department, and to gather information to adjust our internal processes.

What happens next?

The manager* becomes the main guarantor of the employee’s follow-up during the trial period (and well beyond). During the first few months, several points are organized to ensure that the newcomer takes up the position properly, that he can develop his potential and that he receives fitted support.

*At Fit Retail, we have set up a local management system via a team of “Consultant-Managers” who, for part of their time, carry out the functions of experts at our clients’ sites, and for the other part of their time, monitor a small team of Consultants.

The final point of the onboarding period is the end of the trial period, which symbolizes the end of the employee’s integration. The career follow-up then takes over, so that the manager can propose a career path to the employee.

When we know that 1 in 2 employees consider leaving their company during the trial period, it seemed obvious to us to set up a complete process that would allow us to perpetuate our collaboration over the long term.

The employee experience is at the heart of the matter, joining a new company is never a trivial matter, so it’s up to us to make this moment pleasant and reassuring for an optimal start and a happy employee!

As you will have understood from these many steps, we have chosen to invest time in order to offer a complete integration program based on our values: conviviality, cohesion, openness and expertise. These values are dear to us and are the pillars of a healthy and lasting collaboration. We hope that this has allowed you to learn more about us and if it has reinforced your idea of joining us, you can consult our offers right here.

See you soon!