One of the most critical moments of successful hiring comes not always in the hunt, but in the way a person is made to feel in the process that comes just afterwards.

That’s the time when employment battles can often be lost and won. What is the difference between it being done well and done badly…? One simple ingredient: LOVE.

Like all good love stories, it’s the simple gestures that matter the most. It’s not about adding in a tonne of expensive wooing, or crafting elaborate smoke and mirrors to win a person’s affection; it’s just about being authentic and making a real effort to make that person feel valued and important to you and your business. To feel loved.

I have recently had the pleasure of experiencing an awesome onboarding process at Onfido. No smoke and mirrors; just a genuine delight from the team at having a crew of new humans to come and help them solve their challenges. Their efforts meant that I spent my first week feeling immensely loved, valued and important.

So how did they do it? Here are some of the experiences that our clever team have crafted to ensure our new joiners get the best first impression of us.

1. Love letters straight from the heart
In the build up to the big day, you get a series of brilliant emails, that help prep you for what is going to happen on day one; the dress code, the tone of the day, what to bring, the expectation. Most of all, what you get from those emails is a genuine, heartfelt excitement that the team has that you are coming on board.

2. A tribe within a tribe
As much as possible, our global team begin their first week in London. Onfido consciously tries to only onboard people on the first Tuesday of each month, which means new joiners may wait a little longer than normal to start. The wait is entirely worth it.

In my case, there were 12 other humans from near and far, there with me to share in my day one nerves. It created a sense of immediate ease, as you have a crew of humans who you can share nerves, experiences and excitement with.

3. The wedding (slash first day) breakfast
The first thing that happens on day one, is that the whole business comes together for a team breakfast. The new crew are introduced one by one to the business by their manager, and honestly, being greeted by a warm group of smily happy people feels like the warmest welcome ever.

Abundant breakfast and an abundant sense of welcome. There’s something quite special about breaking bread with your new crew as quickly as possible.

4. Crew love
After getting set up with your tech and a talk from the Founders, lunch feels like it arrives very quickly. The idea for day one lunch, is the chance to go for some low key eats with your immediate team. So a chance to sit down with your own little unit.

5. Meet the family
The rest of the week is peppered by sessions where you and your fellow newbies get to really learn what the different departments do, and how the business operates. This includes the talk from our Founders, but also works its way through the whole team.

Think about how long it’s taken you to figure out what the different departments of your business does in the past. For me, that sometimes takes years.

At Onfido, you are given as much information as possible. If you want to then deep dive in specific areas, that’s up to you. It’s like you don’t just get to meet old Uncle George at the wedding, it’s getting to meet him and getting the skinny on his repertoire of ‘in jokes’ before you do so you know where to laugh.

What’s the outcome of this level of thought and care? You feel included, valued and important. You feel like you have everything you need to put your best foot forward in what could be a fairly challenging situation.

The genuinely people centric approach to the operation of Onfido was one of my main drivers for joining, and that people centricity starts at the very top of the organisation; within our team of Founders and Executives.

This doesn’t mean our work as a People team is done however, we are continuously looking for ways we can improve and keep iterating on the brilliant business we have built so far.

On that very note; I’d love to hear from you all about what you have found worked well in your own onboarding experiences; whether you were building it out as a People team, or whether you have experienced something awesome first hand.