E021 - A Guide Building Successful Onboarding Processes (w/ Keisha Toussaint)

In this compelling episode, we're joined by Keisha Toussaint, a seasoned HR professional with a deep passion for crafting exceptional onboarding experiences. 

With a rich background in HR, specializing in employee engagement and development at Betches, Keisha shares invaluable insights into creating onboarding success stories. She discusses the critical role of honesty, humanity, and transparency in onboarding, emphasizing how managers can tailor experiences to meet individual needs and preferences. 

From leveraging AI to customize onboarding processes to ensuring new hires feel welcomed and valued from day one, Keisha provides practical tips and strategies that have proven successful in her career. 

Whether you're an HR professional seeking to enhance your onboarding program or a manager looking to make a positive impact on your team's newcomers, this episode is packed with inspiration and actionable advice to help you build your own successful onboarding processes.

Transcript

Erin Rice (00:02.786)

Welcome to the Employee Onboarding Podcast, where we're unpacking great onboarding ideas and best practices from the world's top HR practitioners and thought leaders. At Process Street, that starts with our mission to make recurring work fun, fast, and faultless for teams everywhere. My name is Erin Rice, and I'm the People and Operations Coordinator here at Process Street. Today I'm joined by Keisha Toussaint. Keisha is the Senior Manager of People Culture at

Betches!

Kiesha is the senior manager of people culture at Betches Media. Betches is a female founded and led media and entertainment brand that provides a space for all women to get real about life, funny, honest, and unfiltered. If you haven't checked it out yet, please do. It's got hilarious content. She oversees learning and development, employee engagement, and relations, onboarding and offboarding. She has been an HR professional for about eight years and holds a master's in human resource management.

She always takes a human approach when interacting with her colleagues and team. Wow. It is so nice to have you today. Thanks for joining us.

Keisha Toussaint (01:07.254)

Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited for our conversation.

Erin Rice (01:11.249)

So before we dive in, I'd like to start with an icebreaker question. What is the craziest fashion trend that you've ever worn?

Keisha Toussaint (01:19.534)

Hmm. I want to say low-rise jeans. I don't know because now that I'm a mom of Two I have a almost four-year-old in May and then I have a four month old now Yeah, I don't know low-rise jeans started to make its way back But I'm gonna need for it to circle back to where it came from because I am with the high-waisted fashion girls It keeps me nice sniffing tough

Erin Rice (01:39.054)

for it to circle back to where it came from because I am just a high-lifes, fat-free girl who keeps a nice, different self, but the low-I.D. never again, not buying it. I don't know what you could be told to go back and in person you can't, but I would come to my mind that the low-I.D. that happened, it was definitely pre-high school. Yeah. And now, not.

Keisha Toussaint (01:47.19)

But the low-rise jeans, never again, not buying it. I don't know what, who told me to go back and purchase a pair, but I returned them. I was like, no, low-rise jeans are not for me. It was definitely pre-high school. But now, now am I a grown adult life? No, highway jeans to the T. All day. Yes, it's so comfortable.

Erin Rice (02:06.855)

All day. I'm with you. I'm a high waist jeans girl as well. I think it is so comfortable and it's the mom bod. Like we just need to be busy and not have to worry. Awesome. Well, great. Well, thank you for sharing that. I'm sure other people can totally relate with that coming back around again. So what we really came here for employee onboarding.

Keisha Toussaint (02:16.362)

Absolutely. Mm-hmm. Yep.

Keisha Toussaint (02:24.446)

Yes. Oh, yeah.

Erin Rice (02:29.782)

I'd love if we could start by hearing a little bit about what a great employee onboarding experience looks like from your perspective.

Keisha Toussaint (02:37.13)

Yeah, well, first and foremost, it's really about being, you know, honest and being human with your employees and then making them feel like it's like your second home because think about it, we're spending literally 40 hours plus in a workplace. That and we have 24 hours in a day. So it was eight hours a day, give or take. And you want to make sure that

the individual coming into your company feels that they're welcome, that they have everything they need to be set up for success, and that they can be with you long term. Because again, we want to make sure that we're retaining employees. So a good onboarding is really just one first and foremost transparency being quick and responsive to employees, especially within the first 90 days, because, you know, statistics show that

within the first 90 days of employment, it's either they love it or they hate it. So you really, really want to set the bar high for employees that's coming into your organization and just making sure that they feel valued, that they're appreciated and that you truly want them there.

Erin Rice (03:51.818)

Yeah, that's awesome. And I was reading a little bit about your background on your LinkedIn page, and you mentioned specifically really believing in this customized HR approach. How do you apply that to onboarding? Yeah.

Keisha Toussaint (04:05.198)

Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, everyone's different. And I feel like working in HR, it's never black and white. It's colorful. So in any organization that you work in, any employee that you interact with, every individual has a particular style. So of course, you want to make sure that we're being consistent with our processes.

Erin Rice (04:26.65)

So, unfortunately, we're going to be facing a lot of issues without practices. But sometimes some individuals might, I don't know, for example, remember bringing someone in, they don't recognize the situation. So, go on a coffee, a coffee, a plate.

Keisha Toussaint (04:32.118)

But sometimes some individuals might, I don't know, for example, would say when we're bringing someone in, like, oh, we're going to, this is our tradition to go on a coffee, a coffee date or whatever. And everybody likes coffee. Maybe this person might want to take them up to lunch. Maybe, you know, they're joining on their birthday and we have some balloons and something, you know, you know, handed out for them. Maybe this person is starting remote. Maybe this person is starting.

in person. So I feel like having like a customized approach to onboarding your employees is very, very important and also to keeping in mind like departments that you work in. Some people could work in sales, some may work in content, some may work in marketing. Everybody's different. So I feel like it's really important to have that customizable approach because it makes them feel special as opposed to just checking off the box. Okay, you got this, this.

Erin Rice (05:23.95)

and then now obviously they have to optimize you and you're being extra welcome in their own capacity to go as literally as possible. Yeah, for sure. Do you have any tips that you can share about how to manage that? Because a lot of companies are scaling hiring 20 people a month. How do you still keep that customization within onboarding? Yeah.

Keisha Toussaint (05:26.014)

and then now off with your day. I feel like customizing it and making them feel welcome in their own capacity goes a really, really long way.

Keisha Toussaint (05:47.926)

Yeah, that's a great question. So like luckily for me, haha, my team kind of, we kind of like dividing conquer, right? So like say for example, if I'm, you know, at a time I might be onboarding like, let's say three to five employees, making sure that we have all of the basics down. So that'd be, you know, connecting with IT, making sure we're set up in the HRR system, going through the checklist, right? And then...

The piece that really helps us is the managers having that one-on-one conversation with managers and saying, okay, what does the onboarding process for we have managers create an agenda for their new hire for the first three days. So prior to the new hire starting, we have one-on-one conversations with managers and saying, okay, what is it going to look like? What are we, what is the end game? What are we trying to accomplish within the first three days?

Are they going to be starting remote? When do they have the opportunity to come into the office? Who are they going to meet? What does that look like? And then I give my suggestions and we kind of talk to them. We do that with every single hire. And one, managers, you know, a part of the onboarding process, it's not only just HR. People think it's only HR and it's not true. It's the manager because you're managing this individual, they're coming into your team, you want to make them feel welcome as well. And then on top of that,

managers are interacting with those employees on a day to day. HR, not so much. In the beginning, it's just like onboarding them and off to the friends you go. But managers really do play a significant piece into the onboarding factor. And we are, you know, for myself, I'm very diligent on working with our managers, making sure that, you know, they have the tools that they need to be successful.

and then to make create a very fun and robust experience for their new hire as well.

Erin Rice (07:41.52)

almost like equipping them with everything that they need.

Keisha Toussaint (07:46.374)

Exactly. Yes. I think it's really important too, because again, it's like going on a first date. You got to set the bar high to make them not want to leave you, to feel like they're being appreciated and that they love that they made the right decision because it's really competitive out here and it's real competitive in these streets. So we want to make sure that we're securing our top talent and making them feel appreciated and welcome and that they made a good decision.

because it's not a one-way street when extending office to people.

Erin Rice (08:17.102)

So they'll come back for the second date. Yeah, that's amazing. So with generations coming into the workforce, things are getting different. We still have some baby boomer generation in the workforce. And then we have this newer generation coming into. How does that play into that customization?

Keisha Toussaint (08:19.258)

Exactly. Make them come back for the second, third, and forever date.

Keisha Toussaint (08:30.987)

Mm-hmm.

Keisha Toussaint (08:35.67)

Yeah.

Keisha Toussaint (08:40.87)

Yeah, for sure. So currently at Betches, like we have a nice mixture, predominantly millennials in our workforce. And now we have some Gen Z's like trickling in. And what I've noticed is that, you know, prior to my prior years in HR, it was very just like, you know, streamlined process, not much flexibility was even a thing. Now that Gen Z is in the workforce.

Oh, Gen Z is very, they're very vocalized. They set boundaries. When we talk about work-life balance, Gen Z actually means that. And then I have conversations with my mom. She's like a super baby boomer. I would say, she's a super baby boomer. Definitely not an alien, but she talks about like, oh my God, you have to go into work every day. You have to be there on time. You have to work.

If they need you to stay, I feel like Baby Boomers are more about royalty for their companies and millennials are in between, having that balance. Gen Z is just like work life, that's it. I'm not loyal to you, I'm going to up and go as I please. And if it's not true to me, I'm on to the next one. Hands down, Gen Z is a different breed of workers. But I feel like it's a good thing because...

Erin Rice (09:57.806)

hands down, thank you for the different group of workers. But actually, it's just a different thing. I think that we need accessibility and a different work from the past. So it's like, we gotta let people touch that. So I love it. Yeah, and back to your point about really making a good first impression on that first quote unquote date, that makes it even more important. It's almost like they're raising that bar for us

Keisha Toussaint (10:06.058)

I think that's what we need, the flexibility. We're in a different work climate now. So it's like, we gotta like live to adapt. So I love them, I love them. Yeah.

Keisha Toussaint (10:23.298)

Yeah.

Erin Rice (10:27.74)

that we stay on our toes. I love that.

Keisha Toussaint (10:27.846)

Exactly. Yeah, and it's beyond just like when you're going through the interview process, you're courting and making them want to love you and then you extend the offer, making sure that's all good, but it really goes out to making that first impression when you're starting on their first day, making sure they set up for success because it really transitions through the weeks and then the months and then eventually the years. So keeping that up like is

truly, truly important. I think that people tend to feel like, you know, well, I wouldn't say more so like HR professionals, but like managers, people who are not in like the employee-focused industry, I feel like they say, oh, like on-boarding we have all they need and you're good to go. It's beyond that.

Erin Rice (11:16.522)

Yeah, and I think that brings your point about transparency. One of the first things you said is so important in being transparent. And I think having that lens on ourselves helps us to hold ourselves accountable in those moments.

Keisha Toussaint (11:30.099)

Exactly. Yeah,

Keisha Toussaint (11:56.494)

customizable approach to onboarding them and things that they need. Or if someone says, you know, like I really am not good at Excel and I would need some training on it, making sure we incorporate that within the onboarding agenda, like just to make sure that they have those tools to feel successful in their role is really important.

Erin Rice (12:14.981)

Yeah, and I bet that makes them feel so seen. Wow.

Keisha Toussaint (12:17.698)

For sure. Oh, for sure. Yeah.

Erin Rice (12:19.722)

So what would be your advice to a new person joining your team in terms of like helping them ramp as quickly as they can and like start becoming a contributor? Yeah. So I mean, you know, what's important is you're seeing a lot of pressure. Again, you could be in this space for 10 years. You're always going back to the beginning. So I would say something.

Keisha Toussaint (12:32.858)

Yeah, so I mean, you know, what's important is asking a lot of questions. Again, you could be in this space for 10 years, you're always learning something new. So I learned something from my colleagues. I learned something from my manager, I learned something from my direct support, from my peers, it's important to have an open mind and to ask questions, because it's not a one size fits all approach, right?

And like we go back to the point of being having a customizable approach, you know, that's important. I think what's important too is understanding like if they were coming into a new company, how would they want to be treated? What would they want to see having that insight? And I feel like if you're already working in the HR space, you must love it or you must like it to sometimes have to be having to do with people.

on a day-to-day basis. And what's so special about my role is that overseeing people and culture, it's really what it is, people and culture, and onboarding plays a factor to that, and really just creating that experience. So, you know, anyone that would be joining our team or coming on board, especially working at Betches, is learning to be funny, to be approachable, to be fun, and...

most importantly being helpful because that's the environment that we want to create for our employees and knowing that they have someone to come to if they had any questions.

Erin Rice (14:10.814)

Yeah, and the most hilarious person you've ever met. I think I saw that on your website. That's amazing. So you mentioned that this newer generation is pretty vocal. Is there like a formal opportunity for a feedback loop for them to improve the process as they go through it?

Keisha Toussaint (14:14.79)

Oh, yeah, the funniest, the funniest person in your group chat for sure.

Keisha Toussaint (14:26.594)

Yeah.

Keisha Toussaint (14:33.546)

Yes, so are you referring to like the onboarding process? Oh yeah, absolutely. So this is something I had implemented when I came to Batches is having an onboarding, well, a new hire survey. So that's typically sent after their first month. And then what I wanna do for this year is incorporating like 90 days. So.

Erin Rice (14:38.28)

Yeah, yeah.

Keisha Toussaint (14:59.606)

from 30 days versus 90 day of having like a touch based conversation with our new hires like checking in to see how things are going. Because in the first 30 days, it's like, oh my god, this is great, this is fun, I'm excited. I want to know if you're keeping that same energy post three months. So, you know, like having like checking in with them to see how things are going. But we really utilize our surveys and just asking questions. That's really intentional. And, you know, we want them to be honest because

the more honest they are, it helps us better improve our process. And we take feedback really, really serious in terms of like, okay, like we felt that the new hire orientation was really long and boring. We would like to see you explain benefits a little bit more, or can we talk a little bit more about the company? Like things like that, you know, potentially could pop up, but just ensuring that we're getting the feedback and we're actually implementing it for the future.

Erin Rice (15:47.868)

that you know, can actually pop up, but distance during that, we're getting the feedback and we're actually implementing it for the future. And you know, as much new heights as we have coming in, looking at the status and the play, they've been doing this for a while now. So that's what we've been actually doing including a couple of times in all of these. That's awesome. And sort of managing the post honeymoon phase, not to keep bringing it back to dating, but I mean, that's kind of what it is, right?

Keisha Toussaint (15:58.768)

And as much new highs as we have coming in, looking at the fairways on a quarterly basis and just making sure that we're keeping up to date and improving our process as we go along.

Keisha Toussaint (16:14.914)

Absolutely. Yeah, we talked about dating at Beckett's too, so that's a good connection to it.

Erin Rice (16:22.746)

That's amazing. So AI is all the buzz. We can't have a conversation around automation and personalization and customization without bringing it up. I'm curious, have you all sort of dipped your toe into AI? How are you using tools? Are you, are you kind of apprehensive? How are you feeling about?

Keisha Toussaint (16:27.077)

Oh.

Keisha Toussaint (16:33.25)

Mm-hmm.

Keisha Toussaint (16:41.146)

Yeah, I mean, personally for me, I love AI. And chat GBT is not GPT. Yeah, chat GPT is kind of my new bestie because like just finding like ways to like improve like the tabularity and making sure like, okay, these are my thoughts, so you make it for me. AI has changed the game in some sense, but like I feel like it's important too because

We don't in our processes, we don't use it to automate things. Like it's very much person to person. Um, but it does help like improve process or like changing around like learning or maybe just giving suggestions. Like that's how I use AI in terms of what suggestions they like compared to like, this is what we currently have. How can we, we revamp it like to what's trending and of course by doing research and stuff like that. So, but me, I am a huge advocate for AI.

I'm all for it.

Erin Rice (17:40.026)

I noticed in your company's swags where they have a Karma is my boyfriend sweatshirt, we need like a Chat GPT is my bestie. Can we make that happen?

Keisha Toussaint (17:47.398)

Right listen i'm gonna talk to our team, because it needs to happen, I am so in love with Ai and. i'm sorry I feel like I use it more so like as a just like enhancement tool and I don't solely rely on it because, again, I always want to think with my brain and keeping myself sharp but it's a little help from my little robot.

Erin Rice (18:09.758)

Yeah, it's about saving that bandwidth so that you can be more present with the humans, right? For sure. I did a training recently through Greenhouse and they were saying only 62% of HR professionals are using any type of AI to assist in their world. And I'm like, what? Like, I want to talk to the other, yeah, I want to talk to the other percentage and be like, you're missing out. Like, it is.

Keisha Toussaint (18:14.782)

I love that. I'm taking it. Oh yeah.

Keisha Toussaint (18:22.581)

Uh-huh.

Keisha Toussaint (18:31.31)

We need to up that number. Yes.

What? It's a game changer. Oh man, I tap into it and I was like, this is for me, I love this.

Erin Rice (18:42.794)

Yeah, that's awesome. Okay, so my last question I like to end with is what is the one thing that companies can do to create a wow moment for their new hires?

Keisha Toussaint (18:54.53)

Hmm. I would say investing in your employees, investing in them, making them feel appreciated. I think what is something that I see companies do, but I would love to see more companies do it, is putting more thought into like, everybody loves free stuff, free swag. So making it customizable even to, like I said, connecting it back to managers, maybe writing them a cool note. Like we're so excited to have you.

on the team, hits the flag and everyone on the team signs it. And something that I would love to incorporate soon, you know, being at VETS is having a buddy program. I think that that's so major of having like a buddy or like a mentorship program for every new hire that they have that go-to person to kind of maneuver the day to day and all through wherever they see fit.

I feel like having that is important. So companies out there who don't have a buddy program, I think that should be implemented across the board because it is so helpful just to really just like, hey, I have a question about this instead of like being afraid because they don't know that individual. It's kind of like building like a work bestie from the beginning, you know, then having to like network and meet everybody. I feel like that could be a really big moment for

Erin Rice (20:11.516)

that people can get open, have a kind of network to meet everybody. I think that could be a really good moment for companies in their new hire process. Yeah, that's great. Having somebody that's not your boss to ask a question. Exactly.

Keisha Toussaint (20:20.95)

companies in their new hire process.

Keisha Toussaint (20:26.734)

Exactly, exactly. Because you never know, your boss might think like, all right, I'm the person asking so much questions. But for me, I love when people ask me tons of questions. I feel like no question is stupid, because I probably could be thinking that question, or may not have the answer to it. So questions are always, always good.

Erin Rice (20:43.716)

Yeah, we have a FAQ page. Everything that we get asked in the onboarding, we put it in there because chances are somebody else missed that information. That's great. Yeah, for sure.

Keisha Toussaint (20:49.642)

I love that. Exactly, exactly. And it's really helpful.

Yeah.

Erin Rice (20:57.682)

Awesome. Well, this has been so amazing. I definitely have some ideas of things I want to do in my own department, but I've loved connecting with you and hearing all your thoughts. Thank you so much for joining us.

Keisha Toussaint (21:00.626)

Yay!

Keisha Toussaint (21:05.878)

Yes.

Keisha Toussaint (21:10.286)

Yes, thank you so much. It's been my pleasure and such a great conversation. And you know, thank you so much for having me on the podcast.