Feifei Hello and welcome to The English We Speak. I’m Feifei…
Neil … and I’m Neil. I hear we have a new recruit joining our team today.
Feifei Yes, we have. It’s good to have someone new in the team.
Neil Yes, soon he’ll able to do all those mundane tasks I usually have to do.
Feifei I hope you don’t mean presenting this programme?!
Neil Of course not!
Feifei Anyway, before he does anything we need to do some onboarding.
Neil You mean like getting on board a ship?
Feifei Sort of. Onboarding – in business terms – is about a new employee familiarising themselves with the business and ensuring they have the right skills and knowledge to do their job. So, we need to make our new recruit feel at home.
Neil I can do that – but let’s have some other examples of onboarding first.
Examples We’re onboarding some new recruits today, so please make them welcome.
The onboarding process includes learning this new computer software program.
A familiarisation day is part of our onboarding strategy for all new employees.
Feifei This is The English We Speak from BBC Learning English, and we’re talking about ‘onboarding’, which is the process of a new employee getting used to the job at the business. Neil, how are you going to help with the onboarding?
Neil I can show him where the canteen is, where the biscuits are stored and how the coffee machine works.
Feifei So, he can make you coffee! I don’t think that’s how onboarding is supposed to work. It’s more about learning how to do the job.
Neil OK, I’ll show him how to do all my boring tasks.
Feifei And then what will you do afterwards – make the coffee?
Neil Probably! Do you want one now?
Feifei Yes, please.