KAITELYN PLOUDE

Employee Onboarding Package

As a rapidly growing organization, BayCoast Bank and its five subsidiaries was in need of a strong onboarding process that would set the tone for what being part of the BayCoast family is like. Being known as an organization that gives back to the community, the BayCoast senior team wanted all new employees to know that generosity starts first and foremost with treating employees right. To make a great impression with new hires, we decided to create an employee onboarding package that would be presented to all new employees at their first training with BayCoast.

Working with a trusted third party vendor as the lead on this project, the first step was sourcing items for the box. As a core philosophy, BayCoast believes in buying domestic products from local vendors so I started my search by looking for USA-made items that employees could use on day one at their new position. Being that this was the first thing the new hire would be receiving from the company, I wanted them to feel welcome and part of something that was more than just them. Ultimately choosing a hardcover notebook, a custom pen, a hot/cold cup, and a tin of dollar sign-shaped mints, the idea behind these items was that employees could hit the ground running once they arrived at their desk.

Under my creative direction, our third party vendor designed the box as well as the welcome card. The design of the box went through many evolutions before we settled on the final design. Initially, we were not going to brand the package with a company logo at all since we wanted the package to be versatile enough to be handed to a hire from any one of the five subsidiaries. However, since BayCoast Bank is the parent company, a decision was made to brand the box with the BayCoast Bank logo. It was important that the design of the box remained on-brand so we used the font Agenda in BayCoast Blue throughout the box design to remain in-line with the company’s brand standards. All items work within the brand’s color palette and are imprinted with the company’s PMS colors to ensure an exact match. Using a less-is-more approach, we included the company’s core values on the inside lid of the box and also on the items within the box. The idea here was that once the items would be taken out and used by employees, the new employees would be reminded of the BayCoast credo wherever they went, further supporting the company’s values.

Next, we decided to include a welcome card from the bank’s CEO. Drafting the letter for the CEO’s approval, I wanted to ensure a genuine, sincere tone was included in the messaging while also reinforcing the importance of the company’s core values. One of the wonderful things about the BayCoast corporate culture is that so many employees resonate with the credo and are proud to wear clothing with the logo on it out in the community. With that in mind, we included a $50 gift card to the company e-store for new employees to order custom logo apparel of their choice.

When COVID-19 came, we added another piece to the employee onboarding package. Again, sourcing USA-made items with local vendors, we purchased company gaiter masks as well as more traditional over-the-ear masks, thermometers, hand sanitizers, and alcohol swabs and packaged them into royal blue cinch bags. This was a great temporary addition to the onboarding box during a time that we wanted employees to be safe, especially at work.

Overall, feedback was overwhelmingly positive for the employee onboarding package. New hires have raved about the package and were excited to purchase corporate apparel of their choosing. With such a great response from employees, this package will remain a part of the onboarding process at BayCoast with intentions to evolve the package as the brand grows in the future.