Getting your new hires up to speed takes time, but without a positive onboarding experience, many employees lose interest. Here are five ways to keep up the momentum—and engagement—in those first few days.

So, you sent an offer letter, the candidate accepted, and now you’re ready to sit back and congratulate yourself for a job well done. Your bit isn’t over just yet. You’ve still got to onboard. For new hires, the first few days are hugely important to their future work performance, their job retention, and their overall satisfaction. Research conducted by IBM found that when employees have regrets about accepting a new job, they are three times as likely to leave. However, positive employee onboarding experiences can be a crucial first step for everyone you welcome into your organization.

But before you drop a payload of paperwork on your new hire all at once, here are five ways to maximize your onboarding, and keep new employees happy and excited about their career decision.

1. Start Onboarding Before Day One

This one sounds like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at how many companies wait until the last minute—or the day of—to start onboarding a new hire. The fact is, the sooner you begin, the more up to speed your new employee will be before he or she starts. It’s important to consider your employer branding—if you’re giving new hires the silent treatment between the offer letter and their first day, you’re already sending them the wrong message. Personal touches like an email that walks them through their first day, a welcome pack with a personal note or card, or even a phone call from a manager, can help ease anxieties.

More pragmatically, the time before a new hire starts is prime to begin the dreaded paperwork process. No one wants to spend their first few hours, or days, sitting in HR working their way through a mountain of forms, so send them important documents such as employee handbooks, I-9s, payroll forms, and non-disclosure agreements beforehand. Even better, set up a portal that contains digital versions of important documents that employees can complete during downtime, or throughout the week, rather than in one long sitting.

2. Make the Process Cross-Departmental with Collaborative Onboarding

Pairing up your new hire with a seasoned employee to teach them the ropes is a tried-and-true method, but maybe it’s time to try a collaborative approach, which builds rapport with other teams much faster than one-on-one onboarding. It’s a challenge for any one department to know the answer to every question to arise during onboarding, so it makes sense to rely on each team for their area of expertise—HR knows compliance; management knows performance expectations; coworkers know the day-to-day, and IT knows how to get equipment up and running.

Social-media-manager app Buffer assigns every new employee three buddies during their onboarding—leader buddy, role buddy, and culture buddy—as a way to give “a variety of interactions within and outside of their core areas”. This allows them to see how their new role fits in with the larger company structure, and can lead the way to future collaborations between departments, especially if your new hire comes in with strong ideas for projects or improvement.

3. Arrange One-on-One Time with Direct Managers

According to a recent LinkedIn survey, which polled 14,000 global professionals about preferred onboarding techniques, 96 percent responded that spending one-to-one time with their direct manager is the most important aspect of their onboarding experience. Entry-level and veteran hires benefit from learning about their responsibilities and expectations, and it gives them an opportunity to lay a solid foundation for a key work relationship. Studies show that greater supervisor support in a new hire’s first 6–21 months result in greater job satisfaction, higher engagement, and quicker salary increase over time.

4. Set Expectations and Goals Early

Uncertainty about job expectations and performance goals is a new hire’s worst enemy, which is why steps like establishing a relationship between new employees and direct managers are crucial to a new employee’s success. According to LinkedIn’s survey, understanding performance goals was the second most important aspect of onboarding. Setting goals and communicating them at the outset allows new hires to evaluate their own progress during their first few months. A formal performance review will help keep new employees on target, and allow for any course correction early on.

It’s also important you listen to new hires’ understanding of the goals and expectations. Maintaining communication will encourage even the most timid of new hires to voice honest feedback about what is or isn’t working for them—and may point out problems in your organization you didn’t know were there. SHRM reports that 38 percent of employees felt that when leaders dismiss their ideas without entertaining them, they tend to lack initiative. Don’t underestimate or waste a fresh perspective by discouraging open communication and feedback.

5. Double-Down on Company Culture, Values, and Principles

Eighty-one percent of new hires fail due to a lack of cultural fit, so proactively broadcast your company’s culture by sharing content on the company’s social media channels, include new hires in meetings or events, or feature the company history in the employee welcome packet. Be sure that your company’s Employee Value Proposition, mission statement, and guiding principles are all aligned.

At Zappos, employees who complete the five-week course focused on the company’s culture and values are offered around $4,000 to quit if they feel like the culture is not the right fit for them. Why? The company knows that poor cultural fit will impact employee engagement and performance.

Turning new hires into lasting employees isn’t rocket science, but with a thoughtful approach to how you onboard, you can set up your organization—and your new coworkers—for both short- and long-term success

Interviewing entry-level job applicants requires questions that emphasize their soft skills and capabilities in lieu of experience—here are five open-ended queries that every recruiter should keep in mind.

Recruiters who are interviewing entry-level candidates are tasked with evaluating the applicants’ motivation and potential, and this is particularly challenging when candidates lack any real professional experience. Asking about relevant school or internship experience can encourage them to think creatively about their accomplishments, but for more non-traditional candidates, here are five questions that should give recruiters a good feel for how the potential employee would perform .

1. What is your motivation for applying to this position?

While variations of this query often land on lists of interview questions not to ask, it’s important that candidates explain how their goals and qualifications are in line with those required of the position. Knowing why they chose to apply at your company will also give you insight into how much their values and principles align with those of your organization, and whether or not the candidates have potential for advancement within the company. Underwhelming responses can also be helpful in separating weak or unmotivated applicants from stronger ones.

2. How would you approach a superior with a suggestion, problem, or criticism?

The aim here is to grasp how candidates handle team dynamics. Even if they have not had many leadership opportunities, they should be able to convey an understanding of conflict resolution. Emphasizing these soft skills, rather than more technical skills, demonstrates candidates’ ability to perform their role on a team, tweak processes, or communicate with superiors.

3. How do you think your education/previous experience prepared you for this job?

This may seem like a trick question to candidates who don’t have much—or any—prior experience, but it offers them a chance to focus on experience working on a team, meeting deadlines, or communicating effectively. By asking the candidate to tell you what they see as their most valuable qualifications, you will get a great idea of how well they will fit to the role and with how much enthusiasm. The goal here is to see how candidates can problem solve to apply their relevant experience to the job requirements.

4. How do you see this role fitting in your career plan?

What entry-level candidates lack in experience, they should compensate for with motivation and future goals. This question should reveal why this experience matters to the applicant, how this particular role will help them achieve their ambitions, and the next steps in the career path.

5. What do you hope to gain from this role?

Entry-level job applicants will probably have much they want to learn, so pay close attention to what they say and compare it to the skills and experience listed on their resume. Much like the previous question, thoughtful responses should indicate what areas a candidate wants to improve, and how that will help them in the next stages of their career. You can then weigh this against your organization’s skills training programs and the metrics for success for that role to see if the time and resources spent training a particular candidate are worth the effort.

He wanted ideas on how older people (like me) could compete in the labor markets of college towns, where the competition for jobs can be quite youthful and fierce. I lived in San Rafael, CA, from 2003-2009. It is a college town (Dominican University of CA) in a region of academic abundance; USF, UC Berkeley, San Francisco State and Sonoma State are all within 30-40 minutes. I moved to the area when poor timing (slow execution, probably) led to the demise of my RPO startup. Since I was living like an expatriate – renting a room, away from my family – I decided to attend Dominican and finish my business degree. I chose to go through a traditional MBA program, rather than an executive program, which meant that many of my peers were in their early twenties. I was the oldest student in the program. This experience transformed how I see the talent landscape. It transformed me.

So, fellow boomers, this is what I learned. It may be tough to take, but I share because if you are looking for a job, be prepared to interview with and work for people who are young enough to be your kids. If your mindset sees them that way, you will likely come up short in your job search. And even if you get a job, this mindset will not help you gain satisfaction from work. I had a dear friend who was unemployed for over a year. She was hired by a non-profit in the green industry, but was hampered by this mindset. She couldn’t let go of the fact that her boss was her daughter’s age. It bothered her sense of order in the universe.

The first thing anyone over 40 needs to be able to do, if we want to compete successfully in the labor market, is let go of the idea that we are entitled to anything because of our wisdom and experience. We have to earn their respect. It is not a given. But, the truth is that these younger leaders “get” that they don’t know everything. They want our wisdom and experience. They just don’t want it delivered with heavy doses of condescension and disrespect.

It is really hard to make this transition. This is what helped me to do it.

First, I asked my kids for their advice. They gave me some really great insights. It changed how I related to them. If you don’t have kids, reach out to nieces, nephews, or your friends’ kids. Things you might ask about: cell phone text protocol, using twitter, using Facebook, when to use email vs. when to text, and any way of communication that you may think to be weird, fashionable, or pointless. What you will learn is that it is probably is a very efficient way to communicate certain information. Let go of preconceived judgements, and learn a different way to see your world.

Second, I worked on projects with much younger people. These were team projects for school, but other types of projects could be volunteer based, like Habitat for Humanity. This put me in a peer position. We had to work together to accomplish our goal. Working as peers enabled me to see with fresh eyes and realize how fortunate I was to work with such smart, capable people. We ate together. I learned about their world and they learned about mine. We became friends as well as colleagues. I didn’t realize how much I had changed until I was visiting my brother-in-law at Notre Dame University. He was hosting a brunch for some friends who brought their daughter who was in pre-med at a prestigious university. Jane* and I struck up a conversation which became quite lively, about school, travel, all kinds of things. I wasn’t talking to a pre-med student; I was talking to Jane. Later, her mom said to me, “you really know how to connect with her!” I wasn’t doing anything special. I just found Jane to be interesting and fun to talk with.

So called “young” people are pretty darned smart. They know tons of things and are great at ferreting out information. They can teach us. They want to share what they know. They want us to share what we know. This is wonderful.

The best thing a boomer can do to be competitive in this market is to make friends with the notion that we can collaborate, rather than compete, across generations. This mindset, combined with our knowledge and experience, will help us demonstrate our value and attract opportunities. When we see younger job seekers as potential friends and networking partners, we expand opportunities for everyone. There is nothing quite like the feeling one gets when hearing that a young friend refers to them as really smart, really cool and really valuable. Even better is being able to refer a great recent grad to a career opportunity. In fact, the 12% unemployment rate for those in their 20s and the 53% unemployment rate for recent grads, should tell you that the need for a better mindset in the job search is not limited by age.

To sum this up, the best way for Baby Boomers (like me) to find jobs in a college town is to make friends with students, learn from them, and leverage our experience and wisdom to work with, not against, them. When you go into the the interview, the hiring manager is thinking, what would this person be like to work with. Continue the best tested job search strategies (i.e., networking, informational interviews, and consider building up your social profile/s), but with this new mindset. It may be counter intuitive, but in my experience, it works.

Pat Sharp, The Talent Architect blends strategy, technology tools, and assessment tools with marketing magic to create unique talent solutions. Past and current clients include: Motorola, Deloitte, TiVo, and Cloudscaling. Visit The Talent Architect. Photo Credit New Yorker / Work Coach Cafe.

*named changed for sake of privacy