Sudhir Singh is a global HR leader in San Francisco Bay Area. He is the Vice President at Pro Orgs and an Excellence Coach at XL Work Life.
getty
We all know well begun is half done. Yet many organizations have a weak and disorganized onboarding program. Most of the hard work recruiting teams and hiring managers put in to get the best talent in the door is wasted when the new hires are poorly oriented to the organization, their teams and their roles. The people team would do a great favor to the organization by putting a robust onboarding program in place. Implementing an automated solution would have a limited impact in absence of a strong philosophy.
Prioritizing the three Es during the onboarding program makes it powerful and meaningful. Let us unpack these Es and how to implement them.
The First E: Experience
Each interaction that a candidate has with an organization creates and bolsters the image they will carry about the organization in the future. This process starts right at the point where the candidate goes through the job description, researches the company and applies for the job. Even the first interaction with the recruiter comes much later in the process. The candidate has had multiple moments of truth by then. Many organizations have started to understand the importance of creating a great candidate experience and are already focusing on it. Their efforts have further intensified with the war for talent becoming hotter than ever.
However, most candidates report a drastic change in their experience of the organization immediately after accepting the offer. The warmth goes missing, response times deteriorate and the communication becomes spotty. The majority of the goodwill created in the hiring process is lost quickly.
A good onboarding program wouldn’t just maintain the experience level for the candidate but intensify it further. It should be easier given that there is only one person to focus on for the given position and not multiple candidates. Treating the prospective hire respectfully, providing a white-glove treatment and starting to build relationships with them shall create memorable experiences. The onboarding program must ascertain that various people in the organization (i.e., the hiring manager, HRBP, IT and workplace team members) are able to effectively communicate with the prospective hire from the time of offer acceptance to joining the organization. Defining the areas and mode of communication shall ensure that there is no repetition of information overload.
There is enough said already about the importance of the first day on a new job so I will not go into details. I might reinforce though that people tend to remember the first-day experience more than other experiences that follow. The spirit of treating the new hire well must continue beyond the start date, through the onboarding process and eventually merge with the organization’s employee experience program.
The Next E: Engagement
Ensuring that the interactions with the company and its people are great experiences for the candidates already creates a strong foundation for building engagement. A sense of engagement is reinforced by displaying care and inclusion. The executives, hiring manager, team members and the HR team have a big role to play. Making themselves available for formal and informal interactions, sharing their faith in the organization’s strategy and values and reinforcing the importance of the position being filled are some simple and effective ways to build engagement.
Letting the new hire have ownership of their outcomes early in the onboarding process has been known to create better engagement. Most new hires come into a new role filled with fresh ideas and high energy to execute them. Giving them their space and opportunities to contribute enhances their engagement with their role, team members and the organization.
The Last E: Enablement
Getting the new hire to be productive at work is the best outcome for them and the organization. The onboarding program needs to have an effective ensemble of inputs required for the new hire to succeed at work. It is important to realize, however, that starting a new job can be overwhelming. The new hire’s mental capacity is already consumed by myriad tasks and stressors. The onboarding program needs to be carefully structured to include the information and knowledge critically required for the new hire’s immediate success.
Instead of dumping the new hire with all the information they will ever need, design your program to include cultural and functional knowledge. The new incumbent is likely to have the skills to do the job already—that's why you hired them. The cultural and functional knowledge is completely new to them. Most of the initial failures and delays happen due to the lack of understanding the cultural and functional aspects that are unique to the organization. The onboarding program must share the specific product and customer information, cultural norms, do's and don’ts, organizational structure, work and information flow, mythical success stories and failures and anything else that shall ensure a better understanding of the organizational context. Keep it light and make it interesting. Create and share stories. Human beings are apt to learn better through stories compared to bullet points in a PowerPoint presentation.
The hiring manager must plan to spend quality time with the new hire during the onboarding period. Answering questions, providing the context and clearing any blockages are key actions for the hiring manager. Including a buddy program does wonders for accelerating the enablement process. Learning from peers is less threatening and more effective. Care must be exercised in choosing the buddy or mentor. It is important to ensure that the buddy has the willingness, time and knowledge to help the new hire. Create a repository of online bite-sized learning modules that can be accessed and referred to as needed.
The onboarding programs enriched with these three Es will be more effective in setting new employees up for success. Remember KISS: Keep it simple, silly! Overdesigned onboarding programs are no good—they damage more than they help. Get regular feedback from the new hires and fine-tune your program constantly.
Forbes Human Resources Council is an invitation-only organization for HR executives across all industries. Do I qualify?
