Successful Onboarding: Strategies to Unlock Hidden Value Within Your Organization

Why did I choose this resource?

I chose this resource to learn more about the importance on an onboarding system and how we can improve our current onboarding process.

What did you learn from it?

I learned that an onboarding program is extremely important for the success and retention of new hires. It is also important to review and improve the onboarding process.

Key Knowledge

• One third of new hires leave in the first 2 years
• Tactical onboarding leads to a more productive employee faster
• Initial onboarding should include training for a new hires first 12 months
  • systematic onboarding should be continuous
• “Onboarding Margin – the value that employees realize is the opportunity not just to earn a paycheck but also to attain respect, achievement, and “self-actualization.””
• All personnel in a company should have a part in onboarding new team members
• Four Phases of Onboarding
  • Prepare
    • Complete paperwork before first day
  • Orient
    • Traditional welcome package / orientation
      • Company strategy and culture
  • Integrate & Excel
    • Available mentoring support
    • Feedback from supervisors and coworkers
    • Opportunities to socialize
    • Planned education
    • Career planning advice
• Four Pillars of the Onboarding Margin
  • Early Career Support
    • discuss long term career goals on the first day
    • align assignments with the long term career goal
    • offer guidance, insulation, and remediation
  • Cultural Mastery
    • corporate culture – company’s mission and values (POV – management, employees, and the marketplace)
    • organizational culture – the manner in which employees think and behave
    • extremely important the culture supports the mission and values
      • “cultural audit” – group interview with employees to check on alignment
  • Interpersonal Network Development
    • connect new hires with current employees (similar job areas)
      • reduces risk of isolation and improves professional success
      • “structured social programs” for a new hires first year
  • Strategy Immersion and Direction
    • onboarding should include how the new employee will add to the company strategy and how they will develop strategic thinking
    • openly share corporate strategy in layers; explain which strategies are most important and why
• Continuously review and improve the onboarding program
  • “internal discover”
    • focus on the most important requirements and how to achieve them
  • “external benchmarking”
  • “opportunity identification”
  • “obtaining organizational validation and buy-in”
    • all team members recognize the significance of an onboarding program

How are you using what you learned?

I am using what I learned to improve the current onboarding program.

Key Changes / Key Actions

• Include more personnel in the onboarding process
• Discuss creating a new hire portal

Source

• Name : Successful Onboarding
• Author : Mark A. Stein and Lilith Christiansen
• getAbstract.com: Link to Book