Aman Kidwai* says onboarding has evolved from a pleasant formality to a strategic initiative that employers need to get right.
Onboarding offers employers another way to drive retention and engagement beyond happy hours and office perks.
An employee’s first days with a new employer are critical, as they will have a significant impact on productivity and willingness to stay.
And yet, 21 per cent of employees rate their onboarding as ineffective or nonexistent, while another 46 per cent rated it “somewhat effective”, according to a recent Accountemps survey, leaving lots of room for improvement.
To organise a more complete onboarding experience, Leslie Deutsch, director of learning solutions at TEKsystems, recommends looking at it in three distinct phases: pre-boarding, orientation and onboarding, as outlined in a recent TEKsystems report.
In addition to lowering time-to-productivity and reducing attrition, improving onboarding impacts workplace culture.
Pre-boarding: Preparing for day one
Pre-boarding (or pre-onboarding) is the period between the day a candidate accepts a job offer and their first day.
The primary goals of pre-boarding are to validate the employee’s decision to accept the offer and to get new hires “excited to hit the ground running”.
With such intense competition for talent, organisations are often hiring candidates who don’t meet every single skill criterion.
Identifying what those potential skills gaps are in advance and having a plan for upskilling can ensure employees don’t feel underprepared as they begin to tackle tasks in their new role, according to Deutsch.
Some other ways to improve pre-boarding include sending information to help with moving, if the individual is coming from a different area, a schedule for the first few days, informing them of any public news around the organisation, directions to the office and a map of their floor or workspace, and collecting information for a short bio that will be shared with the organisation or team.
These are all simple touches that will help maintain a new employee’s excitement leading up to the first day.
Orientation: Getting the organisation’s story
As for the distinction between orientation and onboarding, the former is a discrete event whereas the latter is more of a process, according to the TEKsystems report.
While orientation is sometimes synonymous with onboarding, or the only form of onboarding that some employees receive, the ideal way to run orientation involves covering the organisation’s basics: an introduction to its history and culture, various leaders across the organisation and key dates or business cycles on the calendar.
Onboarding: Reaching success in a role
In addition to being more of a process than an event, onboarding is distinct from orientation in two key ways.
First, onboarding is the best time to dive into role-specific information, and second, the ongoing process of onboarding can last up to 12 or 18 months after an employee’s start date.
“The goal of this part of the program is really kind of giving them clarity on their role,” Deutsch said, adding that the focus should be on removing ambiguity and defining what success looks like, in the short and long runs.
This stage is also where learning and development and HR must be at their most creative and accommodating in partnership with frontline managers.
Together, they need to create a customised experience that fills any skill gaps the employee may have while also setting them up for sustained success, which can look different depending on the department, level of experience and the organisation’s goals.
“L&D plays a key, critical role, especially in orientation and those up-front phases,” Deutsch said.
Measuring success
For those who may be new to being in charge of onboarding, or tasked with revamping their organisation’s existing onboarding program, Deutsch highlights the importance of goal-setting and leveraging existing data from engagement or exit surveys to identify pain points in the current process.
Finding more ways to get frontline managers involved and customising the approach are generally good ways to drive improvement, according to the report.
Some obvious metrics include time-to-productivity as well as retention for employees that are six or 12 months in seat.
Deutsch said that qualitative feedback is important as well.
Speaking to hiring managers across the organisation to discuss their needs and any gaps from the previous modus operandi will be a strong complement to any existing data, she added.
A better onboarding program can ultimately lower the number of job openings needed to replace existing roles (non-growth roles) and the cost-to-hire, per the TEKsystems report.
Deutsch said, with respect to prioritising opportunities for improvement or where to spend increased investment in onboarding, it is important to have basic measurement and benchmarking processes in place.
* Aman Kidwai is Associate Editor of HR Dive.
This article first appeared at www.hrdive.com/news.
