HRMN-Onboarding

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Shaping the Future: Why Start an Onboarding Program?

In This Chapter

• General benefits of an onboarding program • Benefits for the business • Benefits for managers • Benefits for employees • When onboarding fails and why

Understanding the Benefits of Onboarding Consider the following facts:

• “A full one third of external hires are not with the organization after two years. … Less than one third of executives worldwide are positive about their onboarding experience. … Almost one third of executives who joined organizations as an external hire miss expectations in the first two years. … Almost one third of employees employed in their current job for less than six months are already job searching” (Morgan 2017).

• “Formal onboarding increases the chance of keeping a new employee for at least three years by 69 percent” (Lombardi and Laurano 2013).

• “Only one half of new hires rated their onboarding programs highly” (Boatman and Erker 2012). • “According to a study from Equifax, more than half of all employees who left their job in the past year

did so within the first 12 months” (Forbes 2017). Onboarding affects business results, and when it goes wrong, it means time and financial losses. These

include company investments in recruitment and selection as well as initial L&D efforts. For example, on average, companies invest between $4,000 for a frontline employee and $50,000 or more for an executive for recruitment and selection, including:

• identifying and defining the need for the job • revising the job description • creating and announcing the job posting • receiving, monitoring, and screening resumes • preparing interview questions and interviewers • scheduling and conducting interviews • selecting candidates • administering assessments (if applicable) • negotiating employee contracts • completing background checks • tailoring benefits • completing paperwork.

In some instances, the company may have to add travel expenses to interview candidates as well as

C o p y r i g h t 2 0 1 8 . A s s o c i a t i o n F o r T a l e n t D e v e l o p m e n t .

A l l r i g h t s r e s e r v e d . M a y n o t b e r e p r o d u c e d i n a n y f o r m w i t h o u t p e r m i s s i o n f r o m t h e p u b l i s h e r , e x c e p t f a i r u s e s p e r m i t t e d u n d e r U . S . o r a p p l i c a b l e c o p y r i g h t l a w .

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relocation costs if these are part of the employment offer. In addition, many companies secure the services of external headhunting services to hire executives, which represents additional costs.

TOOL The “Recruitment and Selection Task Checklist,” located at the end of this chapter, is useful for verifying that all recruitment and selection tasks are completed before the new employee arrives.

Unfortunately, many organizations underestimate the value and benefits that a solid onboarding program provides for the business, managers, and employees regardless of level. However, other companies invest significantly in onboarding programs. For example:

• Kimberly-Clark’s website introduces potential candidates to its People Philosophy (welcome, dream, grow, win, celebrate, live well, and give back) so they can explore how to “unleash their power” at the company. The website also explains the entire application process and includes useful resources, such as tips for resumes and social media as well as on-site, telephone, and video interviewing. Upon hiring, new employees have access to another password-protected website that streamlines the onboarding process by allowing them to complete paperwork before their first day.

• At Zappos, regardless of role, new hires participate in four weeks of customer service training. This introduces them to the entire process of handling customers. After the first three weeks of training, Zappos extends “The Offer” to anyone who does not consider themselves a good fit for the company. This payout, which fluctuates between $2,000 and $4,000, becomes the last screening mechanism for selecting employees who are best suited for the business before incurring any additional costs.

• At Cleveland Clinic, the video “Empathy Series: The Human Connection to Patient Care” is used to show how the hospital establishes connections between patients and staff. It is often used as a tool to promote interest in working at the clinic. “The Cleveland Clinic Orientation Welcome” video highlights the organization’s culture of caregiving and the high standards to which new employees are accountable. It’s one of many resources designed for employees across career paths to support their development and growth.

Effective employee onboarding programs set the foundation for employee engagement beyond those first months we typically call “the honeymoon period,” where the employee is figuring out what to do and what to avoid doing in the new workplace. Employees who undergo onboarding programs typically express higher levels of engagement with their companies and their positions because they feel valued and supported. They understand their employer’s value proposition and brand because they can see the connection between what the company says and what it stands for. Employee onboarding programs allow organizations to strengthen their brand and attract top talent capable of assuming other roles in the future as part of the company’s succession planning process. The benefits of onboarding extend to the business, managers, and employees.

Benefits to the Business Employees feel welcomed and valued when companies offer onboarding programs, which typically results in lower turnover rates. Less turnover, in turn, leads to considerable cost savings in recruiting, selecting, and training new employees; workforce stability also reduces productivity losses.

Employees are less likely to miss work when they master what they do. Onboarding can ensure a strong cultural fit, which also translates into lower absenteeism rates. Thus, the organization can expect with a higher degree of certainty that its workforce will be available to complete the work without having to incur overtime costs to cover its needs on short notice or to resort to contingency employees on a long-term basis. In addition to increased costs, companies have to consider the effects of physical and mental fatigue on employees who work overtime, particularly over extended periods, and the subsequent risks of such practice.

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A reputation for solid onboarding programs becomes a competitive advantage for top talent because such companies are attractive for employees who want to advance in their careers and have options for global mobility and technology-enhanced opportunities for job flexibility. Through their onboarding programs, companies demonstrate that they are willing to invest in the development of their employees and their success from the moment of hiring. Top candidates who can choose where they work and how they work are more willing to seriously consider what these companies have to offer. Therefore, the overall qualifications of the candidate pool become more solid, which converts into a better qualified and more competitive workforce to achieve business results.

Valuable relationships begin to be established during participation in company onboarding programs. Employees gain a deeper understanding of the company culture and can identify who will be able to support them as well as whom they will need to support in given situations. Higher levels of collaboration and communication between employees and across the organization are often a consequence of those initial contacts. The time that it takes newcomers to be accepted and integrated into the company’s culture shortens because those interactions foster familiarity.

RESOURCE In Jeanne C. MeisterThe 2020 Workplace: How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop, and Keep Tomorrow’s Employees Today, and Karie Willyerd (2010) offer projections about workplace trends that can help you develop practices fitting today’s technological world.

An up-front investment in an employee’s onboarding, particularly in the role-specific component, leads to higher levels of productivity in a shorter amount of time. An employee with proper onboarding starts beating the learning curve at a faster pace from the first day on the job than one without.

Onboarding programs that convey consistent messages about the company’s brand allow employees to identify with the brand, internalize it, and promote it among internal and external clients. As the company’s brand comes alive for employees, that positive first impression leads employees to form a stronger bond with the company itself. Subsequent company brand reinforcement generates a spiraling effect that, in turn, serves to attract clients and job candidates.

RESOURCE The video “An Insider Look at Microsoft HK MACH Program for Graduates” includes many testimonials about Microsoft’s academy and its impact. It highlights the importance of building a culture of collaboration that leverages multiple diverse development opportunities and technology to empower and support its employees.

Onboarding also allows organizations to address policies, laws, and regulations about harassment, domestic violence, equal employment opportunities, and occupational health and safety through a single voice that becomes a mechanism for proactive risk management. When companies spend time discussing

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these issues instead of simply relying on employees reading and interpreting those documents on their own, not only do they convey the information consistently to all new employees, but they also show that these issues are important.

An employee’s sense of emotional connection with the business increases as a result of gaining another perspective about the organization and its culture through a company’s onboarding program. As employees begin to understand how they can contribute to the success of the business, their level of engagement increases. Higher levels of employee engagement are consistently associated with higher revenues and profitability. In the words of industry leader Ken Oehler, global culture and engagement practice leader at Aon Hewitt (2017): “Improving engagement can pay dividends: a five point increase in employee engagement is linked to a three point increase in revenue growth the following year.”

PRO TIP Provide new employees with a firsthand glimpse of what it is like to work at your company by enlisting current employees to share their experiences.

Further, Gallup’s report for 2015-2016 states that “disengaged employeesState of the American Workplace cost the country somewhere between $450B and $550B each year.” Thus, investments in employee onboarding become investments in employee engagement.

RESOURCE Brian Baker and Brad Warga (2010), in “Building Excitement for Opening Day: A Case Study on New Employee Engagement at Harrah’s Entertainment,” describe how Harrah’s changed its onboarding program into one that would lead participants to understand their cultural fit and improve business metrics instead of only developing skills.

Feedback from new employees during onboarding programs gives organizations information about what they need to address to be more effective to satisfy their emerging talent needs. This unique opportunity to retrofit the company’s recruitment, selection, and onboarding processes delivers competitive advantages by allowing companies to anticipate the needs of its current and future workforces. They can use this information to design mechanisms that address those needs before the competition does, thus increasing the prospects of having more qualified candidates for positions and reducing the likelihood of new employee turnover and its associated costs.

When employment is stable, HR staff can spend more time addressing business-related workforce issues than completing transactions and paperwork. Likewise, management can focus on running the business with the right people in the right place, instead of constantly worrying about replacements, handling disciplinary issues related to attendance and productivity, and meeting short-term business needs.

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Benefits to Managers Onboarding is designed to initiate and foster contact between employees and their managers from the start, thus encouraging communication. Open and honest communication between managers and employees is important because it’s how managers convey important business information, control the work that is done, and motivate employees to complete tasks. Communication further influences the outcomes of the employee-manager relationship, especially when managers can identify the best way to share information with every employee.

The beginning of the employee-manager relationship during onboarding is the best time for them to determine what to expect from one another. Role-specific onboarding grants multiple opportunities for managers to interact with their employees, get to know them, clarify roles, and align expectations. Managers can optimize the time spent in individual meetings, on-the-job training, and department orientations, as well as setting up coffee and meal breaks to get to know employees. Time invested at the beginning of the relationship leads to better understanding of what the manager and the employee need from one another, as well as what each will give and receive. Clearer definition of role boundaries and greater time spent producing results are also outcomes of this initial stage of the relationship. In addition, managers can spell out individual and team responsibilities at the department or unit levels, reinforcing how tasks are distributed across the team and thus promoting team efforts when these are relevant.

Through planned and unplanned interactions that are part of onboarding, employees and managers learn to trust one another as they get to know one another. Trust is a fundamental component of the employee-manager relationship that transcends the boundaries of everyday interactions and often accounts for that extra discretionary effort from an employee that translates into higher performance, productivity, loyalty, and engagement. Moreover, trust contributes to creating a safe work environment where managers and employees can take risks and innovate, knowing that they can rely on one another.

RESOURCE Stephen Covey (2006) provides the foundations for leaders to create a culture of trust in The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That

. The book takes readers through five waves (self, relationships, organizational, market, and societal) that makeChanges Everything establishing trust actionable.

Benefits to Employees Employees meet key individuals within and outside their own departments or units with whom they will interact throughout their careers during general and role-specific onboarding programs. These interactions go beyond traditional presentations of ever-changing organizational charts, and contribute to building valuable relationships that will facilitate their work in their new roles. These relationships may take additional meanings later on, as employees start to consider different career options within and outside the organization. For instance, peers from the same department can share information about dos and don’ts in the workplace, peers from other departments can provide insights on how other areas of the business are run, and supervisors and managers can become formal or informal mentors.

As employees participate in onboarding programs, they learn what to do and when to do it, thus requiring less support and increasing their own sense of self-efficacy and self-assurance on the job. Employees who are comfortable within the culture of their companies and their departments become effective business contributors and demonstrate higher levels of satisfaction with their positions and companies. When employees are satisfied with their jobs, they are more likely to stay.

As employees learn more about the company, where it has been, and where it is going, as well as experience what it is like to work there, they establish a robust link with the organization. A stronger

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connection with the business gives employees a sense of career stability because they see themselves as part of the present and future of the company. They can also visualize their career path in the company, thus their commitment to the workplace increases.

Open discussions about company culture and realistic job previews, even before the selection process is complete, allow potential employees to make better choices about where they want to work, based on their own experiences and preferences. These discussions let candidates make informed decisions when they receive an employment offer and later confirm that they made the right choice because they fit well with the company’s culture. Therefore, any impulse to quit after the first setback diminishes significantly.

RESOURCE The 2016 Deloitte report challenges onboarding program designers to stay up-to-dateThe New Organizations: Different by Design on workforce trends.

The bonds employees build during onboarding with their managers and peers also provide a support system that reduces stress and anxiety levels related to their new roles. When employees know that they can count on a strong support system of professionals who know what it is like to work in the company and can offer valuable advice to handle different situations based on lessons learned, they are more capable of focusing their energies on the tasks at hand and succeed at them.

If Onboarding Fails Like many other company programs and initiatives, onboarding programs don’t always deliver the expected results. It is the L&D function’s responsibility to identify the cause if the program fails.

Given onboarding’s significance, a successful program is essential. As you think about your own company’s onboarding program, you want to avoid any potential pitfalls that could make it unsuccessful. Even though onboarding programs typically fail because of insufficient planning, time, and resources, there are other not so obvious reasons that can make a difference in the outcome of your program, including:

• onboarding and reality don’t match • lack of employee engagement with the onboarding program • no compelling business case for the onboarding program • lack of sense of belonging or recognition, especially if the employee is left to have lunch alone • employee misfit with the company

RESOURCE Talya N. Bauer’s 2010 report introduces trends and prospective tendencies inOnboarding New Employees: Maximizing Success onboarding programs that are valuable for program designers who want to prepare their organizations for the workforce of the future.

• ignoring diverse needs, metrics, and accountability • a “do it yourself” mentality, where no one assumes responsibility or ownership for onboarding

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• programs that focus only on employee benefits • unavailability, lack of involvement, and lack of guidance from managers • information overload at a high-speed pace • misconstruing onboarding as a checklist or time to complete orientation paperwork • skipping definition and discussion of company expectations, and delaying explanations about how the

employee will contribute to the business • assuming new employees will understand how their role fits within the organization without providing

detailed information • assuming unwritten rules are self-evident • believing that a full agenda of activities and events for the employee to meet key people depending on

the role is unnecessary • explaining how performance will be evaluated at the time of reviews • expecting employees to perform the role on their own without giving enough time to develop a basic

level of role mastery.

TOOL Use the “Onboarding Program Audit Checklist” located at the end of this chapter to audit your program and avoid any pitfalls on your way to success.

Being Proactive for Success Onboarding is a process that demands a thorough understanding. By knowing its benefits, you will gain full ownership of the program. Onboarding is the first step in the employee’s life cycle, whether they are new to the company or to the role. Because failing in onboarding is not an option, you need to take a proactive stance to make the program a success.

In the next chapter we will guide you through the five phases to design your onboarding program.

Questions to Explore • How much does your company invest every time a new employee joins the organization? • When calculating the investment in a new employee, which tasks does your company include? For

instance, does it include the salaries of HR staff and costs of printing materials? • What are the most important benefits of onboarding for the business that your company has

identified? • Has your company acknowledged that onboarding programs have benefits for managers? If so, what

are some examples? • Has your company considered the potential benefits of onboarding programs for employees? If so,

what are some examples? • Have any previous onboarding efforts not produced the expected results? If so, what did your

company do? • What will you tell your company’s management and leaders about the benefits of onboarding?

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Tools for Support

Recruitment and Selection Task Checklist Use the results of this tool to identify which tasks still need to be completed before the new employee’s arrival.

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Onboarding Program Audit Checklist Use this checklist to audit your onboarding program and avoid any pitfalls on your way to success. The items that you check as “no” will point you to factors you need to address to avoid failure. Turn them into action items to strengthen your program.

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Additional Resources Aon Hewitt. 2017. 2017 Trends in Global Employee Engagement: Global Anxiety Erodes Employee Engagement Gains. www.aon.com

./engagement17

Baker, B., and B. Warga. 2010. “Building Excitement for Opening Day: A Case Study on New Employee Engagement at Harrah’s Entertainment.” Aon Hewitt. .www.aon.com/attachments/harrahs.pdf

Bauer, T.N. 2010. Alexandria, VA: Society for Human Resources ManagementOnboarding New Employees: Maximizing Success. Foundation.

Boatman, J., and S. Erker. 2012. Development Dimensions International. Global Selection Forecast 2012. www.ddiworld.com/DDI ./media/trend-research/globalselectionforecast2012_tr_ddi.pdf?ext=.pdf

Bradt, G., and M. Vonnegut. 2009. Hoboken, NJ: JohnOnboarding: How to Get Your New Employees Up to Speed in Half the Time. Wiley & Sons.

Carmody, K. 2017. “7 Ways to Measure the Effectiveness of an Onboarding Program.” SilkRoad, August 30. www.silkroad.com/blog/7 .-ways-measure-effectiveness-onboarding-program

Cheng, A. 2017. “On Holacracy, Customer Service, and ‘Zappos Anything.’” eMarketer Retail, April 7. https://retail.emarketer.com ./article/zappos-ceo-tony-hsieh-on-holacracy-customer-service-zappos-anything/58e8084eebd4000a54864afc

Cleveland Clinic. 2013. “Empathy: The Human Connection to Patient Care.” Cleveland Clinic’s Empathy Series, February 27. www ..youtube.com/watch?v=cDDWvj_q-o8

Cooper, B.B. 2018. “Onboarding Best Practices: How the Smartest Companies Turn New Hires Into Great Employees.” Foundr, May 3. .https://foundr.com/onboarding-best-practices

Covey, S.M.R. 2006. With R.R. Merrill. New York: Free Press.The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything.

Deloitte. 2016. “The New Organizations: Different by Design.” Deloitte University Press. Global Human Capital Trends 2016. www2 ..deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/HumanCapital/gx-dup-global-human-capital-trends-2016.pdf

Forbes Coaches Council. 2017. “Seven New Onboarding Strategies You’ll See This Year.”Forbes Community Voice, January 30. www ..forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2017/01/30/seven-new-onboarding-strategies-youll-see-this-year/#1b9f3f387b4d

Gallup. 2017. “State of the American Workplace.” .https://news.gallup.com/reports/199961/state-american-workplace-report-2017.aspx

HCI (Human Capital Institute). 2016. “The Unrecognized Potential of Onboarding and Offboarding: Getting the Most of the On-demand Economy.” HCI, May 19. .www.hci.org/hr-research/unrecognized-potential-and-boarding-getting-most-out-ondemand-economy

Kimberly Clark. n.d. “Careers.” .www.careersatkc.com

L’Oreal Talent. n.d. “Careers at L’Oreal.” .https://careers2.loreal.com

Lombardi, M., and M. Laurano. 2013. Aberdeen Group. Human Capital Management Trends 2013: It’s a Brave New World. www ..aberdeen.com/assets/report-preview/8101-RA-human-capital-management.pdf

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Meister, J.C., and K. Willyerd. 2010. The 2020 Workplace: How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop, and Keep Tomorrow’s New York: Harper Business.Employees Today.

Microsoft HK. 2016. “An Insider Look at Microsoft HK MACH Program for Graduates.” September 8. www.youtube.com/watch?v .=KoW5FjtUrYU

Morgan, J. 2017. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.The Employee Experience Advantage.

PwC. 2016. December. .The Future of Onboarding. www.pwc.com/il/he/bankim/assets/pwc-the-future-of-onboarding.pdf

Sims, D.M. 2011. New York: McGraw-Hill.Creative Onboarding Programs: Tools for Energizing Your Orientation Programs.

Stein, M.A., and L. Christiansen. 2010. . NewSuccessful Onboarding: A Strategy to Unlock Hidden Value Within Your Organization York: McGraw-Hill.

WeareDNA. n.d. “Onboarding Website: Kimberly Clark.” Our DNA Case Studies. www.wearedna.co.uk/case-studies/onboarding .-website-kimberly-clark

Zappos Insights. 2018. “Sharing the Zappos Culture With the World.” .www.zapposinsight.com

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