a case study: building vale’s global onboarding program
DESCRIPTION
Global companies face the day-to-day challenge of developing their human capital in a faster, consistent, and better way. One size does not fit all anymore! One global organization, headquartered in Brazil with more than 119,000 people, including employees and contractors, working on 38 countries in five continents is not different. In this case study, you will learn all the steps that made this organization’s global onboarding program a successful case.TRANSCRIPT
A Case Study: Building Vale’s
Global Onboarding Program
TU 116
Desie Ribeiro
General Manager of Education
and People Development
Marta Enes
Director of
Educational Technology
You will learn
• All the steps that made this organization’s global onboarding program a successful case.
• How to engage stakeholders worldwide and to build an effective and motivated network of local HR professionals.
• How to design a global onboarding program for all levels of the organization taking into consideration cultural and profile differences.
Introduction
The onboarding process affects all Vale employees, located in over 30 countries
around the world.
Despite the cultural differences inherent in global work operations,
Vale employees perform a wide range of activities, supervised by global and
regional HR managers.
Presented with these characteristics, how can we create a global
onboarding program?
Affero Partnership
Affero is a leading Corporate Education company in
Brazil. It aims to be the key partner of top
organizations in the country, supporting the
implementation of organizational strategies through
a complete understanding of business needs and
the effective combination of products, services and
people.
It has been Vale’s strategic partner for 8 years,
developing and implementing several projects
involving the training and development of its
employees worldwide, Knowledge Management and
other initiatives.
affero.com.br
To create the new onboarding program, a diagnostic study was performed.
The necessary data was collected and analyzed in order to answer to three main
questions.
Introduction
Who are we and
how do we act?
Who are we and how do we act?
To determine who are the people that make Vale the second largest mining
company in the world and how these people act, we considered the following
aspects:
Employee profiles
Current onboarding
scenario
Cultural aspects
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# 1 global Iron ore producer
# 2 world nickel producer
# 2 metals and mining company in the world
# 21 company in the world1
Market cap of US$ 131 bn, on Mar 05, 2012
20 hours/day of trading: BM&F Bovespa, NYSE, Euronext and HKEx
3rd most traded ADRs in the NYSE in 2011,
ranked by trading volume
Revenues (2011): US$ 60.3 Bn
EBITDA (2011): US$ 33.8 Bn
Net Earnings (2011): US$ 22.9 Bn
¹ Ranking of the 500 largest companies in the world by market cap – Financial Times
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38
38
39
54
54
107
131
186
NEWCREST
NORILSK NICKEL
GOLDCORP
FREEPORT
XSTRATA
ANGLO AMERICAN
RIO TINTO
VALE
BHPB
Market capitalization2
US$ bn
2As of March 05th, 2012
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2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Who are we and how do we act? Vale
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An illustration: Vale in 1997 was a Brazilian exporter company with 10,865
employees¹
Legend
Operations
Offices
Exploration offices
Headquarters
Brazil
China Japan
USA
Belgium
¹ Vale’s employees including third parties
Who are we and how do we act? Vale
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Vale in 2012 is a global company with more than 140 thousand employees¹ around
the world…
¹ Vale’s employees including third parties
Who are we and how do we act? Vale
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…with a diversified business portfolio
Copper Coal Steel minority
investments
Energy
302 thousand tons 4.51 / 2.82 million tons
Logistics Nickel Fertilizers Iron Ore
323 million tons 242 thousand tons 7.4 million tons of phosphate
rock
Who are we and how do we act? Vale
Operation of ports and ~
10 thousand Km of railroads
Hydro Plants in Brazil, Canada
and Indonesia
2 operations (joint-ventures)
and 3 projects
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Excellence
Do what is Right
Improve Together
Make it happen
To be the No 1 global natural resources company in creating long-term
value, through excellence and passion for people and the planet
To transform natural resources into prosperity and sustainable
development
Passion for people
Life matters most
Value our People
Prize our Planet
Mission
Vision
Values
Who are we and how do we act? Vale
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Our challenge:
To be the No 1 global natural resources company in creating long term value, through excellence, with passion for
people and the planet.
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Research to gather social, cultural and work characteristics of the
employees, regions and countries that may affect the onboarding design
and delivery.
Who are we and how do we act? Vale Employees Profile
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In order to construct a global process, the cultural aspects of the initially mapped
countries were analyzed. To organize the actions, it was defined that the countries
should be divided into four large groups in accordance with their interests.
Besides religion and communication the criteria used were those established by
Geert Hofstede:
Who are we and how do we act? Cultural aspects
Power
distance
index
Uncertainty
avoidance
index
Long term
orientation
Individualism
Masculinity
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High-context communication, strong Uncertainty Avoidance Index, large
Power Distance Index, Catholic and Collectivity(Except New Caledonia
that is individualist).
• Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Who are we and how do we act? Cultural aspects
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Group 1
• Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
High-context communication, weak Uncertainty Avoidance Index,
Feminine large Power Distance Index, Collectivitiy and Catholic (except
Guinea that is Muslim).
Who are we and how do we act? Cultural aspects
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High-context communication, large Power Distance Index, Collectivity,
weak Uncertainty Avoidance Index (Oman has a strong UAI) and
Muslim (exceptions, Singapore is mainly Budhist; China is politically
defined as Atheist).
Group 1
Group 2
• Group 3
Group 4
Who are we and how do we act? Cultural aspects
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Low-context communication, weak Uncertainty Avoidance Index,
Masculine, small Power Distance Index, Individualistic and Catholic.
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
• Group 4
Who are we and how do we act? Cultural aspects
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Deve entender a importância de gerenciar
a implementação do GO Vale na sua
regional.
Devemos comunicar a sensação de
dono no process relativa à organização
e disparo do GO localmente.
New hire and the regional HR were also
interviewed in a focal group conducted
in Carajás.
In Brazil, in addition to the interviews, a
“Mystery Employee” was sent to
participate in the current onboarding
process in Rio de Janeiro.
The current scenario of Vale’s
onboarding process was studied in
several countries.
HR managers from the locations were
interviewed to determine not only what
the process is like, but also the gaps.
Who are we and how do we act? Current onboarding scenario
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What do we
want to be?
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Vale’s executives involved in the onboarding program were asked to provide
information on strategic guidelines and business goal alignment for the project.
Key stakeholder requirements were used as input to the onboarding
process design, measurement and materials.
What do we want to be? Interviews with key-stakeholders
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What do we want to be? Benchmark
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In addition to the survey with other companies, we consulted the best-in-class
program survey (source: Aberdeen Group). These are some of the results:
increase of 31% iof new hire retention rate;
reduction of 24% in the time for productivity;
reduction of 12% in the cost per new employee.
The study of the Aberdeen Group indicated that the performance of the best-in-
class presented :
a success rate of 84% in relation to fitting the culture;
a success rate of 68% in socialization.
What do we want to be? Benchmarking
How do we
get there?
To depict the manner in which we will achieve the objectives we propose it is
necessary to determine:
How do we get there?
How do we get there? Who are we going to focus on?
How do we get there? What should we resolve?
Management
Informartion/
training
Infrastructure
Process
Comunication
How do we get there? What should we resolve?
Incomplete, outdated, non-motivational, unbalanced and unorganized contents
and materials.
Lack of guidance from Vale’s head offices regarding the onboarding process and
contents.
Lack of qualified and motivated local HR personnel to develop materials and
conduct the onboarding process.
The onboarding program is short, lacks efficiency and optimization.
Deficient communication process between the company and employees and
between employees.
New hire motivation rates drop very quickly.
Leadership uninvolved with the onboarding process; Lack of engagement from managers.
New hire work tools, including IT, are not promptly provided.
Rethinking
the process
As we have seen in the previously presented gaps, three categories stand out:
information/training; communication and infrastructure.
This indicated a need to redesign the onboarding process by re-modelling the
areas that do not either satisfy the needs of the stakeholders or maintain good
practices.
Rethinking the process? Phase II
Rethinking the Process? Phase II
Sep 3
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 1 Step 3 Step 4
1. 2. 3. 4.
Review list of
Gaps and
requirements
related to
each part of
the workflow.
Re-design the
workflow to
eliminate gaps
and meet
requirements.
Outline
the
existing
workflow
Design
instrucional
strategies and
materials to
support the
workflow.
1. 2. 3. 4.
Program Deployment
Rethinking the Process
Rethinking the Process Current Scenario
• Company and employees profile.
• Key-stakeholders interviews.
• Benchmarking.
• Gap Analysis.
An easier way sell the new process:
• Risks and Opportunities (impact x probability).
• Checkpoint with stakeholders to validate strategies.
• Workshop with pilot countries:
a- planning best training session methodology for
implementation;
b- training sessions and tools validation with local onboarding
facilitators.
Rethinking the Process Change Management
Implementation Game
Rethinking the Process Change Management
Rethinking the Process Communication Plan
The expected benefits are:
We want to comunicate:
Processes Ownership Care for
Employees
Trust Belonging Integration
Rethinking the Process Management Model
The Management Model integrates People, Resources and Technology
Process
Tools (checklists, guides and
references, templates and
communication pieces)
Resources
Technology People
Administrative Portal
User Portal
HR Systems and Softwares
Regional HR and
SSO
Hiring Managers
Trainers
Corporate Structures
(HR Processes,
Health and Safety,
Environment,
Communication, IT,
etc)
Center of Expertise
(Corporate)
Models and
Guidelines
Applicability
Feedback
Onboarding
Sponsors
(HR + SSO +
Communication
Directors)
Strategies and
Guidance
Results of the
Program
Local Onboarding
Focal Points
(Regional HR)
Cultural Groups
1 2
3 4
Workflow
Rethinking the Process Management Model
Rethinking the Process Performance Support, Education, Communication
The global onborading program is composed by 5 macrosteps
Monitoring My Role
and My Business Area
Educating on Vale
and Our Business Day 1 Before Day 1
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1 – Select new hire
2 – Onboarding setup
3 – Infrastructure and working tools
4 – Hiring procedures
5 – Current employees awareness
and orientation
6 – New hire first welcome
7 – Area and functional onboarding
8 – Follow up and evaluation
Divided in 8 shelfs, each one with an objective:
Rethinking the Process Performance Support, Education, Communication
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Toolboxes, designed to different target audiences are displayed on each shelf.
Rethinking the Process Performance Support, Education, Communication
HR regional Hiring
Manager
Current
Employees New Hire
Tools are grouped in boxes aligned with each activity’s objectives.
The categories are:
Communication
Education
Performance Support
Rethinking the Process Performance Support, Education, Communication
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We have created tools to support a change management plan in order to
engage managers and current employees.
Several tools help our employees to properly inform new hires.
Rethinking the Process Communication
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Rethinking the Process Education
At Day 1, besides training the new hire, we should engage
them by presenting our Mission, Vision and Values and
teaching them how to find more information about their areas
of interest.
If the new hire does not achieve a satisfactory
result in the learning evaluations, there are tools
that will support Learning & Development teams in
planning reinforcement activities.
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Rethinking the Process Performance Support
GO Vale Portal
Conclusion
This study was broad and complex and it involved
several areas of the company worldwide.
It provided inputs to create GO Vale (Vale’s Global
Onboarding Process), with structured processes,
well defined roles and responsibilities and support
tools for all the activities.
Now the HR professionals in the filed and
corporate areas should work together to create
a welcoming culture for the new hire,
guaranteeing a productive, integrated and high
performance work environment.
Conclusion
Thank you!
Desie Ribeiro
General Manager of Education
and People Development
Marta Enes
Director of Educational Technology
affero.com.br
