good beginnings make good employees
TRANSCRIPT
Good Beginnings Make Good Employees
Christopher Demers, CP, SCP, SPHR
Christopher (& Chewy)
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– Christopher Demers
– @ChristopherinHR
• HR Blog
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Onboarding
• What Is It?
• Why Does it Matter?
• Challenges & Solutions
• Done Right
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First Things First…
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Forget About the Table
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Onboarding: The Recipe
• Re-establish the purpose
• Get the right people involved - broadly
• Map out the process diligently
• Focus on delivery excellence
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What Is It?
• Onboarding – how many of you do it
– What do you do
• Department level or agency
– Who’s responsible
• Onboarding vs Orientation
– What’s the difference
• What does a successful on-boarding look like?
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What Is It?
• What does successful on-boarding look like?
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What Is It?: Summary
• From compliance to inclusion
– Who owns onboarding
• HR owns it, but everyone counts
– The data is right there
• You can check your results today
– Inclusion matters
• A differentiator for you
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Why It Matters: Cost
• 60% of turnover related to post-hire shock
• Nationally, one third of total TO <6 months
• Hourly, one half in first six months
• TO costs ~ 50%-150% of annual salary
• It takes the avg person six weeks to commit to a new position
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Why It Matters: Culture
• Culture is the Way we Work - Branding
• Establishes Baseline Expectations
• Shows existing Employees you Care
• Shortens the Timeline to Performance
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Why It Matters: Summary
• Effective Onboarding integrates new hires more quickly shortening time to productivity and increasing retention
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Challenges
• Onboarding is really really hard
– Few organizations do it well
• There’s a lot going on
– Lots of moving parts
– Many players
– Differing expectations
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Implications?
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Solutions
• What’s the purpose
• Map out the flow
• Identify key touch points
• What is our consistent message
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Challenges
• The Discontinuity Gap
– Not what I thought
– Not what I heard
– Not what I want
• Disconnect between pre & post hire
– The team interview
– We like debate
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Challenges
Solutions
• Ensure the story matches the reality
– Why did you join us
– What are you looking for
– Where can you get support
• These questions can be addressed in interviewing
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Challenges
• Presentation Paucity
– Information is vague, inaccurate
– “You can get that later”
– Apathy is palpable
– Quality is not apparent
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Solutions
• Put your best foot forward
– This is a big deal – make sure people care
– Keep people from getting burned out
– Get execs involved: how should they support you
– Show new hires quality matters
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Challenges
• Information Overload
• Information Starvation
• Information Confusion (or, death by web)
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Challenges
Solutions
• Start big picture
• Concentrate on how new hires find information
• Sequence delivery in terms of priority
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Challenges
• Inconsistent message
• No real message
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Solutions
• What is the overall purpose
• Does your messaging support that – time away?
• Are all the coaches/presenters on board with that
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Challenges
• Limited time with new hires – focused on compliance not inclusion
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Solutions
• Set expectations – onboarding is a process
• Departments own the biggest piece
• Review short-term goals and measurements
• Ensure people know they’ll be getting feedback
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Challenges
• New Hires themselves not used to an effective onboarding experience
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Challenges
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Solutions
• Separate orientation and onboarding
• Orientation is an important first step
• Onboarding continues for months
• Everyone participates
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Done Right
• People
• Process
• Tools
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Done Right Takes All Hands on Deck
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Done Right: People
• Onboarding starts with recruiters
– Realistic job preview
– Expectation-setting
– Rational career pathing
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Done Right: People
• Who’s Who?
– Roles/responsibilities
– Names & nomenclature
– Introduce workmates
– Acronyms
– Salutations
– Org charts
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Done Right: People
• Executive presence counts
– Personal greeting
– Video/link
– Messaging in Sync?
• Review plans and results
– History
– Projection
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Done Right: People
• Study buddies work
– Mentors
– Pals
– Study buddies
– Guides
• Whatever the label, they work – if trained well
• Not OJT based on tenure
• Not sink or swim
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Done Right: Process
• Schedule the first week
– Get new hires involved
– Modicum of free time
– Introduce yourselves
– Act like you need them
– Develop tasks
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Done Right: Process
• Departmental focus on job duties and competencies
– What counts
– How we measure
– Who we serve
• Deliver information in chunks, over time
• Information overload is dead – real-time is what counts
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Done Right: Process
• Leverage the unique aspects of public service – Ties to the community
– Fairness and inclusion
– Service first attitude
– Career centered, not job-focused
• Quality of work/life balance in the public sector – Tremendous advantage
– Enables happier employees
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Done Right: Process
• Provide lots of feedback
– Manager
– HR
– Coworkers
• 30/60/90
• Milennials like feedback
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Doing It Right: Process
• Offer tasks and timelines
– Learning happens by doing: set objectives
– Spread objectives and tasks over time
– Create a multiple “to-do” tasks centered on service
• People like to be challenged and they like deadlines
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Done Right: Tools
• Survey new hires
– 7/30/90 days
– What’s missing
– What’s worked
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Done Right: Tools
• Infrastructure Really Matters
– Badges
– Phones
– IT Access
– Computers
– Workspace
• Use workflow tools if you have them
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Done Right: Tools
• Budget realities
• Purchasing requirements
• Job aids
• Policy resources
• Goals and Objectives
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Onboarding: The Recipe
• Establish the purpose
– What’s the Goal?
• Get the right people involved broadly
– Takes a cross-functional team
• Map out the process diligently
– People, Process & Tools
• Focus
– Deliver an excellent experience
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