Good Beginnings Make Good Employees

Good Beginnings Make Good Employees

Christopher Demers, CP, SCP, SPHR

Christopher (& Chewy)

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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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