149. The 5 Secrets To Great Onboarding, Part 2

If you haven’t read?this article yet, read it.

OnBoarding Myth #1:

Onboarding an employee mostly entails having them fill out forms for HR.

No siree Bob. Or whatever your name is.

Onboarding is to filling out forms like vanilla extract is to German chocolate cake: it’s important but it’s just a wee bitty element in the entire process.

OnBoarding Myth #2:

Onboarding is always driven by HR

Nope. In fact, aside from the forms and, perhaps, helping to coordinate across departments, HR doesn’t partake in the bulk of the onboarding process.

OnBoarding Myth #3

Current employees shouldn’t be concerned about the onboarding process.

Lies, I tell you! It’s all lies!

All employees are part of a good onboarding process. Even more, your job satisfaction is influenced by the effectiveness of the onboarding process. So pay attention, punk.

The Importance of OnBoarding

To borrow some words from the great guru Michael Stipe, the primary purpose of onboarding is to create?shiny, happy people .

Happy people become productive employees who are committed to the company’s success. Happy people are ecstatic to be part of the team. The shiny part is just an extra bonus.

Remember that old cliche: you only get one chance to make a first impression. As it turns out, it’s true.

You could win or lose an employee’s long-term job satisfaction due to a poor first impression. That’s where the onboarding process becomes very important.

A company’s onboarding process is a direct reflection of the company and its culture.

Great onboarding helps new employees learn about their roles and learn about the company culture. Great onboarding also engages other employees to help generate the feeling of inclusion.

The Five Secrets to Great OnBoarding

There are five areas that are critical to all great onboarding experiences. They are:

• Paperwork
• People
• Culture
• Comfort
• Expectation

The acronym is PPCCE. It’s a crappy acronym, I know. But, listen, I’m no acronymologist, I just come up with the concepts. If you can think of better words for a more memorable acronym, be my guest.

Here’s a brief overview of each of the areas:

PAPERWORK

This is the process of educating new employees about company policies and procedures, including legal gobbledy-gook, health care benefits, employee handbook, and any other necessary requirements. The process is usually managed by HR.

The paperwork is often filled out on the employee’s first day at work. Personally, I think that’s a bad idea.

I’m not an HR person (I just play one on TV), but it seems to me that the smart move is to delay the paperwork mumbo-jumbo until the employee already has a few days of work under their belts. That way the HR person can also act as a sounding board to assess the efficacy of the on-boarding process and quickly fix anything that’s broken.

PEOPLE

Getting new employees integrated with other people in the company is one of the most important aspects of the onboarding process.

A few paragraphs above, I said that every employee is involved in onboarding. Well, this is the part where it matters.

Remember that feeling on the first day of a new school where you don’t know anybody? It kinda sucks. You just want connection. That feeling is still there when you start a new job. There are a bunch of ways companies can address this. Here are three ideas:

• Welcome Emails: Have employees send welcome emails to the new employee the day before they start. That way when they log into their inbox for the first time, they already have a bunch of greetings. That little thing sure feels good.
• Onboarding Buddy: Assign an onboarding buddy for each new hire. The buddy can/should be in a different department. That buddy’s responsibility is to introduce them around to key people, be a resource for basic information (where do I park? what are work hours? what are the company politics?), and take them to lunch on the first day. The onboarding buddy should always rotate to different people.
• Stop-bys: Employees should proactively stop by, introduce themselves, explain what they do, and offer to be a resource.

CULTURE

Culture is everything. Remember that when you think of your current onboarding experience. What is your onboarding experience saying about your company culture? What do you want it to say?

Employees, on day one, should get an understanding of the company culture. This, too, can be done in a plethora of different ways. Here are a few:

• Culture Code:?Have a leader walk through the company’s?culture code . Have employees (and the onboarding buddy) also talk about the culture.
• Tchotchkes: Provide the employee with items that exemplify the culture. Maybe it’s a tent card with the core values listed. Maybe it’s a bunch of branded gear. Perhaps it’s some other fun tchotchkes that are reminders of the culture and values.
• Live What You Believe:?Other employees’ behavior will speak volumes about the company culture. Has leadership set expectations for everybody in an onboarding process? If the culture involves inclusion, what are you doing to exemplify that to new hires?

COMFORT

All too often, somebody starts a new job and there is no desk for them to use or no computer to do work. The lack of planning immediately shows the new hire that they are not a priority. That’s bad.

Make sure the new hire can feel comforted the moment they walk in.

• Somebody (reception, their boss, their buddy) should be waiting for them in the morning, approach them immediately, speak to them by name, welcome them and begin getting them acclimated.
• Everything they need (computer, internet, comfy chair, desk, whatever) should already be in place, set up, and in working order.
• Somebody (their buddy), should sit with them and give them the rundown of all the little things they need to know (e.g. primary productivity tools, where snacks are kept, best time to have lunch, indication of when workday ends, etc)

EXPECTATION

It is critical that employees fully understand their new role. After all, it may be different than what has been going through their mind during the interview process.

Make sure they are clear on what needs to be done and any expectations around it. For instance:

• When to?show up for meetings
• Planning and organization requirements
• Milestones to achieve
• Reporting structure
• Decision-making process
• Expectations for the first 100 days

There’s a lot more that can be unraveled here, but I’ll leave that to your creativity. Suffice to say, the onboarding process is iterative - it can always improve.

What is your current onboarding process saying about your company culture?

I’d love to hear! Leave comments.