Onboarding: Take HR Out of Day 1
Dr. Wade Larson
Workforce Evangelist, International Speaker, Author, Entrepreneur & All-Around Good Guy
Is it possible? Did I just defend all of my HR colleagues? How can a new employee survive without HR on the first day?
Think about it – we spend more waking hours at work per week then we do with anyone else including our spouse and family. And who do we spend those hours with? HR? NO! We spend them with coworkers, colleagues, and our boss.
If we are going to adopt new employees into our "family", we need to spend the appropriate time and take the best approach to help them prepare and acclimate into their new family environment as quickly and effectively as possible. Having an employee join the company on Day 1 only to be met with eight hours of PowerPoint or spending a week in orientation with people whom they will never work with again does not set the right tone for enculturation.
What if instead the employee is met with a day of fun, excitement, and settling into their new family environment and their new job?
You see, when I hire a welder, guess what a welder wants to do… That's right – weld! They don't want to sit in class for a full day watching slides, listening to lectures, or doing boring stuff. What if instead, there was no paperwork on day one? What if we could get them out into the workplace and fully engage with their coworkers? What if we could set a vision for how they fit into the company, the department and the current projects over the next few weeks, few months and few years? What if we took them to lunch and helps them to get to know their coworkers and new supervisor a little bit better? What if they went home on the first day…and when their significant other asked them the question, "Honey, how was your day at work?" they were able to say, "That was the best day of work in my entire life"...what does that do for our new employee?
Here are five ways to make this a reality.
Prepare.
The new onboarding experience happens long before the first day. Consider getting the new employee paperwork in their hands the moment they accept the position. Use your onboarding technology to have them fill out forms, process paperwork, and do all of the legwork before they arrive on day one. This can eliminate hours of frustration, boredom, and irritation on the first day. Answer the most common questions that they have BEFORE they arrive so they are ready to go the moment they step in through the door.
Acclimate
Your next step is to acclimate the employees into their workplace quickly. This means helping them to get around and meet coworkers, colleagues, supervisors, and others as quickly as possible. This does not mean that they will remember their names after day one, but it will help them to feel at home and comfortable with the people you are going to work with.
Engage
Next, engage employees in their jobs. Get them working on day one. Sure, there are some procedural elements that may be different that you will need to help them work through on the first day. However, allowing them to feel connected, part of the company, and contributing to the end results even on day one will help them to gain loyalty and commitment to the new company.
Develop
Help them to understand what the game plan is not only on day one, but through week one, month one, and throughout the first 90 days and the first year. Help them to understand that you have a plan for them and would like them to continue to grow and develop.
Retain
Even though you just hired them, you must help them to understand that your goal is to retain them. Remember that during the first five days of their employment, they are going to decide either consciously or subconsciously how long they are going to stay with the company. About 64% of employees who have a bad experience during the first few days are going to leave the company during the first six months of employment. It is critical that we take the appropriate steps to have a good experience right away.
As you can see, none of these recommendations include HR being a part of the delivery on the first day. For more thoughts on ways to improve the first day and initial experience for employees, stay tuned or watch for the materials to come out from SHRM's National Conference last week and my presentation from the Monday Mega Session!
Feel free to reach out at any time!
Here's to your success!!
Wade
Dr. Wade Larson
"Be the Leader in the Room"
Continuous Improvement Specialist at A-dec Inc.
5 年Love this
(Leader + Speaker + Board Advisor) < [Kewl...ish] Boy Dad | Founder of decodingCyber.com | I make cybersecurity easy to understand
5 年Very interesting. It is a relatively easy step and can go a long way to help build a culture centric on employee well being/satisfaction–assuming the company values that perspective and wants to build that type of culture.
Supporting, Promoting & Applauding inclusive hiring practices and employee retention programs
5 年I agree that on-boarding should begin prior to Day 1 and that the new employee should spend the majority of their day with their new team but there should be HR introduction and campus tour on the first day.??
Saved over $500,000 per year in payroll and workers’ compensation costs by analyzing time and attendance data and daily process workflows.
5 年Most of the data for on-boarding should have already been gathered from their application.? I think on boarding should take no more than an hour, and then they get handed off to the manager for introductions.?
Human Resources Specialist Global MBA, MHRM, PHR, SHRM-CP
5 年Oh yes, orientation and on boarding are entirely two different things.