Onboarding & Talent Development of New Employees: What We Can Learn From Elephants And Neuroscience

It’s likely that you’ve at one point or another been a new employee at a company. Did your first day make you feel welcome, or do you remember feeling overwhelmed, confused, and lonely? The onboarding process of new employees can have a huge impact on that new employee’s involvement and perception of the company.

Small things during the onboarding process can make the difference between an employee being completely engaged and immersed in their work, or their watching the clock to see when it strikes 5 - or the hour when they get to leave. So, what can we learn from elephants and neuroscience about creating a more welcoming environment for onboarding employees??

Nature and Collaboration

In the animal kingdom we find examples of creatures that run-in packs and rely on teamwork and collaboration. They are good examples for us to learn how to collaborate and engage as we too rely on others. In the business world, without people, our business is unlikely to survive and be profitable. The people who run the business - and the employees - are ultimately responsible for the business’ success.

The video above showcases how teamwork can improve a person’s experience when onboarding. Watch the video and you’ll see that the elephants all join together to welcome the new herd member (a rescued baby elephant). They move as a unit and introduce themselves as a team. They give the impression that they’re all in this life together.

This kind of collaboration is key for a healthy work environment. When people feel that they are in an environment where they matter, they are much more likely to feel loyalty to the company and to their coworkers. It makes the entire work process much more enjoyable when you feel a sense of camaraderie and belonging.

What can we learn from these elephants that we can do in order to create a warm and safe environment for new employees? First, it’s important to understand how employees feel when they start a new job.

How New Employees Feel

In life there are some people who feel confident in any environment, however, these people are fairly rare. Most people feel tentative in new environments, and some people are actually quite shy. Nearly everyone will feel a little more sensitive in new environments, so there is the potential for small slights to be felt as more discouraging than usual.?

Almost everyone can relate to feeling intimidated or anxious about doing something new, meeting new people, and being in an unfamiliar environment. It can be an overwhelming experience to learn new systems and processes. If that experience isn’t sweetened with a welcoming reception and friendly co-workers, then that can quickly result in a new employee who dreads going to work every day. An employee who could become a passionate advocate for the work he or she does, can turn into an employee who merely shows up to do the minimum.

As a business owner, manager, or boss, this isn’t the ideal employee to have. While it’s easy to blame the employee for their lackluster attitude, it’s not right. There’s so much that can be done in order to influence an employee’s disposition towards their work, and a large part of that lies in the onboarding process.

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Lessons We Can Learn From Elephants:

Greet the New Employee With the Entire Team

?Notice how the elephants not only came rushing to greet the new herd member,

but you can hear the excitement in the sounds they are making and see it in their fast pace.

Not just one member came, no, the whole herd came and right away.

They tried to ensure the baby was safe, to connect, and to gently find out the baby’s needs. They all took turns speaking to it and showing care through touch and smell. In turn, you can see the baby’s happy reaction in response to this warm welcome.

This type of “all hands” group welcoming may not always be possible for your large organization, especially if you are constantly onboarding new employees, however, having the new employee meet most of the people they will be working with can be a huge relief for the employee. Why? Imagine coming into work every single day and barely knowing anyone. It’s a cold environment. Now imagine coming into work every single day, knowing your co-workers’ names, and having connected with them in some way, shape, or form. It’s a completely different experience, right? This is what you have the power and responsibility to create for new employees.

Now, how can you actually put this into practice?

Simply have a team meeting, where you gather the team and welcome the new employee(s). It doesn’t have to be formal, but it should be a casual opportunity to introduce oneself and be introduced to others. Also, if your team is working remotely, consider hosting the event virtually. The key here is to make the welcoming ceremony meaningful.

Here are a few tips in creating meaningful relationships in that welcoming ceremony:

Tip #1: Share something that you cherish or value and share it in the form of a story.

For example, let’s say you volunteer or support a particular not for profit cause, however no one knows that, nor do they know why. It turns out your younger unfortunately brother died due to depression and since then you have always supported organizations that help people cope with mental illness. When someone from your team now learns that from you, they will be more likely to see you as someone they can have a deeper connection with. So don’t be afraid to share what you value in the form of a story.

Tip #2: Lead by example.

?When you see the herd of elephants rushing to greet the new herd member, who do you see leading the charge?

You guessed it, it’s the

CEO (Chief Elephant Officer).

While in large organizations it may not be possible for the CEO to meet each and every new hire, why not the most senior person available join the welcome ceremony? It is very important that senior leaders model their excitement and engagement with the new employee, providing very attentive listening when sharing stories. When senior leaders demonstrate their respect and appreciation for the new hire, this sets the foundation for everyone to respect and appreciate them.

Assign a Mentor

New employees are often overwhelmed with new information and as a result, they have many questions that they may not feel comfortable asking. By assigning a mentor, they are automatically given a person they can lean on, trust, and build a relationship with. Soon they feel comfortable enough to ask those awkward questions.

The mentor could also spend time to provide advice and offer subtle feedback to management in terms of what could help the new employee succeed. (Otherwise, it sounds like the mentor might tell on the employee). One could even have the mentor meet once prior to the official first day at work to have a familiar face to look forward to. This all allows for a smooth transition into the new working environment.

For Managers, it is important to ensure that you are being fair and that the same person is not being made the mentor all the time, as their own work will be impacted. Since mentors are fairly confidential with their mentees, please be discreet when celebrating mentors (a small but genuinely appreciative meeting, perhaps over a meal, rather than a company-wide recognition ceremony.)

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Talent Development of the New Hire

?While it is very important to hire candidates that are a “cultural add” and not just a “cultural fit” to your organization, it is also very important to nurture the talent once they are onboarded to the organization.

?Here are some tips on how to nurture the talent:

?Tip #1: Coach not Manage:

?A Gallup study of 100 million employee interviews shows that 70% of the variance in the highest engaged teams and the persistently disengaged teams in just the manager.

?Gallup also discovered that the best managers coach rather than direct or administer. Therefore, it is very important that the new hire and his or her manager have a meaningful coaching session in order to identify the key strengths and goals of the new hire, and from there take the goals and aspirations of the new hire that also align with the company’s and help them pursue a career path.

?The manager, along with the help of the company’s employee engagement officer, can connect the new hire to other employees with a similar talent or interest, and connect them to opportunities within the organization that will help them achieve their long-term goals. If there is no in-house opportunity, assist them by connecting them to educational institutions as well as to organizations within their community.

?Tip #2: Allyship

According to the NeuroLeadership Institute, allyship is defined as “using one’s power or position to support or advocate for coworkers with less power or status.”

In the above video where all the Elephants came to see their new herd member, because it was a baby elephant, all of the bigger elephants tried to surround and protect it. That is how they knew best to use their power to advocate for its safety.

?A 2021 survey shows that employees who have strong allies at work are:

? 65% more likely to be happy with their job

? 86% more likely to suggest their organization as a great place to work

? 40% less likely to feel burned out, and,

? 53% less likely to contemplate leaving their organization.

It is important to educate white collar leaders about the concept and power of allyship in the organization, and at the same time to let the new hires know that they are invited to reach out to any leader within the allyship program that they feel might be a good ally for them, the supervisor can help them find the right ally too. During the initial conversation, the ally is recommended to ask the new hire what allyship behaviors are most important to them.

It is important that the ally ask the new hire about how they can best support them because latest research shows that there tends to be a mismatch between what the ally thought was a good way of showing allyship vs. what the person of less power or status expected from the ally. For example, a 2021 Women in the Workplace survey revealed that women of color indicated that promoting equitable opportunities for them was allyship behavior most impactful, whereas white employees said speaking out against discrimination toward women of color was most critical.

I will share an example from my personal life about meaningful allyship and how to make it part of a great onboarding experience.

At one of the organizations I had joined, on the very first day on the job, one of the senior most leaders in that building came to greet me with a very warm welcome and a big smile. He welcomed me so warmly that I took it to heart and remembered it always.

The senior leader did not stop there. He knew that I was a deeply religious person and that I didn’t just pray once a week but actually prayed 5 times a day. That meant there would be some times during work hours that I would need to find a quiet and private place to pray.

?I will never forget it, when he said to me:

“Fahim, I know how important prayer is to you, as such, Cathy (not the real name of the assistant) and I had scouted the building before your arrival and we think we have found just the right room for your prayers. So please come with us so that we can show the room and you can let us know if this will work for you.”

My heart melted.

I followed them as we went through different corridors and the elevator to a very

beautiful conference room - it was just perfect! It was spacious enough to pray in the direction I needed, clean and quiet.

That day, when I said my prayers, tears kept falling down my eyes for this kind gesture that I was shown; to be able to practice my faith with ease.

To me, that is an example of successful allyship. That leader and his assistant (because she was just as caring as him), knew what I valued most and what might I find challenging in the organization to practice, so they both did their best to help me and make it one of the most touching and memorable onboarding experiences for me. They also addressed what type of support I needed at that time.?

To summarize:

Let new hires know that your organization supports allyship and that they are free to reach out to Senior Leaders who are part of that program. Supervisors can help new hires determine who may be a good ally.

At the same time, train senior leaders on the importance of allyship and how it is essential that they ask what allyship behaviors are most important to the person seeking their allyship and to support them accordingly.

The onboarding team could ask the new hires if there is anything they could use support on prior to their arrival. They could share what they have helped some of the previous new hires with.

This is because, some of the new hire may be shy or embarrassed to express their needs as they don’t want to be impose or stand out from the group. However, by you sharing with them, it will help them admire your organization even more and they may even share this story with their family and friends. For example, one person may need a place to pray, another person might have back problems and is concerned about their chair, another person is a vegetarian or needs an elevator, another person loves to do Yoga and Meditate etc. When we go that little extra mile in addressing these needs that are very important to the new hire, it will make a meaningful difference to their on-boarding experience. It does not take a whole lot to be extra ordinary, just a little bit more than the ordinary!

Final Thoughts

Maybe you can’t relate to that sense of insecurity and wanting to prove that you belong in a new workplace, the way onboarding employees may feel. However, most of us have felt that way when we had our first school day at a new school. Didn’t school feel significantly less intimidating when we made friends right away or when we had friends at the school prior to starting or when the class teacher (or home room teacher) came and made you feel so welcomedhugged you and cared so deeply for you?

As humans, we have a biological, basic human need for meaningful connections and we all crave this. With the great resignation and great reshuffle taking place in 2021, where millions of workers are quitting, employees are leaving old employers and joining new ones, it is a great opportunity for employers to start the onboarding experience with meaningful connections.

As Dr. Deborah Heiser states in her article “The Meaning in Meaningful Connections”, a lot of interactions that we have at work, lack meaning. “Simply executing an action doesn't mean there is any meaning, emotion or real connection to anything.”

She further states:

“A meaningful connection is a two-way street. Both parties are getting something from the relationship. The meaning is key. The ability to share vulnerability, common interests, values and interests are examples of meaning.”

For example, when you receive a phone call from a colleague who needs your service, ask him or her genuinely “How are you?”. Like most people in our U.S. culture, the person might say, “I am good.” (Time permitting) Take the time to follow up on that generic answer and genuinely ask, “No really, I want to know, how are you?”

I assure you the person will be shocked. I can’t tell you from my own personal experience speaking to 1,500 people a month, some of them would literally ask me, “You really want to know?” and I would say, “Yes, I want to know, how are you? How are you feeling? How is your family? Did you have a good weekend?”

The key here is to genuinely show care for the other person. We are humans and these small but precious gestures restores our sense of humanity.

In an article published by U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, latest Neuroscience research shows that our behavior is driven by neurology and it also defines how we as leaders make meaning and respond accordingly with others.

It turns out “our brain is busy classifying everything with a “reward” or “threat” feeling in our body, which then registers in our behavior. We want to know, “is this something good that will benefit me or something bad that could harm me?”

The SCARF model is a framework that was created by Dr. David Rock who is the cofounder and CEO of the NeuroLeadership Institute and it summarizes these two themes (reward or threat) within a framework that captures the common factors that can activate a reward or threat response in social situations.

The SCARF model involves five domains of human social experience, they are:

? Status (Sense of our personal worth—where we are in relation to other people)

? Certainty (Sense of what the future holds for us)

? Autonomy (Sense of control over our lives)

? Relatedness (Sense of safety with others)

? Fairness (Sense of what is impartial and just)

By welcoming the new hire in the ways suggested in this article, the organization can address all 5 of these domains in a positive way and can then activate a reward response not just for the new hire but for the entire group.

Here is how:

Status: When the new hire sees how everyone comes with a sincere interest in meeting him or her, and how even a senior leader came, it will definitely improve the new hire’s sense of status. The same goes for the group because a senior leader visited the whole group (whether virtually or in person).

Certainty: When the new hire experiences this level of meaningful interaction, it gives him or her more certainty as to what to expect from his or her colleagues going forward (in this case a very positive and genuinely caring environment).

Autonomy: Since no one is forced to join the welcoming ceremony, it also helps the team members have a sense of autonomy.

Relatedness: When team members share personal stories with each other, they become more bonded.

Fairness: By doing welcome ceremonies consistently for all new hires, and having mentors and allyship in the organization for all new hires, it gives everyone a sense of fairness.

Like the elephants demonstrated, when we move as a group and welcome someone together with sincerity and with meaning, we show that, that person isn’t alone. The new person can lean on us, find support, and enjoy doing so every day that they come to work - but it’s up to us to create an environment that promotes this. There’s truly no better time to start than now. Will you join me in doing that? If yes, please hit the like button or share this article with someone whom you feel could benefit from reading it.?

Fahim F Karm is an award-winning Employee Engagement Expert. He is a management consultant and an executive coach and the founder of Gear 2 Harvest, a company that helps design employee experiences for talent onboarding and retention. He coined the term Bio Inspired Employee Engagement.

Find him on LinkedIn:?or at www.gear2harvest.com or at Facebook: or YouTube or schedule a complementary consultation.