Personalizing Employee Onboarding

(written by Inward Program Manager, Matt Manning)

From a young age, we are all taught that first impressions are often the most important. This oft-repeated advice is typically associated with an individual meeting someone for the first time, whether it is for an interview, the first day of a new job, or even a date. While this is indeed good advice for an individual, we believe that companies should also adopt this mentality with incoming employees. When onboarding new employees, first impressions leave a lasting effect that can determine an employee’s tenure, perceptions, attitude, and career trajectory with the company. Companies should consider reaching out to incoming employees even before their start date, personalizing their experience to ensure a smooth transition from day one. In this way, organizations can more effectively connect these incoming employees with their culture, mission, vision, values, expected behaviors, and ultimately true employee engagement.

Recently, we came across a fascinating study in the MIT Sloan Management Review, entitled “Reinventing Employee Onboarding”. https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/reinventing-employee-onboarding/. The study examines the traditional onboarding norms of indoctrinating the new employees into the organization’s culture, values, mission, and expectations. While this methodology aims for employees to understand and commit to the company’s values and behaviors from day one, the authors suggest that “this creates a? tension: when newcomers are ‘processed’ to accept?an organization’s identity, they are expected to?downplay their own identities, at least while they are? at work.” In other words, by applying a one-size-fits-all strategy for onboarding, the lack of personalization prevents full adoption and engagement.  Ultimately, their central message was that “by encouraging new employees to apply their personal strengths to the job, companies can help their new hires become more connected with their colleagues, more engaged in their work and more likely to stay.”

They refer to the approach as personal-identity socialization, and it “involves encouraging newcomers to express their unique perspectives and strengths on the job from the very beginning and inviting them to frame their work as a platform for doing what they do best. For instance, a restaurant cook who is a natural social connector could apply this strength by visiting with restaurant guests and making them feel welcome.” The theory was tested in a controlled experiment at a process outsourcing company based in India. In the experiment, “group one emphasized individual identity, group two emphasized organizational identity, and group three (the control group) followed the company’s traditional onboarding process.” They ultimately found that the group one employees were more engaged, satisfied, productive, and had longer tenures with the company.

“Specifically, employees who received onboarding ?emphasizing individual identity were more than 32% less likely to quit ?than those employees who received the traditional onboarding ?approach — and were 21% less likely to quit than a group of employees? in the experiment who received an orientation-focused ?organizational identity. Moreover, the results showed that customers’ ?evaluations of the service they received were significantly more positive ?in the personal-identity socialization condition than in the standard onboarding process.”

It is clear that engagement begins as soon as the incoming employee receives their acceptance letter. For that reason, it is important to begin the onboarding process prior to an employee’s first day. Here are a few tips you can follow in order to personalize your onboarding process and create the best first impression with incoming employees:

1. Instruct managers to reach out to employees at least 2 weeks before their first day. This can be as simple as an email or text message welcoming the employee and offering to answer any questions
2. Ask the incoming employee for some fun facts, background about themselves, and their favorite office snack. Decorate their desk with something related to their background, and a “snack survival kit” with their favorite treats.
3. Make sure the manager understands the personal work habits and strengths of the incoming employee. Help them identify how this employee can hit the ground running in their new role by focusing on these strengths
4. Communicate regularly with the employees on their level around topics that matter to them in regard to work and their lives