Three Lessons I Learned About Employee Onboarding from Sending My Puppy to Camp

“A dog that is a joy to live with.”

?The mission and vision of K9 Culture grabbed me by the arm and captured my attention. Come to think of it, grabbing us by the arm is what led my wife and I to the company in the first place.

?Finley, our 5-month old Moyen Poodle, has always been a joy to live with for about 20 hours per day. The bite marks on our arms (all playful in intent) were a visual reminder of the other four. The boy just couldn’t control his puppy-urge to have everything in his mouth and test the limits of authority.

If Finley was a new employee instead of a new family member, his onboarding experience would be evaluated as “below expectations.”

So off to “camp” he went. Monday through Friday at the K9 Culture facility and weekends at home for two weeks. As predicted, it was more difficult for my wife and me than it was for Finley. Fortunately, the facility sends video updates every day.

The end of the first week showed significant improvement. Finley was getting it. Our mostly good dog” was becoming one that was a joy to live with.

My mind wandered a little as I thought about my pup’s progress on Sunday evening. I couldn’t help but think that teaching my dog to succeed has elements that are transferable to onboarding humans at work. After all, wouldn’t every manager love to have a team full of people who are a joy to work with?

The statistics related to onboarding success are dismal.

• Only 12 percent of employees find onboarding to be a great experience resulting in a turnover rate of up to 50 percent in the first 18 months.
• Thirty-two percent of employees find their onboarding experience to be confusing, and 22 percent find it disorganized. Only 13 percent describe it as optimistic.
• Eighty-nine percent of employees report that a successful onboarding experience increases engagement at work, and we all know what a challenge that has been for organizations.

I assume that my pup felt that he was adjusting well to his new life, but truthfully, he has no other comparison. Unlike humans who make choices about how they view their environment, Finley is genetically predisposed to love me. He gets excited when I come back in from taking out the garbage.

Yet, there was no doubt that he returned from week one still loving my wife and me. More important, he was eager to learn and continue his training. How many managers can say that about their new team members?

My curiosity piqued, I looked for answers to explain the positive change. Here are three answers:

1.?????? Philosophy and mindset matter.

K9 Culture provided us with a training guide and observation log to continue Finley’s training. These two statements were front and center:

• The most important thing in dog training is not to teach your dog what to do but to teach them how to think and make good decisions on their own.
• Dogs should be allowed as much liberty as they can responsibly handle. The greatest gift of training is that increases the dog’s ability to handle liberty.

Compare that with what passes for onboarding in most organizations. Finley had rules, but their purpose is to create boundaries for empowerment. Too often in organizations, the rules are there to keep you in line not experience increasing amounts of liberty. Likewise, training tends to be task focused rather than being designed to help people make good decisions on their own.

These two guiding principles are reflected in how performance and behavior are taught and reinforced. Rewards for successive approximation of the desired behavior and re-direction when performance that isn’t what the trainer wants.

I know. This reeks of Skinnerian Psychology , but we can’t deny the impact of B.F. Skinner’s operant conditioning model applied in a positive context to help people succeed.

?2.?????? Dedicated intentional focus makes a difference.

My wife and I devoted training time to Finley each day. He quickly learned to sit and shake. He also learned that pulling the Spanish Moss from indoor pots and stealing socks from the laundry gained our attention and resulted in an activity he viewed as play. Finley, it turns out, is one of those dogs who needs special attention and structure because he is too smart.

?The trainer spent a minimum of 3 structured one-on-one training sessions with our pup each day. She was positive, professional, and focused. She didn’t let Finley slide by with less than meeting expectations. She didn’t show frustration with his stubbornness, and she wasn’t distracted with calls or other activities.

At the end of every day at camp, we received an update on focus for the day, a progress report, a video of Finley in action, and links to training videos we could watch to continue his development at home.

With luck, a supervisor at work checks in once per week with a new associate going through onboarding. The process often follows parking a new team member with a coworker while hoping it doesn’t become reminiscent of the film “Training Day .” Daily and weekly goals, if they exist at all, are often generalized and vague.

?3.?????? “There are no bad dogs.”

?Barbara Woodhouse personally trained over 17,000 dogs. Her book, No Bad Dogs: The Woodhouse Way is noted for the statement: “There’s no such thing as a bad dog, unless mental. It is simply an inexperienced owner.”?

Admittedly, some of Woodlouse’s techniques have drawn criticism today, but her idea that animals work for praise remains a central tenant of effective training.

The key message here is the second sentence in her quote: “It is simply an inexperienced owner.”

We left with a homework assignment after Finley’s first week of training. The assignment required us, the owners, to spend dedicated time working on (and reinforcing) specific behavior. A performance log was used to document our results to assist the trainer during week two. All notes were focused on recognizing what Finley did right and discussing areas for future or remedial work.

Cynics masquerading as realists will point to the fact that a family dog is not the same as an employee. I will not remove Finley for not making it though his introductory/probationary period. I am working with one pet, not a team.

Let’s also acknowledge that humans are not dogs although there are no doubt managers who treat their pets better than the members of their team.

The takeaway is that barring a bad hire that misses an individual’s capability and capacity to do the work, a failure at onboarding is a failure of management. Holding managers accountable for reinforcing and following through with the training their new team members receive will increase the opportunities for success.

Dogs, I learned through this process, are primarily visual learners . They start with action and then connect the words. At work, new employees walk in knowing the words and then validate them through watching our actions. Clarity and consistency are required in both.

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Randy Pennington is an award-winning author, speaker, and leading authority on corporate culture and change. He is creator of Results Rule!? - the only culture change process specifically designed to help clients deliver positive results in a world of uncertainty and change. To learn more or to engage Randy for your organization, visit?www.penningtongroup.com , email?[email protected] , or call 972-980-9857 (U.S.).