It might be this years HR buzz however onboarding is nothing new. Businesses have been onboarding for years, the point of difference now is the focus on culture and a move away from ticking boxes.
HR departments have created forms, written processes, monitored progress, given managers a poke when things aren’t done, scheduled meetings and repeated until finally there is a signed document in front of them to say Harry has completed all onboarding tasks. Meanwhile Harry experienced a wiz bang onboarding programme where some of the staff and managers involved raced to the finish line leaving Harry feeling just as bamboozled about their role in the company and where he fitted in. While others just kept requesting to reschedule! Harry is still excited, yet nervous about his new job and is hoping that everything will just fall into place soon, and is just happy that there is some form of onboarding in this company, as for his last company they showed him to his desk!
Today’s landscape is ever changing and the competition to attract and retain talent is increasingly becoming harder. Your point of difference is your company’s culture, talent will decided within the first 6 months whether they have made the right move or not. Your challenge now is to move away from the box ticking exercise and provide your talent with a culture onboarding framework that will knock their socks off!
Top 5 tips for delivering a knockout onboarding framework
- build your framework around – Company Culture, Personal Network & Professional Development, Early Career Support, Strategic immersion.
- Orientation v Onboarding. Know the difference? Orientation is a task which happens during Onboarding whereby we tell new employees things they need to know in a very non-interactive way (box ticking). This still needs to happen, however you now have a framework where staff and managers are champions at creating great experiences, all leading to happy, engaged, positively adding value and growth to your business.
- Get rid of time restrictions. understandably there maybe some due to legislation depending on your industry, however lets not restrict onboarding to the first 8 weeks, let’s push the boat right out and spend the entire first year nailing our onboarding.
- Personalise. Adapt your onboarding to individuals needs, empowering them and their managers to tackle challenges as they arise.
- Onboarding is everyone’s responsibility.
Email today and let’s see if together we can create your own bespoke culture onboarding framework!
