Sims Learning Connections

Prompted by my consulting work, I checked in with what others have been saying on the topic of assimilating new employees.

Repeated Tips and Themes

• A process, not an event
• Business (not L&D or HR) ownership
• Explicitly build informal networks and connections
• Formalize a one-on-one buddy relationship between the new hire and an experienced employee
• Help new hire see where they fit in and why they are important, build engagement from day-one

Sources

1. All Aboard! Does Your Onboarding Process Lead to Employee Engagement or Buyer’s Remorse?, by David Lee (not to be confused with the other Dave Lee from the Learning blogosphere.) David poses eleven questions:
   1. Do You Make Your New Hires Feel Welcome?
   2. Do You Make It Easy For New Hires to Ask For What They Need?
   3. Do You Inspire Pride?
   4. Do You Help New Hires See the Big Picture and How They Make it Happen?
   5. Do You Share Stories About What Makes Your Company Great?
   6. Do You Make Your Orientation Program Interactive and Interesting?
   7. Have You Broken Your Orientation Program Down Into Digestible, Bite Sized Chunks?
   8. Are You Designing Your Onboarding Process From the Employee’s Perspective?
   9. Are You Offloading As Much Information As Possible To Your Intranet?
   10. Do You Have an Effective Mentoring Program?
   11. Are You Making It Easy For New Employees to Help You Help Them?
2. Onboarding New Hires at VSP, by Sarah Boehle. An interview with Shauna Harrington, director of workforce development at Vision Service Plan (VSP), published in Training Magazine last month. VSP “revamped its half-day new-hire orientation program in July 2006 to create a two-day ‘Onboarding Program’ that features a comprehensive approach to integrating new team members into the organization.” Program highlights:
   • In person welcome from an executive
   • “A career development component where [VSP] introduce[s] new hires to…training curriculum and…how to develop themselves during their tenure…”
   • “Sales and marketing staff…talk about [VSP] business and the competitive landscape…”
   • “Every new hire is…required to visit the call center for a half hour to sit in on calls and listen to…reps while they assist customers.”
   • “A new-hire checklist…to managers to assist them in onboarding new hires.”

   Tips from Harrington:

   • “Know what your business objectives and corporate values are—and ensure that they are incorporated into your program.”
   • “Get support and input from the top prior to planning.”
   • “This is not just “HR’s” program; it’s company-driven.”
   • “Continually assess and improve the program based on participant and management feedback.”
   • “…the managers and other employees play a key role in helping new hires feel a sense of connectivity to and engagement with the organization as a whole.”
   • “Use a buddy system”
   • “Follow up. After 90 days, new hires are invited to a one-on-one meeting with HR after providing input via a new-hire follow-up survey that is designed to gather feedback about the assimilation process.”
3. The Business Results of Strategic Onboarding, by Nick van Dam, Global CLO for Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, in Chief Learning Officer magazine, June 2007 (not available online.) The author’s best practices for onboarding:
   • “Extend the program with multiple connections over time. This might include assigning a mentor or ‘buddy’…”
   • “Include multiple resources and media to ensure fun, just-in-time learning is available.”
   • “Build the relationships. This entails integrating new hires early by getting them engaged in formal and informal networks…”
   • “Keep the future bright. …making sure the view of the future is visible and that the connection to growth and development of a robust career is emphasized.”

   And the close: “By creating positive emotions at the beginning of the company’s relationship with new hires, they want to deliver the best results and stay where they are appreciated, valued and productive.”

4. Effective Onboarding: Reducing New Hire Time to Competency (14 page PDF), by Karen O’Leonard at Bersin & Associates. A 2005 case study of Randstad. Highlights:
   

   Randstad’s line managers were calling on the training teams to reduce the time to competency. This is a common scenario for training managers. A problem is identified, and line managers look to the training team to roll out a new program or course to “fix it.” Randstad’s Learning & Development organization, however, believed that line managers needed to own their new hires’ performance, including the onboarding process, and to be held accountable for it.

   The new onboarding process consisted of a series of learning and on-the-job training activities delivered over a four month period. The activities break down into the following major categories:

   • Manager-facilitated training
   • Instructor-led training
   • Self-study
   • Job shadowing
   • Manager coaching [of the employee]

   Lessons Learned (from p. 12)

   • “Be an agent for change. The training team needs to get out of the mode of reacting to requests and place an emphasis on engaging the organization around shared responsibility.”
   • “Demonstrate business impact.” “The team used data showing the performance of new hires who completed the onboarding process vs. the performance of those hired before the new process to demonstrate productivity gains.”
   • “Use data to hold managers and yourself accountable.”
   • “Create a roadmap. Randstad’s Learning & Development team created a roadmap of major milestones comprised of small incremental steps.”
5. Getting New Hires Up to Speed Quickly, by Keith Rollag, Salvatore Parise and Rob Cross in Winter 2005 Sloan Management Review. Of the five sources, this is the only one I had previously read — and it was well worth rereading this afternoon. From the close:
   

   …managers need to adopt a whole new mind-set. Instead of asking themselves, ‘What does my new hire need to know?’ they have to ask, ‘Who does my newcomer need to know?’ This will then help them focus on generating a strategic list of key experts and information providers…from which they can then structure the necessary interactions into the new hire’s assimilation process.

What have been your own best and worst experiences with new employee assimilation? – as an employee yourself, or as a program designer.