Onboarding 201. The second of three papers in SilkRoad s series on. the most critical retention activity your organization. can undertake onboarding.

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1 The second of three papers in SilkRoad s series on Onboarding 201 the most critical retention activity your organization can undertake onboarding. By Alexandra Levit Taking new hires from the potential stage to the achievement stage is the role of the onboarding team, and never have the mechanics been so important or so complex. Our first paper focused on the rationale for strategic onboarding as well as the objectives of effective onboarding programs and the practices employed by high performing organizations.

2 In this second paper, we ll delve into the details of best-practice onboarding program components, including: 0Onboarding Technology Systems 0In-Person HR-Driven Sessions 0Systems Set-Up 0Networking 0On-the-Job Training Having a centralized employee portal that serves as a hub for everything your people could possibly want to know and do requires some upfront investment, but will save you time and resources in the long run. 0Long-Term Follow Up By the time you finish reading, you should have enough specifics on these to begin planning or enhancing your own formal onboarding initiative. Then, in our third paper, we ll discuss how to measure the return-on-investment (ROI) of your program and improve it in ways that directly benefit your organization s bottom line. Onboarding Technology Systems Having a centralized employee portal that serves as a hub for everything your people could possibly want to know and do requires some upfront investment, but will save you time and resources in the long run. Solutions like SilkRoad s RedCarpet introduce hires to their new job electronically and get them acclimated to your organizational culture and procedures before their first day. New employees are provided portal access as soon as they accept an offer, along with content that s designed to engage them early such as friendly first-day information, welcome messages from and photographs of their new teammates, a glossary of company buzzwords and acronyms, and your organization s social, sports, or volunteer calendar. A virtual copy of your employee handbook is essential, and any detail you can provide about the new hire s department and job responsibilities will only make getting new hires up to speed that much easier. Perhaps most usefully, new hire portals interface with HR and manager dashboards to organize and track internal tasks that need to be completed over the next several months and manage forms electronically so that you don t have to physically chase down new employees for that W-4 or I-9. Given the time-sensitive nature of many government forms, there are substantial benefits to using a system that automatically reminds new hires to respond within the deadlines.

3 Taking onboarding administration online solves a variety of additional headaches with which you are likely familiar. Content is easily updated and current so you ll minimize misunderstandings and avoid potential compliance issues, and you ll make a terrific first impression on new hires who are accustomed to organizations where onboarding is a somewhat careless operation. Depending on the onboarding technology system you use, you may also leverage it to consistently manage offboarding and other employee lifecycle events. Retirement, relocation, promotions, and offboarding are transitions that can be just as Online technology systems are incredibly critical as onboarding. Imagine the company that efficient, and implementing one that doesn t track offboarding tasks and thus continues starts before Day 1 can significantly to pay for benefits or doesn t block access to shorten orientation time. internal systems when an employee leaves. The potential risks and xpense associated with such errors can be astronomical. The same goes for employees that transfer to another department where operations and staff are completely different. The culture, environment, reporting structure, goals, and responsibilities may be completely different. Why not use a content-rich a customized portal to provide the same information you d provide to a new hire? Even internally there s tasks to be handled such as new business cards, HR paperwork, work station relocation, perhaps even new equipment is needed. It is certainly beneficial to use one system to keep complete records on each employee so that even after they ve left you, you can have a detailed and accurate paper trail of their activities and performance in your organization. In-Person HR-Driven Sessions Online technology systems are incredibly efficient, and implementing one that starts before Day 1 can significantly shorten orientation time. However, at the end of the day, new hires are people, and a brief but smartly executed in-person session can make all the difference when it comes to positive engagement. Whether or not you have a robust onboarding technology system affects how much you ll need to cover in your in-person HR session. Ideally, the in-person session should include a brief history of your organization, its products/services and culture, highlights from your employee handbook such as dress code and ethical regulations, and an explanation of benefits.

4 According to Billy Grossmiller, a benefits consultant with CrawfordAdvisors, you should make sure any benefit details distributed are 100 percent current, and that you clearly define eligibility requirements. Even if your new hire portal contains benefit information, the in-person session is an excellent time to clarify and answer questions about it. The in-person HR-driven session, which should be no longer than a few hours and should include all of the individuals starting in your location that week (with the possible exception of those who will be working remotely and live too far to travel), can be a wonderful opportunity to engage and excite new employees. If you bore them, they will launch their careers at your organization with a sour taste in their mouths. For this reason, you should keep the mundane administration to a minimum and be as creative as possible. Food that s more special than your usual fare, videos, tours, clever icebreakers, and special guests will all make for a more enjoyable first day. Systems Set-Up We ve all been there. You start a new job and are led to an empty office, or better yet, no office or cubicle at all. Maybe your desk was in the hall, or you were left sitting in the lobby or at someone else s station until your new employer got its act together. The experience didn t instill much confidence that you d made the right decision, did it? Take responsibility for stocking every new hire s workspace with supplies in advance of their start date, and work with your IT department to ensure that the new employee has some sort of computer (laptop, desktop, phone), an operational address, and usernames and passwords for essential online tools and resources, available for immediate use. Have business cards, parking permits, and ID cards ready so that new hires can move freely around your facilities. Note that you can use an onboarding technology system to assign these tasks to the appropriate parties and ensure proper tracking and follow through. With this many moving parts, you don t want to risk something falling through the cracks. Networking Create a document that outlines the names and contact details of go-to individuals within your organization (for instance, a new contact can Sally Crane for questions about the billing system and Tom Smith about setting up an onsite meeting.) Place this document on your new hire portal, or design a card that you can pass out at your in-person session. It s also helpful to guide new employees as they begin to establish fruitful relationships within the organization. It s a good idea to pre-schedule one-on-one meetings with various key players throughout the new employee s first month. These existing employees should not only be extremely competent, but also friendly and positive about your organization.

5 Coordinate a start date when the hiring manager is certain to be in the office and can meet with her new hire and introduce her around for at least an hour. As mentioned in our first paper, assign a mentor in another department of roughly the same age and title who can assist with assimilation. Reward your existing staff for engaging in onboarding activities by paying for lunch out with their mentees or sending notes of praise to their supervisors. Best-in-class onboarding does not end after 30 or 90 days. You can have a terrific process at the beginning, but if you don t keep up a back-and-forth dialogue with new employees, you will lose much of the ground you ve gained. Onboarding technology systems can prove helpful in the networking department. You may wish to engage an internal social networking tool that facilitates colleague-to-colleague and manager-to-report interaction, and also integrates seamlessly with the rest of your onboarding and performance management information. On-the-Job Training Any orientation-related training that can be given online should be administered prior to the new hire s start date. As part of your onboarding process, however, you should also plan and schedule professional development courses and intra-job training activities so that they occur early in the new employee s tenure. A learning management system (LMS) may assist you in planning job specific or compliance related classes that must be completed according to policy. Just be careful not to overload new hires with too much mandatory training as their primary focus should be in-role immersion. If you have them, configure your onboarding technology system to interface with your performance management system so that you can establish three month (probationary period), six month, and annual goals that are tied to specific training initiatives and actual work projects. This approach, customized to the individual, requires close collaboration between HR staff and hiring managers. But, as we talked about in the first paper, there is no better way to get new hires to full productivity and engagement quickly and effectively.

6 Long-Term Follow Up Best-in-class onboarding does not end after 30 or 90 days. You can have a terrific process at the beginning, but if you don t keep up a back-and-forth dialogue with new employees, you will lose much of the ground you ve gained. Although hiring managers and their teams should be the primary parties involved in ensuring that new hires are adjusting well and doing what they need to do, it behooves HR to schedule check-ins every other month during the first year. After all, if a new employee isn t happy or is experiencing roadblocks or frustrations, you want to know about it sooner rather than later. You may also want your onboarding process to have a designated end point. Stephen Balzac, CEO of 7 Steps Ahead, recommends a believable accreditation ceremony of sorts. While a cheesy graduation won t cut it, having some way of recognizing that people have taken a step toward their future career success is a powerful way of cementing loyalty, he says. Next Up By now, you should have ample detail on the components of world-class onboarding programs. Whether your budget is large or small, implementation of these techniques will enhance the new hire experience and aid long-term retention. SilkRoad hopes you will have a look at our final paper, in which we ll offer guidance for effectively measuring the return-on-investment (ROI) of your onboarding program and making improvements based on what you uncover. Alexandra Levit is a business and workplace writer and speaker who educates organizations on how to better connect with and retain top talent. Copyright 2013, SilkRoad. All Rights Reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Onboarding201_ Social Talent Management silkroad.com recruiting onboarding & life events performance learning hrms collaboration & content