The Comprehensive Guide to Next Generation Onboarding : How to make the most out of your New Hire Orientation every step of the way

The Comprehensive Guide to Next Generation Onboarding : How to make the most out of your New Hire Orientation every step of the way

About MindTickle MindTickle enables businesses, trainers and individuals to transform their existing online content (PPTs, Videos, documents) into an interactive learning experience. MindTickle engages the learner and makes learning efficient, effective and delightful through a unique combination of game mechanics (points, medals, badges and leaderboard) and social tools (profiles, comments, chat and walls). The platform has been globally adopted by several Fortune 500 customers, and over 55,000 users have benefited from MindTickle products. MindTickle has global sales presence with headquarters in the United States, and development / operations team in India.

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. Benjamin Franklin

Author Mohit has a diverse work experience spanning across 14 years and four continents. Prior to co-founding MindTickle, he was a Director in PwC s management consulting practice at New York, and has been a senior member of product teams. He was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year by Startup Leadership Program (SLP) in 2012. Mohit holds an MBA degree from ISB and MSEE from Stanford University. Mohit Garg MindTickle Co-Founder @mindtickle mindtickle.com

Table of Contents Use Storytelling to Make Your New Employee Orientation Amazing! /13

Introduction It s that time again. So you selected your new employees, excellent, this means you ve gotten through the hard part. Now they are about to go through the orientation program you have planned for them, but what about training? You may be asking yourself, What should I do? How can I make this experience worthwhile for both the new employees and myself? As a human resource professional or manager, you need to know what to do and how to do it from before the new employee comes onboard to the weeks and months after training has concluded.

The Importance of Pre- Onboarding Programs Do you remember the moment when you received the final offer letter from your first job? Chances are that you are reliving the moment as you read this. A brand new job also generates similar excitement. It is this excitement that is omnipresent during the new hire orientation program. The pre-onboarding phase is the phase between the new hires offer acceptance and their joining. Smart organizations can leverage this feel-good atmosphere to their HR advantage by setting the tone for the upcoming new hire orientation program. Next we ll explore some of the actions you can take to create an advantageous pre-onboarding phase.

Sustaining the Excitement Pre-Onboarding is a golden opportunity to sustain the euphoria of a new job. By simply engaging with the new hire periodically during the pre-onboarding phase, employers can sustain the enthusiasm and eagerness of the new hires. Three things you can do to effectively engage new hires during the pre-onboarding phase are: 1. Help them Search New hires often search for information about their employers on the Internet. Be proactive and help them look at the right places. 2. Bring them In Access to the organization s enterprise social network could do wonders. If your organization does not have one, create a group on public social networks like LinkedIn as a means to introduce the new hire to the rest of the team. 3. I Belong Here Socialize early by inviting them to team building activities. If the location of the new hire is a constraint, arrange for online participation.

Managing Uncertainty From a new hire s perspective, in addition to the excitement, the pre-onboarding phase of new hire orientation program also brings about a sense of anxiety. Constant communication between the organization and the new hire can help contain this anxiety. By initiating a few simple actions, a new hire onboarding manager can not only counsel the new hire but also deduce with confidence if they are at risk of losing the new hire. 1. Schedule Interactions Structured calls to discuss the new hire s job and role will help orient the new hire early, towards the organization s business objectives. 2. Paperwork The Aberdeen 2013 research suggests that getting the new hire to complete forms and tasks in a timely manner helps him contribute to business driven projects at the earliest. This step may be boring, but initiating and completing it brings in a formal sense of belonging.

Pre-Onboarding in Action To demonstrate how pre-onboarding can help engage new hires, here is an example of HCL used the MindTickle platform to improve their pre-onboarding process. HCL decreased the drop-out rates of millennial pre-joiners by 90% by leveraging the MindTickle platform to engage new joiners between the day of offer and the day of joining. HCL was able to leverage the platform to its advantage through two major ways: 1. Social and Gamified Learning HCL used the learning platform to create an online learning community of new joiners, and in process deliver pre-boarding content to improve employer branding, engagement and day 1 readiness. The MindTickle cloud based platform enabled candidates to explore different aspects of HCL Technologies in a visually rich and self-paced learning environment. 2. Individualized Tasks Each candidate was presented with a series of individualized tasks tailored to a predetermined goal. After completing a task, the candidate was rewarded with the ability to level-up and unlock the next level of content. The game mechanics such as points, leaderboard and medals enhanced participation and interactive quiz assessments followed each level of content.

Let the Orientation Begin! The time has come to train your newbies. What are you going to do to make the experience worthwhile? While it may seem beneficial to cut costs by reducing your investment new employee training, you are actually saving money in the future by training them now. Lets investigate the best practices of new employee training and the tactics you can employ to make the most out of it.

Setting Expectations One of the first things you want to do for a new hire is set their expectations by laying out what their job will require of them. It is of the utmost importance to identify their role within the first few weeks. If you don t, the new employee may feel scattered and confused. To ease anxiety, consider setting up your employee s workstation before their arrival. This is a very wise move since it makes the new employee more comfortable on their first day of work. You can provide them with all the materials they will need such as a phone, pens, organizers, post-its, and a list of phone numbers for the other office employees.

Use Storytelling to Make Your New Employee Orientation Amazing! Sharing a compelling story is great way to help new employees understand your company s culture in more relatable, human ways. Often starting with the founder(s) of your company, you can create a rags to riches story of how the company has grown from the start. Make it a positive, inspiring story that all employees will want to be a part of. Be wary of making your New Employee Orientation program all about you. Allow your new hires to express themselves and their stories too.

Procter & Gamble, the Master Storyteller Showing how your business has evolved can bring more inspiration and purpose to your employees work starting in new hire orientation. Storytelling is at the heart of Procter and Gamble, the number one marketing company in the world. Not only does the company promote it s history through the museum contained in its headquarters or with the book Rising Tide: Lessons from 165 Years of Brand Building at Procter and Gamble which is given free to it s employees but storytelling is at the heart of its culture. One-pagers are designed to tell a story in a way that the leaders reading them are excited to jump into action and ready to make a decision. The company promotes employees sharing their learnings on the job. Those who are granted the promotions share their experiences, good and bad with the campaigns they ran on the different brands they worked on. By sharing their learnings the company is able to continue to build billion dollar brands that are sold around the world.

Removing the Fear of Failure New employees often come into a situation nervous or afraid to try new things since they are not sure what will happen if their idea fails. The best way to learn is by doing; so let the new employees do something without the fear of repercussions if they get it wrong. Help them learn the ropes and point out their mistakes so they can avoid them in the future. Provide your employees with enough time to learn. Give them time and even quiz them on the important policies to remember.

Highlight Your Culture and Values It is extremely important to help familiarize your new hires with company culture and values. Your business operates in a certain way with its own spoken and unspoken rules. Help the new employees learn these unspoken rules so that he or she doesn t stick out like a sore thumb. By aiding them in their efforts to learn this esoteric culture, you will enable them to assimilate into the business more effectively. This will help them trust you and their fellow employees on a deeper level. Don t make them learn the rules through trial and error. Tell them what s going on and regularly check in to see if they have any questions.

Customized Training for Specific Types of People Though it may sound easy enough, customizing training can actually be quite complex. To do this, you must analyze the personality and culture of each current employee who fill specific positions or are a part of a certain department; you will then take this knowledge and apply it to the training program. For example, if a specific position tends to attract brilliant people who unfortunately have poor social skills, create a training program that builds their self-confidence and doesn t make them feel uncomfortable. If this happens to be a position that requires a lot of social interaction, help them build proper and confident social skills.

Creating a Social Classroom It is a strong possibility that your new hires are Gen Y millennials. Even the Gen X are omnipresent over social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Therefore, bringing in a social learning element to the new hire orientation is only natural. The social learning element would also bring in healthy competition, team spirit and collaboration. Consider utilizing some of the Five Free Social Media Platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google Plus) for your New Hire Orientation.

ebay s Online Classroom ebay, one of world s largest e-commerce websites, is recognized as the best places to work for recent grads. ebay had in place a comprehensive classroom training program integrating technical knowledge, soft skills and orientation aspects, but was looking for a solution that could trim down the duration of classroom training without compromising on the quality of the program. ebay leveraged MindTickle s Learning Platform to deliver: 1. New hire orientation and soft skills training online - New hires are better acquainted with their colleagues because of the social features built into the platform that encourage interaction. This has significantly reduced the onboarding time. 2. Online fundamentals of technologies such as UNIX and Java - The templates allow ebay to quickly create training that is engaging, focused and effective. The knowledge thresholds of new hires on start of classroom training have seen a significant improvement.

Get Involved in the Training Process New employees want to feel important or at least like they are being noticed on their first day of work. Therefore, it is the boss duty during the orientation period to make the new hire feel like they are being accepted as an official co-worker. It is important that the 1:1 time between the boss and the new employee doesn t get interrupted. If there is a new employee in your department or your team, it s up to you to help them! Make an investment in the new employee so they can make an investment in you. Get to know them on a personal level. It doesn t have to be everyday or even every week; it can be every 30 or 90 days, just as long as it isn t once or twice a year!

The Value of Shadowing One of the most effective ways to learn is to engage in an intelligent conversation with an expert on a subject. Mentoring and shadowing are an excellent supplement to research and independent learning. When considering integrating a shadowing program into your new hire training, you should keep in mind three benefits of shadowing: 1. Job shadowing allows the new employees to see how the culture and values of the business are applied in normal everyday settings. 2. After the new hire is taught a skill or job function, they can demonstrate what they have learned to their mentor. 3. What better way to create friendships than to interact with people, right?

Reap What You Have Sown So you and your newbies have made it through orientation. You have braved the tide and now you are done right? Think again Remember that the orientation should not end on day one! In order for new hire onboarding to be truly effective, you must have events or interactions that occur over an extended period of time. Having interactive experiences over a longer period of time are an effective way to help foster a sense of unity in your workplace! Lets take a look at how you can stay engaged with your new employees after orientation.

Thinking Beyond the First Few Days It is important to have orientation events that occur throughout the first week to get your new hires situated, and then check in with them as often as possible to see how they are adjusting. Have the manager and fellow team members check in with the new employee(s) to see how they are doing, how they fit the role, and if they seem happy to be in the business. CareerBuilder.com says, Take this opportunity to address any issues of concern as well as note any accomplishments so that all parties are confident that the new hire is poised for success in his or her role.

Stay Aware of Staffing Shifts and Transitions The manager must be aware that the first few relationships a new employee makes are vitally important. This means that if a new employee is going to be moved to a new department or group, do it early before they settle in. If they have good friends in their group upon being moved, it may become an uncomfortable situation. Help them with their transition, don t make it harder for them.

Assessing Success How are you evaluating the performance of your team? Usually managers know when a person is underperforming within the first two months. However, it may take a while for managers to let that person go. Online training programs are just another way for you to stay on top of your team s progress. Employees need and welcome regular accountability and feedback. Part of the reason why online coaching has become so popular in recent years is because companies are stretched thin by tight budgets and managers are not able to spend enough individual time with their people so they seek outside reinforcement. To determine the success of the new hire orientation, the organization needs to find out how well the content has been consumed by the new hires. Real-time quizzes, puzzles and activities are some of the assessment tools that help organizations appraise how new hires are doing in the orientation program. Feedback sessions are important for mid-course corrections, if needed. This may also be a good opportunity to reiterate and evaluate the company s expectations from the new hire, instead of waiting for the end of the probation period.

Assessing the New Hires through Online Platforms Online platforms present another form to evaluate the success of the New Hires. Consider these ideas when evaluating your New Hires: 1. Facebook - Secret Facebook groups allow you to create polls and multiple choice questions. Though limited, this functionality can be used for assessments of new hires 2. LinkedIn - LinkedIn groups do not provide for publishing content, but they do provide an option for polls. 3. Game Mechanics - Online games can spark healthy competition among the participants. Paired with analytics and management tools you can effectively track and manage the program. With these platform analytics you have more data to start recognizing your top performers in a public way!

Getting the Metrics Right We ve all heard how important it is to have data-driven analysis, track and measure ROI, and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs). It s essential, however, to be sure you don t fall into the trap of being data-rich and information-poor. Thankfully there are two simple concepts to remember that will set you in the right direction towards measuring performance. 1. Avoid vanity metrics! Vanity metrics appear good on the surface but don t reflect underlying value. An example of a vanity metric is number of training courses delivered to your employees. What real impact did it have on your organization? Is there something deeper we can gain? 2. Ask Yourself (and team) these two questions: i. What is the underlying business problem? ii. What metric or KPI do we need to measure this?

Conclusion Staying competitive in today s market is not easy, and any organization that fails to innovate and embrace new technologies and practices is bound to be left behind. By creating a comprehensive online training program, you can make a great first impression, reduce attrition and set your team up for success starting on Day 1.

Get a Free Demo From Request a demo of MindTickle's online training software. See MindTickle's learning software in action! We'll show you how to effectively engage learners and measure ROI. With MindTickle's learning software you can: Boost Learner Engagement: Use social and gamified learning mechanics to increase engagement and retention. Deliver Anytime, Anywhere: Use our mobile-friendly platform to deploy to learners anywhere. Save Time and Money: Save classroom time, and use our flexible subscription-based pricing.