Effective onboarding practices for new employee productivity and retention

Onboarding Best Practices

Onboarding

As the procedure of recruitment progresses in most organizations, the term onboarding becomes used in human resources. The key to organizational capacity to execute policy and attain its objectives is a productive workforce. An exceedingly competitive business backdrop requires its entire workforce to perform at its best at both team and individual level. Onboarding is an intricate operation affected by numerous aspects relating to the newcomer employee and the institution. These factors include the characteristics and behaviors of an employee as well as the organizational efforts. Augmenting commitment of employees is paramount for productivity in any organizations. To achieve productivity, skills and attributes acknowledged in each novel employee requires adequate support and detailed introductory procedure. Effective onboarding is crucial to acclimation and socialization of new employees within their working place. The acclimation procedure is an accepted expansion of employee's orientation training. Advantages of productive onboarding entail maximizing novel employees' complete productivity in an organization's core functions. However, the onboarding procedure and experience can vary. It can either be a well-managed and swift conduit to the involvement of an employee, or an unproductive and expensive entry into the organization. In this regard, paper assesses the best practices employed by organizations to capitalize on the onboarding process.

Introduction

Historically, the procedure of helping newly hired employees to acclimate to their working setting has been referred to as orientation. Orientation usually begins with an introduction to the work area, organization's facilities and building on the first day of work (Bruce & Montanez, 2012). Formal and informal presentation of organizational policies, operating processes and other administrative details follows. However, in the contemporary world, orientation is not a stand-alone occurrence, but a part of a bigger process known as onboarding. Some people view onboarding as a new buzzword for orientation, but it is up to a company's human resource management to do more to make certain that new hires become satisfied and productive members of the organization. The onboarding process is also referred to as assimilation, alignment, transition and integration process (Mesmer, 2012).

Defining Onboarding

Onboarding entails the direct bridge amid the promise of a novel employee talent and the achievement of definite productivity (Bradt & Vonnegut, 2009). It is also an organizational socialization. Organizational socialization is the system by which newly hired employees in an organization obtain the required skills, behaviors and knowledge. Strategies employed in onboarding process entail videos, meetings, lectures computer-centered orientations or printed materials (Bradt & Vonnegut, 2009). These strategies establish newly workers to their novel organizations and jobs. Onboarding facilitates optimistic upshots for the novel employees, and it enhances job performance, organization devotion, stress reductions and more importantly, promotes job satisfaction. Onboarding practices are significant to all institutions seeking to uphold a competitive edge. Onboarding process can be a tactical procedure that improves the bottom line of an organization although it seems like a purely transactional action. Newly hired employees begin as liabilities before they acquire the required experience and skills to create positive contribution in an organization. In this regard, the best procedures in the onboarding process are paramount as they allow employees to get up to speed and offer positive contribution in an organization.

The human resource department should differentiate onboarding from socialization strategies. Wanberg (2012) asserts that onboarding concerns exactly what is done, that is, the programs, policies and practices executed by an organization or its agents and experienced by new hires. Centering on the distinctive actions, according to Wanberg (2012), looks past tactics of socialization. The divergent onboarding practices experienced by a new employee may mirror a combination of dissimilar socialization strategies. Wanberg further ascertains that employing measures of socialization strategies instead of the original aspects may weaken observed links and lead in the loss of crucial information (Wanberg, 2012). Evaluating specific onboarding activities and the means through which these activities are conveyed should offer richer and briefer information.

Benefits of Onboarding Practice

According to Snell (2006), organizations that do not prop up a detailed introduction stage for novel employees risk losing productivity created by the employees and their interest in the organization. Snell asserts that sixty-four percent of newly hired executives fail in their new jobs and the average years that such CEOs remains in these jobs is less than 4 years (Snell, 2006). These statistics are worrying and they underline the significance of forming the correct experience to retain productive employees and productivity. All novel employees undergo a learning curve during which they operate below the level of completely productive employee (Bruce & Montanez, 2012). Employee learning curves demonstrate the amount of time needed for employees in novel positions to attain complete productivity and the rate at which they develop towards complete productivity in the course of the ramp-up phase. An efficient onboarding procedure allows new employees to attain access to data, materials and tools required to carryout their roles more efficiently. Efficiency formulated through successfully onboarding a new employee hold direct optimistic effect on the entire productivity of an organization.

Technology and process enhancements can convey actual bottom-line upshots obtained from benefits that include:

Lowered effort and time for human resource, hiring managers and other people engaged in onboarding

Enhanced accuracy and speed of collection of data and transmission between human resource information systems and payroll

Constant policy and legal compliance

Lowered shipping and printing costs for onboarding

Capacity to get new metrics for considerable process effectiveness

Improved general new employees' experience including a distinct, self -- service data source in the course of the vital first days on the new job

More efficient manager/employee relationship

Snell (2006) asserts that optimized onboarding leads to lowered time to competence or contribution, enhanced employee performance and productivity, enhances powerful bonds amid employees and improves loyalty and job satisfaction. Optimized onboarding also enhances retention and engagement of employees. According to Hernandez (2009) through assessing an organization's agility before beginning an onboarding engagement besides assessing leadership and problem-solving style of new executives, one must enhance transitional coaching and accelerate the contributions of and shifts developed through the new employee. Hernandez (2009) confirms that relationships are crucial, but how a new executive navigates and leverages the relationships among major stakeholders on the senior team and across the entire organization must rely on what in the matrix best represent the company. Hernandez (2009) asserts that the most common pitfall for executives undergoing an onboarding transition is thinking that they are in prospective zone when they are in a challenge zone.

According Dam (2007), following an effective selection and recruitment, the most significant means that companies enhances their effectiveness and management of their talents is through onboarding. On boarding helps newly hired employee adjust to performance and social factors of the novel jobs smoothly and quickly. Onboarding is a priority for human resource department given that more than twenty-five percent in the United States working population experiences career changes. For instance, about 500, 000 managers from "Fortune" five hundred companies assume new roles each year and generally, managers start novel jobs every 2 to 4 years (Bradt & Vonnegut, 2009). However, half of senior hires outside the companies fail within the first eighteen months in their novel positions. Half of all workers working on hourly basis leave their novel jobs within the first one hundred and twenty days.

Ineffective Onboarding Practice: Informal Onboarding

Depending on the size of an organization and the intricacy of the work, an effective onboarding program can go for several weeks or months. The program covers matters linked to training, scheduled milestones, interactive meetings and mentoring programs where newly hired employees can ask questions regarding departmental and corporate initiatives. Messmer (2012) cites several unproductive approaches. These perspectives include the Osmosis method where no formal adjustment or orientation process is available to help the new employees. The human resources management leave the new employees alone to learn by themselves the ropes through observation and asking questions on an instant, as-needed.

Organizations or human resource department that advocate for the osmosis process maintains that if an employee is smart enough to be hired, they have the potential to figure out for themselves what they require to know regarding their job, the organization and the facilities (Messmer, 2012) . The osmosis approach is not effective because this process fails to recognize how intricate it is for new employee to grasp the nuances of an organization and at the same time learn what is required for their new jobs. Moreover, this approach demonstrates an attitude of indifference that can easily carry over into the performance of an employee. In the Osmosis onboarding practice, new employees shy off from asking questions an aspect that indicates that these employees never get the guidance or the answers they so much need until they start to make mistakes.

Messmer (202) highlights, "Just follow Joe around" as another ineffective onboarding process practiced in some organizations. In this process, new employees are paired with tenured staff members. The experienced employee holds no specific instructions on how to control the process. The organizations that adopt this process believe that new employees can pick up the most important skills if they follow what more experienced employees are doing for several days. While this onboarding perspective is inexpensive and simple, it is not effective. This is because the new employees and the more experienced ones have nothing in common and can strain communication. In addition, the practice does not work because the more tenured employees can just allow the newcomer to watch him/her as they perform their jobs. The experienced employee holds no insight into the newly hired employee's role expectations. This onboarding process fails because there lacks apparent instructions and careful selection of which individual the new employee follows around. The tenured employee may undermine the effort of the new employ.

Another ineffective onboarding process is, "Video Watching." In this process, the company hires a hotshot production organization to offer a slick video content that tells the new hires everything they require to know about the company. The video entails a 12 to 15 minute-sessions. The new employees sit in front of the screen and watch the presentation. Companies can also e-mail the video link to the new employees and employees are advised to watch when they get time. The rationale behind this method is that no time is wasted on training or person-to-person contact. Nevertheless, video watching as an onboarding process is ineffective. This is because it gives no room for question asking and does not guarantee that a new employee pays attention to the video. These practices are informal and hence ineffective when used to a new employee.

Onboarding Best Practice: Formal Onboarding

To put an newly hired employee in a successful platform, an organization or the human resource department should prepare well in advance and continue to support the newly hired employee in the course of his/firsts months in the organization. The best practice must be formal and should involve a completed schedule for the first days on the new job. The human resource department must set planned times for the new employee to encounter major staff members in the organization. A mentor should be assigned to the newly hired employee. The mentor should assist the new hires develop a network besides educating them on facilities. he/she should also provide crucial information regarding organizational goals and culture. The human resource department should stock their organization with the apparatus required to start working. A company's organization chart, list of employees and staff phone directory should be made available to the newly hired employees. This procedure entails provision of the rules of the organization. If a company holds an employee handbook and process manual, copies of these documents should be provided .

Messmer (2012) asserts that human resource managers must also keep orientation practical. Given that new hires join different organizations at varying intervals, organizing formal sessions can present some problems. However, human resource department must conduct orientation as soon as possible. According Messmer (2012), if an organization regularly adds new employees, holding formal sessions for each of the new hires may not be practical. In this view, the best option is an integrated perspective that entails a formal occurrence that takes place on monthly or weekly basis. This process should be preceded by an informal personalized orientation on the first day that covers the necessary operational and administrative factors of the job.

Involvement of senior management is paramount. Formal orientation sessions should involve the presence of some key senior management members. Some organizations launch the orientations session with video message from the top management, which is acceptable particularly when the video is up-to-date, and of high quality. Having top managers present in the course of an orientation session offer more importance and credibility to the whole onboarding process.

Holding a large group sessions in an appropriate room is another best practice in onboarding. If an organization is holding large group orientation sessions perhaps with oral presentation or video presentation, a large room is necessary, as it will accommodate the new hires and their mentors (Reed & Bogardus, 2012). Cramped or unattractive setting may sabotage the ability to communicate and may lead to transmission of incorrect message to the newly hired employees. An attractive setting sends the message that the organization is organized and professional and that it hold its employees with due respect. A conference room can be hired if an organization does not have adequate facilities.

According to Messmer (2012), onboarding is the first formally structured experience an employee hold in his/her new company. At this point, an organization strives to make everything that takes place during the first day to match the message conveyed during the recruitment procedure. Precisely, every event-taking place during the first onboarding day should mirror how the company presents itself in the world of business. The onboarding team can convey information through verbal information. Verbal information is simple and suitable to the most apparent stuff. Audiovisual presentation is another channel of information and it is suitable for onboarding because it helps in creation of emotional effect particularly when presenting an organizations goals and mission. Written documentation is appropriate in onboarding process and it facilitates communication of legally mandated and complex communication such as the organization's adherence with equal employment prospect legislation.

Choosing on the combination of audio-visual, written and oral information to involve orientation occurrences relies principally on how regular an organization requires to conduct a session. It also depends on how many employees and the human resource onboarding team are working within a particular time. Messmer (2012) proposes the use of power point presentation instead of a company video, which is a luxury. The new employees should be provided with information on major benefits and policies in writing. Brochures and forms among other printed materials offer clear information to employees before they gain their entry into the company.

To ensure effective onboarding practice, the human resource onboarding team provides an orientation agenda. An orientation agenda eases the anxiety of the newly hired employees through mapping out the expected events of the day. The agenda also allows the human resource orientation team to stick to a formal structure besides showing newcomers that the company takes the onboarding process quite serious. Moreover, a well-planned orientation agenda allows newly hired employees to understand how the company carries out its business.

Messmer (2012) confirms that spacing things out also enhances onboarding practice. One corresponding denigration shared by newly hired employees is that they have to absorb too much information at a go. In this regard, spacing out things is paramount. This include breaking up orientation sessions in the course of the first few days and moving parts of the orientation sessions to the later days perhaps, the second or the third week. This spacing out provides the new team members adequate time and a prospect to absorb what they are learning. Spacing things out allows the new hires acquire information that makes sense to them following several days of experience.

Best onboarding practice calls for a clear set of goals and tasks for the newly hired employees. In the course of the first week in the organization, newcomer employees need to hold a sitting with their supervisors for an in-depth discussion regarding goal setting and job responsibilities. The role of the human resource practitioner is to guarantee that the meetings take place but also understand the importance of the meeting supervisors and newly hired employees. According to Messmer (2012), a new hire should leave the discussion with a crystal-clear comprehension of the tasks, priorities and expectations. In this process, the supervisor and the newly hired employee verifies the jobs goals and more importantly, their tasks in order to set distinct and reasonable goals for newly hired employees.

Providing clear sense of responsibilities and setting concrete goals during the onboarding process allow the newly hired employees to understand the temperament of their jobs and how their roles fits into the expansive corporate objectives (Sims, 2010). In most successful organizations, employees do not set their goals in a void. Human resource professional guarantee that line managers completely comprehend the company's theoretical goals and prepare properly to assist their employee form individual goals that facilitate high-level vision.

Effective onboarding approach encompasses a feedback process where the newly hired employees provide their views regarding the onboarding process to their supervisors. A feedback process allows the human resource professionals to make improvements for future new employees. Employee handbook and procedures manuals are also paramount during the onboarding process (Westwood & Johnson, 2011). The handbook holds the fundamental procedures and polices in a well documented manner. It allows employs get track of the basic company information via the company's intranet or print materials, and saves the supervisors a lot of energy and time. However, a good employee handbook should separate the policies of the company from job-specific processes. The handbook should contain policies applicable to all employees. The separate manual on the other hand, should have a format of the procedures that links specifically to how individual employees do their work. The distinctions should be kept separate. The manuals should be simple, clear and concise and should observe legalities (Westwood & Johnson, 2012).

According to Westwood & Johnson (2012), companies must combine onboarding with other major talent management components. They should start by integrating management onboarding into the recruitment process. They should also link design to culture. For new leaders to be successful and effective in their work place, they need to link quickly with the culture and values of the organizations. As a result, the human resource professionals must consider how they can productively integrate new employees into the company's culture (Westwood & Johnson, 2011). Ascertaining what upcoming activities or events are the core of an organizations culture and the roles of the newly hired employees is paramount. The newly hired employees should be provided with the frontline culture experience. The supervisor should plan a shift or two in the company to answer the concerns of the newly hired employees.

Westwood & Johnson (2012) claim that designing procedure and not an event is an essential factor for onboarding managers. Besides designing a process for the new employee's first weeks and months, the design process should also be done for major business highlights along the way. An expert to work together with the newly hired employee during the firsts few weeks or months should be assigned. This is because an expert will assist the new hires in attaining the required skills and knowledge. The onboarding managers should uphold timely procedures. Timely procedures help newly hired employees to hit the ground through and bring them up-to-date on current and upcoming initiatives and projects. Moreover, an information session with an expert is essential as it informs the newly hired employees on the progress and the basic requirements.

The onboarding managers should design fresh policies based on the current situation in the company. They should create a procedure that includes the current strategy, budget, project updates and business plans (Westwood & Johnson, 2011). The designed polices should be memorable so that the new hires adhere strictly to these policies. The written or designed set of coordinated procedures and policies facilitate adjustments of new employees to their new jobs in terms of both socialization and tasks. As a result, a formal onboarding process is more effective than informal onboarding process.

The extent by which organizations influence the four C's describes its general onboarding strategy. Almost all companies cover compliance as an aspect of formal onboarding practice. Organizations that engage in passive onboarding give role clarification but do not address culture and connection. Some informal means of directing newly hired employees with respect to culture and connection developed earlier but nobody including the human resource professionals coordinated the activity to capitalize on onboarding success. Firms that engage in passive onboarding view onboarding as a checklist of unlinked activities to be completed. Research indicate that almost thirty percent of organizations both medium sized or large work at passive onboarding level. However, passive onboarding can be operational but is not systematic.

Level two of the onboarding process is high potential onboarding. While compliance and clarification are included by an organization's onboarding practices, connection and culture are included in level two of the onboarding process, which is high potential onboarding. Fifty percent of the organizations that use high potential onboarding practice do not establish the entire process of onboarding in a systematic manner in the entire organization. For instance, in early 2000s, executives from IBM realized that their firm experienced success with its newly hired employees, but it remained attached at the second level of onboarding. With more number of new employees triggered by job mobility and the restructuring of the company, the increased employee population in IBM became quite significant (Sims, 2010). Understanding that the newly hired employees held divergent requirements than in the experienced employees already working for company, IBM initiated the Assimilation process, which consisted of beginning, connecting and affirming.

Affirming takes place before the start date of the newly hired employs and it includes welcoming of employees, assigning a coach and preparing a station of work. Beginning, which is the next step in the assimilation process takes in the course of the first thirty days of the employees in the company. This process entails strict rules that facilitate meeting of the new hire, his/her introduction to the onboarding teams, completion of paperwork and introduction of the employee to intranet onboarding podium. During the first month in the new job, managers ensures that any required resources are made available, they verify responsibilities and roles, inspire the new hire and organize a "check in" times to confirm that the new hire is making notable progress.

The third process, connecting, takes pace in the course of the new employee's first year in the new job and it holds three significant phases. After staying in the company for two months, an "ask coach" evacuates the processes and this phase entails networking the priority so that the new employee gets motivated and seeks interest communities in the company. Between the fourth and the sixth month into the tenure of a new employee, the employee focuses on his/her achievements and by the end of one year, the onboarding managers consider the employee to be completely integrated. From the high potential level, the company turns to the proactive onboarding level, which is the final level, where all the building blocks, the four C's, are addressed. The proactive onboarding level entails systematic organization of onboarding within the strategic HRM perspective. However, only twenty percent of firms attain this level.

Summary

Effective onboarding is a crucial element in any talent development strategy. With the increased cost of recruiting, organizational leaders must fathom that productively integrating newly hired employees into the organization is a crucial step that guarantee success in an organization. Recognizing who own the process of onboarding and who manages different steps in the procedure is crucial to the sustainability and success of the onboarding process. A simple written formal plan of onboarding process cannot guarantee success of an individual newcomer employee or that of the organization. The basics are to involve significant stakeholders as well as the new employees in interactions that facilitate understanding of one another and how they socialize over time. Best onboarding practice utilized together with human resource management, leads to faster learning for newly hired employees, enhanced communication, a more engaged and productive labor force.