Training Magazine Middle East November 2014 | Page 14

Leadership

MAKING ONBOARDING

BY DR BARRY CUMMINGS

Imagine yourself as a new employee joining an organization and walking into the office on day one. You enter the office at 8 am. At the front-desk you are asked for the purpose of your visit. You explain that you are ‘the new guy’ and this happens to be your first day at the job.

After waiting for some time, someone from personnel comes to get you. You are pointed to a workstation at the far end of the office.

You cross the office floor maze and reach your place, only to find an entangled bunch of cables and other knick-knacks that don’t belong to you. You wait for someone to show up for the next two hours, but when no one does, you just ask around to find out where your manager sits and walk up to him, saying ‘Hi there, remember me... the guy you interviewed, well, this happens to be my first

day so I just dropped in to say hi.’

Does this sound familiar? Let’s hope not.

This was in fact a glimpse of the start of an Onboarding Programme, the first day which is the most crucial time for organizations to make a first impression on a new hire and gain commitment.

An Onboarding Programme helps form the foundation of an employer-employee relationship by easing the transition of the employee from their previous organization to the new one. It helps the new hires understand the kind of organization they have associated with and gives them an opportunity to get acquainted to the people they will be working with.

It also helps reinforce the decision they made to join the organization and gives them the clarity, skills and confidence to ensure they can do what they have been hired for.

From a long term perspective, an effective Onboarding Programme ensures:

- Lower staff turnover leading to lower recruitments costs and less disruption to your business and customers.

- Improved staff morale, camaraderie, and loyalty leading to increased production.

- Faster speed to competency and therefore faster results.

According to a recent study, a shocking 31% of employees quit within the first six months of employment and the “exit rate” for new hires is as high as 17% for one week to three months after starting on the job. Alarmingly, one out of every six new employees have considered quitting due to poor Onboarding.

One of the biggest issues with Onboarding Programmes is that in most cases there are no clear objectives; only a series of well intentioned, beautiful presentations, monologues and departmental interactions that are packaged well!

Also, Onboarding material tends to get outdated as organizations grow and evolve in the marketplace. Now, keeping your organization’s Onboarding/orientation programme in mind, try and answer these questions:

• Are you prepared for the first day and week for an individual or a group of new hires?

• Does your Onboarding Programme have clearly defined objectives? What are they?

• Does it have an expected outcome? If yes, what are the measurement parameters?

• Does your orientation tie into what the new hire(s) will be doing one year down the line? Is there a revisiting of the Onboarding expectations at any time during the first year to check progress?

If you are able to articulate the answers with ease, you are probably on the right track. But if not, you need to have a serious look at your Onboarding Programme’s effectiveness and costs; both real and opportunity.

14 | TRAINING MAGAZINE MIDDLE EAST NOV 2014

MORE EFFECTIVE

BY AMANDEEP GROVER