Onboarding new hires: 9 ways to get it right

By Richard Hodge | February 15, 2021

Research shows most onboarding programs are not effective. Here are 9 critical strategies that get results.

Onboarding new professionals to organizations is a painful process today and is even more challenging in the midst of a pandemic and remote work. Let’s start by considering just a few of the most extensive and important research results.

Gallup, the world’s most renowned research organization, has found that more than 88% of onboarding programs and processes global companies use are ineffective. Only 12% get it.
A recent Glassdoor research project indicated that first-year performance could be improved by more than 70% with effective onboarding.
Human Capital Institute found that of the companies they studied, 58% had onboarding programs focused on paperwork and processes. A further one-third said their onboarding program was informal, inconsistent or reactive.
A final piece of research in 2018 shows that 40% of professionals who leave organizations do so because they feel they are not being developed. It’s even higher among those in their first year.

The problem is clear, but what is the answer?
Here are 9 critical strategies winning organizations deploy that produce the results we all want.

Start with your purpose and mission
Culture and purpose trump process and practice. Make sure you connect each new employee in a broad and personal way to the purpose and mission of your organization. It’s not enough to just share it; you need to give it context, share a personal story and help the new employee see how their job impacts the overarching and essential purpose of the organization.
Build behaviors based on shared values
One executive we work with says that shared values are the most important aspect he works on. He feels managing behaviors does not work because values drive behaviors. Therefore, getting everyone to understand and align around values creates the behaviors that ultimately drive performance. And it has to start as early as possible when a new hire joins the organization.
Communicate the team norms
Team norms can be both explicit and implicit, and generally evolve over time. When a new person joins the team, one of the ways to include and align them is to ensure they the know ground rules and operating principles for interacting and communicating with the team. Make that a concrete step in your onboarding process. Remember, everyone wants to contribute.
Make expectations clear
It is critical that managers are engaged to set clear expectations right from the start. It is the manager’s job to clarify and set the stage with their priorities, as well as the priorities that go with the roles the new professionals will be taking. Managers and new hires should work jointly in setting goals and objectives and breaking them into behaviors, tasks, and accomplishments. And managers should let new hires know how they will be measured.
Connect new hires to experienced peers
Make one of the stepping stones of the onboarding process connecting new hires to experienced peers and other new employees who are on the same journey. The experienced peers make them feel respected and valued. They help them learn about the culture and their job. They give them a sounding board and help create a psychologically safe environment. The manager must be engaged in a planned way right from the start. They are the interpersonal lynchpin to a fast and positive start.
Help them empathize with your customers
It is important to get every single person in the company to understand not just the company’s purpose but also its customers, as that is how any company’s purpose comes to life. Help them see how their job directly or indirectly connects to the value the company delivers to its customers. It helps anchor the importance of what they do and brings the magnetic north to life.
Understand and leverage their strengths
Strengths are special and unique to each individual. Everyone has them. Strengths are the things that people find easy to do, things they do better than others. And when they do them, they give them passion.
Build their personal developmental network
Your network of advisors, mentors, and coaches – both formal and informal – is one of the most empowering components that help someone get off to a great start and accelerate quickly. They augment the power of great managers and provide a safe place to share the ambitions of new hires and turn them into action.
Help them own their career
And finally, help each person develop a growth mindset. Help them see how they can co-own their professional development, what they can take charge of, and how they might approach others for help.

So, yes, make sure they know about important processes, how the company is organized, how to get supplies, and how to process expense reports. But consider the payoff if you can also incorporate these 9 critical elements into your onboarding program.

At 1st90, we know these approaches will evolve as we continue to learn from our participants and our clients. Our goal is to empower everyone to do their best work from Day One.

If you want to fast-track to onboarding success, discover the 1st90 roadmap.

Photo at top by Belinda Fewings on Unsplash