The importance of onboarding can be understood from the fact that it starts with the induction of the
new hires and acclimatizes them with all the important aspects of the new organization, such as the culture, environment, people, and the business. In the light of the important elements that go into onboarding; it is a fallacy and a misconception to assume that it is yet another ritual that HR has to perform with new employees, hand them a cup of coffee and carry out the paperwork.
Onboarding goes beyond formalities
Documentation and joining formalities are just a miniscule part of onboarding. Onboarding is very important because it is this exercise that starts the process of connecting the new talent to the organization. One gets a clearer idea of this quality of onboarding when it is initiated for core personnel such as leaders and other key positions. When organizations induct leaders, they are not looking for run-of-the-mill performers. They expect something different and radical.
The organization would have roamed heaven and earth, in a manner of speaking, to find that special talent. If such talent is frittered away because onboarding could not imbue the character of the organization fully at the time of onboarding to the new leader and implant its expectations; it is a poor reflection of the ability of HR to make the best use of onboarding.
Keeping the interest up
As mentioned, onboarding is but the first step to the whole process of absorbing and assimilating the new hire.
HR has to make sure that the initial excitement that the new hire experiences upon joining a new organization has to be sustained and does not fizzle out soon. Retaining the tempo is the test of good onboarding. Keeping the motivation and excitement levels consistently high over time is achieved only by effective onboarding.
A few points can be made to illustrate the importance of onboarding and what it can do if done tardily:
- Organizations lose new hires quickly, as one in three new hires looks for new openings in just half a year of joining new companies;
- One in three of newly hired employees in the executive cadre fall short of their targets in the first couple of years of taking up a position in a new organization;
- Organizations are likely to lose something like two thirds of the entire talent base in just four years of recruiting new talent at the current rate of 10-15% annual rate of turnover.
A study by the Aberdeen Group puts the figure of likeliness that organizations have of retaining new leadership talent hires as a result of the right onboarding at as high as 70%. What the right onboarding primarily does is to prevent organizations from squandering its valuable resources on making a hire that stays for only a few months.
The emotional connector
So, what is that most critical element of good onboarding? Many techniques have been tried with mixed results. However, no matter what tools and methods companies use; nothing is as important in making onboarding successful as inculcating that emotional connection with the new hires.
An organization in which the HR creates and builds that emotional connection between the organization and the new hires has mastered the art of onboarding. It is this quintessential quality that makes or mars the success of onboarding. This emotional connect is the driving force of aligning the organization’s culture to the new hire, especially, a leader.
Explore the details of onboarding in a fun way
The finer elements of how to bring about this emotional connection between the new hire and the organization is what a webinar from TrainHR, a leading provider of professional trainings for the HR industry, will offer. This webinar’s speaker is Marcia Zidle, who is CEO of
Leaders At All Levels and a board certified executive coach based in Dallas, Texas.
Want to make the most out of new hires? Want to understand how your organization can succeed in this crucial mission and see how it can achieve new heights with the new leadership? Then, register for this webinar by visiting
http://www.trainhr.com/control/w_product/~product_id=701730LIVE?hr-SEO
The art of retaining talent and helping it propel the organization
Marcia will demonstrate the steps and decisions that HR can take to make onboarding effective. This is the most important means to keeping leadership talent for the long run and help the organization derive the most out of it. The following areas will be discussed at this session:
- Learn six mistakes to avoid in your new hire onboarding process
- Review best practices in executive onboarding accelerating executive success
- Understand three onboarding approaches to integrate the new hire into their job and organization
- Review an onboarding 90-day timeline with key tasks and tools to measure goals and milestones
- Identify the top derailers for the critical stakeholders the manager, the new leader, human resources
- Learn from focus groups what new leaders consider the top onboarding issues and ways to ensure success.
