INSIGHTS REPORT. Gaining Engagement in the Onboarding Process

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1 Gaining Engagement in the Onboarding Process

2 If we want to have the biggest impact, the best way to do this is to make sure we always focus on solving the most important problems. MARK ZUCKERBERG, CHAIRMAN & CEO, FACEBOOK

3 Boosting engagement in the onboarding process for better retention and performance Did you know almost one in five employees leave a business before even completing their probation period? * In a recent workshop, we posed this question to a group of intellihr customers to discover ways to improve the onboarding process and ensure the right person is in the right role with the right information. Through this exercise, participants investigated, analysed and evaluated ideas for improving the employee onboarding experience. This report will teach you the techniques our customers used to assess their own onboarding processes, as well as outline some of the discoveries made during the workshop. The report will also reveal the disruptive solutions generated that you may apply and validate in your own organisation. * People Management (2017). One in five employees have left a job during their probation period. INSIGHTS REPORT 3

4 Our Findings Through this process, discoveries were made of a range of positives, opportunities and detractors that came from onboarding processes. The findings may resonate with other organisations and give an opportunity for a more improved process. 4 INSIGHTS REPORT

5 Positives Participants could identify many positives currently practised with their onboarding processes. Merit should be given to those organisations already doing these. If not, consider tailoring your process to include some of these. Making the offer personal The offer is the very first step in the onboarding process and your first chance to make a great impression on your new hire. Providing your chosen candidate can accept, this should always be a positive experience for both parties. Our customers agreed making the offer via a personal phone call to your successful applicant helps generate excitement and build their relationship with your organisation early on. Following this, an electronic offer should be sent straight through to the employee, so they can sign off immediately. Follow an onboarding checklist Standardising onboarding helps maximise compliance and ensure nothing falls through the cracks. It also ensures a consistent experience for all new hires. Ideally, this process should be similar, if not identical, across all business units. Inform the team Sharing information about the new hire with their future team helps prepare current employees to greet their new team member on their first day. It also provides easy talking points for when they start and ensures the new team member feels comfortable and included from the start. Build excitement This sense of inclusion can be built upon further by ensuring the new starter receives plenty of attention on their first day. Inviting them to a team lunch or taking them for a coffee is a good start. Set clear goals Setting clear goals for employees during their first weeks and months provides them with direction and ensures they are aware of their role requirements. They will also be able to stay motivated and enjoy a sense of accomplishment when they meet small milestones. Check-in often Weekly or fortnightly check-ins between the new starter and the hiring manager will help them settle into their role quickly. This is a good opportunity to make sure they have all the support and resources they need to complete the requirements of their role from the start. INSIGHTS REPORT 5

6 Opportunities Participants identified opportunities for improvement in their own onboarding processes. Do any of these exist in your organisation? Fine-tune policies in your own onboarding processes Closing the gap from contract to first day After you ve made the initial offer, is there any further communication with the new starter before their first day? This period is a good opportunity to keep in touch and get your new employee started on completing any induction documentation. This also frees up more time on your new hire s first day for meeting, greeting and getting settled. Messages from the top Do your new starters receive a message or introduction from the CEO or another significant leader in the business to explain where they sit within the organisation, their role and what is expected? This is best done in person, but larger or global organisations could also make use of video to communicate these messages if necessary. Buddy programs Consider implementing employee buddy programs with someone who can show the new employee the ropes. This is particularly important in bigger teams where managers can t do this for every new direct report and can also help signal leadership potential from current employees who take on the buddy role well. 6 INSIGHTS REPORT

7 Recognition Look for opportunities where you could provide recognition to new employees during the onboarding process for developing new skills, or recognising an impactful contribution to a team, task or project. Fostering relationships with managers Is there enough opportunity in the onboarding process for managers to really learn about their new direct report? It is important managers have the chance to get to know their new team members before they start. This will help managers set realistic expectations, while also keeping the new hire engaged, allowing them to perform faster. Be consistent It s important to provide consistent on-the-job learning for employees. By having a set learning program in place, you can ensure this information is focused on the areas most important to your business. Also consider whether new hires will have a specific project to dive into when they start. You will want them to be getting involved, feeling engaged and learning from day one. Improve the probation process Is there an opportunity to make the occasion of passing probation more formal? Don t risk leaving employees wondering if they have passed or not. Two-way feedback On top of giving new recruits plenty of positive reinforcement, it is important they have the opportunity to provide feedback on the training they are receiving. Is the training engaging? Are there any gaps? This feedback will help you ensure training is effective for all new starters. Reassess and Refine Could any recurring processes be consolidated or made more efficient? Look for areas where you could automate tasks and remove double handling. Fine-tune policies See if your policies could be improved in any way to make them quick and easy to sign off. INSIGHTS REPORT 7

8 Identify opportunities for improvement in your onboarding processes 8 INSIGHTS REPORT

9 Detractors Like any process there is always room for improvement. Potential prickly points that our participants had experienced are shared. Have you experienced any of these? Surprises Have you been caught by surprise after hiring a new employee? For example, discovering they have a two-month holiday planned during your busiest period of the year? You may need to consider a better way to identify and reduce surprises during the offer and acceptance process. This is aided by having plenty of meet-and-greet time prior to the new hire starting their position, so you can learn as much about them as possible and help them feel comfortable sharing any need-to-know details. Form overload It s not uncommon for the HR team and new starters alike to feel overwhelmed by the number of forms they need to complete during induction. With the right online system in place you could transform these compliance tasks into simple forms recorded securely, drastically reducing or even eliminating the need for paper forms. Further to this, you ll want to ensure this process is engaging and uplifting, leaving the new starter with a positive first impression for the best chance of retention. Lack of support Successfully onboarding an employee is not the responsibility of just one person. It takes support from a range of people in the business to assist with the administration side, as well as helping the new starter settle in. Make sure the right people are contributing to the success of each new hire. Long lead time How quickly can your new starters begin work after signing their contract? Unless a new employee is required to give notice to a previous employer, it s ideal to keep this space of time as short as possible. If the gap is too drawn out, you could lose your new talent to another company where a start date is sooner. Excitement fizzles Don t let the hard work of celebrating a new employee on their first day go to waste. Keep the excitement going by ensuring the team continues to include them in activities throughout their first few weeks, or until their confident enough to guide this behaviour on their own. This excitement can be fostered further by giving new hires clear goals and celebrating their incremental success. Feedback isn t shared When onboarding is successful, this experience should be shared so leaders can learn from each other and continue taking the right steps with future hires. This is the responsibility of everyone in the business who is involved with new hires, not just the HR team. INSIGHTS REPORT 9

10 Bring fresh ideas to your current onboarding programs 10 INSIGHTS REPORT

11 Key Learnings Through this process participants were able to bring fresh ideas and identify greater efficiencies for their current onboarding programs. Some of these improvements are outlined below. Gamification Introduce elements of gamification to make the process more engaging for new employees and speed-up completion times. This could be achieved through unlocking achievements as new staff progress through the onboarding period. Role Clarification Communicate to employees exactly what their role involves and why their contribution to the business is important. Alignment Align employees with the business mission from the very beginning to minimise malpractice and encourage positive behaviours that contribute to company goals. Recognition Different means of employee recognition is important, but the recognisers must also be acknowledged to promote a positive culture within the business. Three Cs Connection, communication and consistency of onboarding employees provides a framework for what employees need to complete and formally involves co-workers in the process. Probation Celebration Celebrate the end of the probation period to recognise the contribution that the employee has made to the organisation within their first six months. This will not only help retain the employee past this period but also helps boost morale in the wider business, setting a positive example for new staff to aspire to. More people, less process Spread out the onboarding activities and make use of different e-learning tools and other online learning tools. When onboarding, prioritise culture, brand and relationships over processes and policies. Employees who have a good experience in the onboarding process are far more likely to be retained than those who get a negative first impression of your organisation. Empowerment Empower and inspire employees through the induction process, by getting the employee involved in projects early on or even talking to their experience and what they can bring to the business for process improvement. INSIGHTS REPORT 11

12 Now it s your turn Instrumental to the development of any process is having a well-stocked tool kit that will help you assess your processes. The following techniques are simple and will allow you to gauge what is working well in your process and where there is room for improvement. 12 INSIGHTS REPORT

13 3 Key Techniques To help improve retention through a better onboarding process, our customers followed these steps. 1 Journey Mapping Create a visual representation of the onboarding process in the form of a flowchart. Outline the steps each person goes through from start to finish. You may want to create a separate journey map for the employee and the HR team, and then compare or overlap the two. To get the most out of this activity, highlight points in the map you may identify as roses (things you are doing well), buds (opportunities for improvement) or thorns (pain points). Assign at least one of these labels to each point on your Journey Map. We recommend using a unique colour for each label to make visualisation even easier. 2 Crazy 8s A great way to think about how you might want to reimagine or change your current onboarding system is with a rapid-fire idea generation session. Crazy 8s is a great tool to get started. Individuals will each take a piece of paper and fold it into eight sections. Each square will represent an idea generated. The task is to sketch, draw or write one idea per square in a time allocation of one minute per square. After eight minutes, participants are asked to select what they consider to be their best idea. A further two minutes is then allocated for participants to build out or develop their idea for presentation back to the group. This task is individually completed by everyone in the group with ideas discussed at the end to determine which are best to follow through with. 3 The Art Museum & Sticker Voting This structured, 5-step decision making framework values the quality of solutions more than discussions. Sticker voting gives participants the opportunity to rate their preferences on the wall of ideas through the application of sticker dots or stars. Once votes are tallied, groups have more of a refined focus of ideas for discussion, deliberation and development. INSIGHTS REPORT 13

14 Learn more intellihr regularly holds Design Thinking Workshops where you can develop effective processes for your own organisation. To register for the next workshop or learn more, contact our Customer Success Team