How to maximise the impact of your induction programme

Transcription

1 How to maximise the impact of your induction programme

2 INDUCTION MATTERS First impressions matter: how to maximise the impact of your induction programme Induction matters. We know that capturing the imaginations of our new starters early on in their careers is vital to keep attrition rates low, speed up time to competency and get new people aligned with your company s vision and business strategy. But there s a sense of inertia in L&D - the induction programme is a box-ticking exercise through which new starters must be shepherded before the real work starts. In fact, failing to engage new starters at this critical stage could cost global organisations millions of pounds over time in lower productivity and high staff churn rates. It s time to do something different and make our onboarding process work harder. So how do we do it? Choosing the right technology L&D has traditionally relied on face-to-face training and click next e-learning modules for induction and onboarding. This isn t a case of throwing every technology at your programme and seeing what sticks - this is about thoroughly and honestly reviewing your current induction programme and considering what s working, what isn t and what s missing. This doesn t have to mean an expensive investment in a whole new suite of devices. It is possible to assess your existing technologies to make the most of what you already have, helping you keep to a tight budget. Working with your learning technology vendor to gather and consolidate technical, learner and organisational requirements will give you a much better picture of the technology you should be using, and should lead to far better results than just doing what s always been done. LEO s experienced consulting team often works with global organisations throughout the requirements gathering phase to ensure all the relevant information is collected, which then feeds into the design process for the programme. Key principles for onboarding design There are five key things to bear in mind when designing a comprehensive onboarding programme if you want to reduce the cost of induction training, boost speed to competence and achieve better ROI on your efforts for measurable business results. 1. Learning architectures Your induction programme should fit seamlessly into your overall learning architecture. Don t be afraid to take some time to refine your blend of delivery channels in the context of your organisation s people, processes, content, environment, culture and technical restraints. The induction process should not be a standalone piece of content, and should instead integrate with every other element of your entire learning programme for a coherent, consistent experience. To find out more about creating effective learning architectures, why not download LEO s A new future for learning ebook? 2. Learner journeys The first 100 days of a new starter s time with your organisation are critical, making it essential to get this first part of the learner journey right. Focusing on this period enables you to align new starters with your vision and values, deliver the essential learning they need to become integrated high performers and sustain their development up to the first six months and beyond. 3. Context Putting the learning into context helps new starters understand why the material is relevant, and helps them HOW TO MAXIMISE THE IMPACT OF YOUR INDUCTION PROGRAMME 2

3 interact with it in their own way. This can be on both an organisational level - understanding how their role fits into the wider business - and a personal level - understanding how their unique learning style will impact the way they interact with content, and offering practical measures to help them make the most of the material on offer. 4. Relationships and networking Developing good working relationships with colleagues is a significant part of making new starters feel integrated within the organisation. It benefits everyone by helping the new starter feel like part of their team faster, and by enabling existing team members to make use of new members sooner. Successful networking can also facilitate more efficient knowledge sharing across the organisation. 90% of staff make their decision to stay within the first six months. - Bersin and Associates 5. Onboarding for the future To successfully align your people with your tomorrow, you need to think outside your current organisational circumstances and requirements. Instead, think about what you want your people and leaders to be like in two years time. Where do you see your organisation going strategically? A great induction programme should help you move your people to this point, enabling you to achieve better business results along the way. LEO S ASPECT MODEL FOR INDUCTION AND ONBOARDING We know induction matters, and we know that most induction programmes aren t quite hitting the mark in terms of achieving the business results we need. So how do we identify what needs to change, and how should we go about doing it? We believe the answer is our ASPECT model for induction and onboarding, which is based on our 30 years of learning design experience. This helps us consider the entire onboarding process, which extends beyond the official start date in both directions to create a fully integrated programme, and can be applied in any organisation for a more focused solution. There are six key stages in the ASPECT model, split into the pre- and post-joining experience. This challenges the traditional first two weeks induction experience and spreads it out over a much longer time period, with tailored activities at each stage. HOW TO MAXIMISE THE IMPACT OF YOUR INDUCTION PROGRAMME 3

4 The Attract phase is about getting the right people onboard in the first place. Is your website aligned with your brand and business strategy? Will your job advert attract applicants with the right attitude? The Select phase is to do with narrowing down this pool of applicants to find the best of the best. How do you choose who continues through the recruitment process? Are you using diagnostics, simulations or games to see how applicants perform in tasks? How do they prove their core ability? The Prepare phase kicks in once you have selected your new starters - when they may be working their notice period in their old job. This is the time to harness the new starter s energy and motivation and to start introducing them to the organisation. Multi-device e-learning is a great way to deliver this type of content, as the new starter will be able to access the learning wherever they are as they approach their start date. As we move to the Engage phase, we enter the critical first few days after the new joiner s start date. Here, we want to get them on board and understanding their role within the organisation as quickly as possible. Videos and storytelling are key ways to achieve this. Does the new starter understand their role? Do they know their own measures for success, and when targets need to be hit by? The Connect phase is about making connections with the right people within the organisation. This process takes time, but it is a crucial step to ensure the right introductions are established early on for more efficient working and knowledge sharing. Has the new starter met everyone they will work with regularly? Do they know who to speak to when they have a specific question? The final, ongoing part is the Tune phase. This should ideally continue for as long as possible throughout the learner s time at your organisation, and is about supporting their development through learning over time. Do your learners remember anything from the induction period? Are they constantly being encouraged to develop their skills? The cost of a single failed executive-level manager can be as high as $2.7 million. - Watkins, The first 90 days LEO S FIRST 100 DAYS INDUCTION ARCHITECTURE ALIGN DELIVER SUSTAIN While the ASPECT model is a great place to start, we felt that there should be something more concrete when designing and building successful onboarding programmes. That s why LEO created an entire First 100 Days induction architecture, to bring the theory behind pre- and post-induction learning into the real world, ready to be used in global organisations. This is split into three sections: Align, Deliver and Sustain. We have long used the Align, Deliver and Sustain approach as a core design checklist to drive best practice learning design across courses. This approach recognises the profound importance of what happens either side of the core learning delivery for a successful outcome. 96% of new starters learn what they need to do their job through team collaboration, and 88% through general conversations with colleagues, showing the importance of social interaction for learning. - Towards Maturity, Learner Voice Part 2, HOW TO MAXIMISE THE IMPACT OF YOUR INDUCTION PROGRAMME 4

5 Align The Align period takes place pre-joining, and is about capitalising on the the perfect learning moment, when learners are highly receptive and have time to get to know your business and their new role off the clock. The focus here is on motivation, gaining buy-in, integration and bringing a diverse range of learners to the right level of knowledge, skills and attitude in preparation for the Deliver phase. What matters here is the What s in it for me? (WIIFM) message, which can be driven using tools such as video, diagnostics, pre-learning and self-reflection to set the scene of the upcoming challenges and goals. Deliver The second part of LEO s First 100 Days induction architecture is the Deliver phase. This takes place from the start date to the end of the third month, and focuses on laying the foundations for effective behaviour by driving and enabling new concepts and skills. Learning modes such as showing, practising, applying, solving, finding, playing and assessing are all useful in the Deliver phase. As well as this, we would expect to see knowledge management, performance support tools and systems being enlisted to maintain learning throughout this period. Sustain The final part of this approach is the Sustain phase, which continues through to the six-month mark and beyond. This is about sustaining and embedding new behaviours, skills and attitudes in the long term to drive a profound change throughout the organisation and to achieve transformational results. Using techniques such as spaced practice and nudging enable us to keep learning front of mind for more effective embedding of material into everyday practice. Here, we would expect to see learning modes such as applying, reviewing, reflecting, refreshing, sharing and evaluating. Failure of transition effectively into an organisation can cost a company between 1.5 and 5 times salary. - Bersin & Associates and Heidrick & Struggles What to expect from the First 100 Days programme Equipped with the theory and the understanding of why a comprehensive onboarding programme matters, it s time to do something about it. There are several ways in which we can approach induction and bring it to life. Blended programmes - fully integrated architectures bring together multiple channels for a dynamic, cohesive onboarding programme. Induction portals - pre-joiner and new joiner portals deliver key media, messages, knowledge and learning through a branded microsite. This can be integrated with enterprise systems for data collection and measurement over time. Mobile induction apps - multi-platform apps bring together communications, learning and performance support for access whenever and wherever information might be needed. These apps could include welcome videos, checklists, maps, links and important documents for easy access. Business context games - games allow us to communicate complex messages in the context of a realistic experience of the organisation. This can include skill development, orientation and understanding large amounts of complicated material in a more engaging, effective way. Face-to-face workshops - this is about harnessing new starters energy for genuinely useful, discoverybased workshops, including networking, sharing and learning by exploring - not just a show-and-tell session. Using one or a mixture of these within your learning architecture is the key to creating a highly effective onboarding programme. A great induction programme should cover all the bases and provide a robust level of foundation knowledge upon which learners can build over time, so it may be worth running a pilot scheme with any new ideas you intend to roll out across the entire organisation and asking for feedback from new starters at key checkpoints throughout the programme. What can we achieve with a more strategic approach to onboarding? The right induction programme is a powerful tool in the L&D toolkit, and can help businesses realise significant strategic benefits, such as massive cost savings, improved workplace performance, faster integration within the organisation and huge reductions in time spent in formal training, meaning faster entry into the high-performing workforce. Based on our breadth of experience and our deep understanding of what makes a successful induction programme LEO has helped global organisations realise their coveted strategic business results. For instance, we worked with a large global furniture retailer to help them transform their induction programme. Based on the theory and methodologies outlined in this resource, we were able to cut the retailer s training time by 50%, with 1.2m in cost savings in the first year alone. This shows the importance a well-planned, strategic approach to onboarding can have on the entire organisation, helping to accelerate new starters through the process more efficiently to boost speed to competence and make them fully integrated high performers faster. HOW TO MAXIMISE THE IMPACT OF YOUR INDUCTION PROGRAMME 5

6 We also worked with a British clothing retailer to realign their induction training with their overall business objectives. Since implementing the new programme, the firm has reported cost savings of 90,000 a year, coupled with a 45% increase in the knowledge of new starters - effectively showing that the right induction strategy and materials make it possible to deliver more for less. Introducing technology to the induction process can also help achieve scale much more efficiently than with traditional face-to-face methods. Before working with LEO, an international oil and gas provider reached just 1,500 new starters a year with its induction training. Using our more strategic programme, the organisation reached 10,000 learners in the first three months alone. Initially aimed at 12,000 inductees, the induction portal has now been accessed by over 50,000 global operatives for a much wider reach than the company had ever previously achieved with its onboarding. As well as cost savings, increased speed to competence and greater reach, onboarding can also transform the customer experience for a better business reputation and customer experience. LEO helped the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) train 160,000 volunteers for the 2012 Olympic Games in a very short period of time. This supported over eight million hours of volunteer time throughout the Olympic and Paralympic games. As a result, an amazing 94% of visitors at the Olympics and 96% at the Paralympics rated the service of volunteers as excellent, which would almost certainly not have been possible without a comprehensive induction programme in place to cater for the diverse range of volunteers backgrounds. Want to know more? LEO s learning experts have decades of experience in creating highly effective induction and onboarding architectures, which have helped hundreds of organisations save money, cut speed to competency and achieve better sales within the first year of implementation. If you are looking to do more for less on a long-term basis with a comprehensive, future-proof induction programme, the time to act is now. LEO s Director of Strategic Design, Andrew Joly, hosted a popular webinar about designing more effective and engaging onboarding programmes. To watch the recording of the webinar, please head to the LEO website. This includes the Q&A from the session, and will help you align your people with your tomorrow. We would also love to speak to you about your unique requirements. You can contact us by ing talktous@leolearning.com, and a member of the LEO team will get back in touch with you shortly. In top learning companies, 32% start organisational learning before new staff join (double the average). - Towards Maturity Benchmark Report HOW TO MAXIMISE THE IMPACT OF YOUR INDUCTION PROGRAMME 6

7 About LEO LEO believes that technology-enabled learning innovation has the power to deliver truly transformational results. Our purpose is to help clients deploy learning technology to deliver outcomes precisely aligned to their business goals. Backed by more than 30 years of experience, we design engaging learning architectures that fit seamlessly into businesses and improve performance throughout the entire organisation. LEO combines a deep understanding of learning design and technology with a pioneering, creative approach to drive learning transformation. LEO is part of Learning Technologies Group plc (LTG). Get in touch at: talktous@leolearning.com leolearning.com Part of Learning Technologies Group plc