The core premise of our new book, Onboarding[1], is that things work better when all efforts to recruit, orient, and manage new employees point in the same direction, integrated into one Total Onboarding Program (TOP). This note lays out 12 issues that arise in the way some organizations currently manage the various aspects of onboarding and suggests ways to do things differently (and better).
Alignment Issues
Issue: Solving the WRONG problem
– Suggestion: clarify BROADER DESTINATION
Operating in ISOLATION
– ALIGN stakeholders
Acquisition Issues
RECRUITING SEQUENTIALLY
– create a SLATE of candidates
Separating BUYING & SELLING
– PRE-SELL while buying
PHYRRIC VICTORIES in closing the sale
– make a STRATEGIC SALES
Accommodation Issues
Doing it TO or FOR THEM
– CO-CREATE PERSONAL ONBOARDING PLAN (POP)
NEGLECTING the basics
– ACCOMMODATE their needs
Assimilation Issues
SURPRISING people
– Manage the ANNOUNCEMENT
Poor FIRST IMPRESSIONS
– Manage DAY ONE
Taking a SINK or SWIM approach
– ASSIMILATE proactively
Acceleration Issues
Leaving them ALONE too soon
– ACCELERATE through the 1st 100-days and beyond
Integration Issues
Solving each of the 1st 11 ON THEIR OWN
– Deploy a TOTAL ONBOARDING PROGRAM (TOP)
[1] Onboarding: How to Get Your New Emploees Up to Speed in Half the Time, Bradt and Vonnegut (Wiley, 2009)
