About 40 Chief Executive Officers and talent management experts gathered at the Penn Club in NYC this past Monday, September 21, for a CEO Connection Forum to discuss onboarding from the point of view of the hiring manager.
Building off the ideas in Onboarding – How to Get Your New Employees Up to Speed in Half the Time, (Bradt and Vonnegut, Wiley, 2009), a couple of things really seemed to strike chords with the people in the room:
1) Get a head start
Participants realized the value of thinking through a Total Onboarding Program as a way to prepare before starting to recruit. They were enthusiastic about getting stakeholders aligned around roles’ responsibilities, impact and interdependencies up front as a way to lessen role riskd later as well as adding more discipline to the entire onboarding process.
2) Drive consistent messages
Participants want to take a win-win approach to recruiting and are especially intrigued by the prospect of helping offerees do due diligence before they accept the job. This seems to be a good way to start the boss/employee relationship as a partnership. There was near-universal buy in to the necessity of having a strong employment brand, common knowledge, messaging and language across the organization.
3) Help new employees deliver results
Participants found it interesting to compare hiring a new employee to putting on a show, thinking about the hiring manager as producer, then director, then stage manager, working behind the scenes to help new employees succeed on stage as they accelerate results based on their Personal Onboarding plans.
More at www.www.www.primegenesis.com including headlines from the forum, a downloadable summary of the Onboarding book and information about PrimeGenesis’ executive onboarding services.
George Bradt – PrimeGenesis Executive Onboarding and Transition Acceleration
