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Weekly Updates* Describe the organization's vision and mission and culture, especially the link between the new employee's job and this mission.
* Have a senior leader welcome new employees (even if it is with a recorded message).
* Introduce the new employee to his or her sponsor.
* Complete paperwork and security requirements--but do not make this the focus of the day.
* Explain the benefit package.
* Arrange for new employees to eat together or for someone from each employee's office to eat lunch with him or her on the first day
Phase 3: The Rest of the First Week. One of the least-attended baseball games of the year is usually the second game of the season, after opening day excitement has worn off. Agencies should make sure new employees do not experience a similar letdown after the initial excitement of orientation. Colleagues, especially the manager or supervisor, now play a key role. The new employee should be able to spend some or all of this week on purposeful work. During the rest of a new employee's first week, an employer needs to:
* Ensure that job roles and responsibilities are clearly communicated.
* Introduce the new employee to other employees and senior staff.
* Provide meaningful work.
* Review organizational structure and key staff.
* Provide a list of contacts who can answer the new employee's questions.
* Gather feedback about the orientation program from new employees.
Phase 4: The First 90 Days. New employees should begin to have a full workload while managers monitor performance and provide early feedback. During this period, managers and supervisors should:
* Review performance objectives and set individual development goals.
* Give feedback, early and often.
* Arrange or provide training.
* Arrange for the new employee to meet key people from other departments.
* Check with new employees regularly to ensure that they continue to assimilate and develop.
Phase 5: The rest of the first year. Many agencies do not consider this to be part of onboarding, but it is. For the employee, the feeling of newness -and the accompanying learning curve--linger. During this phase, employers need to:
* Provide training to build competencies and fill skill gaps.
* Conduct a new employee survey.
* Provide performance feedback (i.e., regular informal manager check-ins plus formal performance assessments after six months and one year).
* Send a congratulatory e-mail or letter from a senior executive on the employee's one-year anniversary.
ESSENTIAL ONBOARDING ELEMENTS
Two essential elements of onboarding should be embedded across all phases: technology and measurement.
Technology. Although onboarding is a distinctly person-to-person activity,
technology can improve the process, including:
* New Employee Paperwork. New employees must complete a sea of forms and paperwork. This can take hours and is often done on the new employee's first day. Automation can allow employees to complete forms before their first day.
* Onboarding Portals. Web portals with onboarding information and tools can enhance the onboarding process. These portals can contain a few pieces of helpful information, or they can be robust repositories of information and tools. Examples of resources frequently included are checklists, timelines, talking points, contact lists, and training guides.
* Case Management. Automated case management systems streamline and track all onboarding activities, ensuring they're completed before the new employee shows up. Measurement: Metrics can be operational (e.g., percentage of employees with e-mail on their first day, percentage of new employees who are satisfied with the orientation program) or strategic (e.g., performance, satisfaction, and attrition of new employees).
YOUR OWN ONBOARDING PROGRAM
The onboarding model provides a framework, but individual onboarding programs must be adapted. There are five points to keep in mind:
I. Know Where You Want to Be. Define the goals and attributes for your onboarding programs. Strategic onboarding programs help integrate new employees into their jobs and the organizational culture. Beyond these universal goals, onboarding programs should build on specific goals that map directly to organizational goals (e.g., reduce turnover, change culture, improve employee engagement).
2. Know Where You Are. Before making changes, it is important to understand and document current practices and responsibilities (i.e., assess the approach, scope, and effectiveness of current onboarding practices).
3. Seek Quick Wins. For many organizations, small improvements can pay off big. Activities that can be implemented quickly and inexpensively include:
* Sending out welcome e-mails to new employees after they accept job offers
* Assigning a sponsor to help the new employee before he or she starts, and in the first days and weeks
* Developing new employee checklists, for new employees, managers and supervisors, and posting them electronically
* Ensuring that orientation programs contain information about organizational history, mission, and core values
* Involving senior leadership in orientation and subsequent onboarding activities
4. Tailor Onboarding to Type of Employee. Organizations that have the basics down can move on to tailor onboarding to specific new employee groups (e.g., executives, mid-level managers, more junior employees, and transfers).
5. Don't Reinvent the Wheel--Borrow It. Every organization, public or private, onboards new employees. Look to best practices from others and make use of them. Commercially available tools and technologies can also support onboarding. These tools can be purchased and used as-is, customized, or created internally
CONCLUSIONS
As the nation and our communities face increasingly complex challenges, government employees need to be fully productive and engaged as quickly as possible. The strategic onboarding model provides a framework for agencies to integrate their new employees to maximize employee productivity, engagement, and retention.
Notes
(1.) Recruiting Roundtable Survey 2005 (Arlington, Virginia: The Corporate Executive Board, 2005).
(2.) Best Employers to Work for in Australia Study 2003, study summary, Hewitt Associates, available at http://was7.hewitt.com/bestemployers/anz/pdfs/bereport2003e.pdf.
(3.) 2006 Onboarding Benchmark Report (Boston: Aberdeen Group), August 2006.
(4.) All Aboard: Effective Onboarding Techniques and Strategies (Boston: Aberdeen Group), January 2008.
(5.) Onboarding Benchmark Report." Technology Drivers Help Improve the New Hire Experience (Boston: Aberdeen Group), August 2006.
BOB LAVIGNA is vice president of research for the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan, non-profit organization dedicated to increasing interest in working for government and transforming the way government works. Before joining the Partnership, he served for more than 30 years in federal, state, and local government. Contact Bob at rlavigna@ourpublicservice.org.
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