Orientation vs Onboarding: What's the Difference?

Every organization needs both.

My partner and I attended and presented at a conference in January dedicated to the topic of onboarding talent. The interesting take-away for us was the lack of distinction between orientation and onboarding. Most of the organizations presented their orientation programs as "onboarding processes" even though each have distinctly different purposes, activities and, in some cases, different audiences.


So, we thought it would be helpful to clearly define each process and build context for when and how they can be used effectively in any organization.


The purpose of orientation is to manage the "new hire paperwork" in a way that represents the organization’s brand and confirms the individual's decision to join the organization. It also provides a "captured audience" to which the organization can communicate general information that is needed by all new hires, regardless of position.

By contrast, the purpose of onboarding is to provide a supported process that provides new employees with the opportunity to gain knowledge; build relationships; and act on feedback for the purpose of successfully and quickly integrating into the organization, taking into account thier unique positions and job functions.

Timing:

Orientation is a single event that usually takes place in the first week or so on the job and lasts for a few hours up to a few days.

Onboarding usually begins when the new hire accepts the job and continues for between 3 and 6 months, and sometimes up to a full year. During this time, the new associate is not exclusively "onboarding" but learning and delivering work according to a structured plan that was prepared by the hiring manager, the HR partner and the new hire.

Delivery:

Orientation delivers information to a group that is common to all new hires. This allows for efficient use of the HR facilitator's time and organizational resources. It is usually in a classroom-style setting and more of a "one-size-fits-all" format. Organizational culture information can be presented in this format, but it doesn't allow for any real-world application for the new associate.

An onboarding process allows for information to flow through several channels, including to and from the new hire. It also provides a scalable method to deliver consistent organizational information, while delivering customized content by function and by role. So instead of an "information dump", onboarding gives the new associate what he/she needs to know and "just in time" so that it can be used on the job as needed. A more blended learning approach is used to deliver the information, so that the new associate also gets feedback as to how he/she is doing in the new culture and can make appropriate adjustments.

Results:

Orientation programs' results are rather limited to the processing of new-hire paperwork and the exposure of new hires to general organizational and cultural data. The associates are still considered "new" after their orientation experience and usually need quite a bit more assistance from their hiring manager and functional peers to be able to start being productive in their new roles.

Onboarding takes a longer view and allows the new hires to "learn and do" during their first weeks and months on the job. The process builds a plan that provides resources and tools that the new associates can draw on to support their transitions. When onboarding is complete, the new associate is fully integrated into the organization and has begun to contribute and "payback" the investment that the organization has made in him/her.

These associates are usually more highly engaged in their roles and the organization and have a higher likelihood of staying after 6 months, according to the most recent study by The Aberdeen Group.*

So, the question isn't really orientation or onboarding, it's how can organizations do both effectively? One is not a substitute for the other. In the world of the shrinking talent pool, no organization can afford slow productivity and/or high turnover of their new associates. A relatively small investment of time and money in the first few months of a new hire's tenure will provide high impact to the organization through an engaged and productive work force.

If you would like more information about orientation and onboarding, contact us at info@connectthedotsconsulting.com

*All Aboard: Effective Onboarding Techniques and Strategies, January 2008

Five Steps to Shape-Up Your Onboarding Process

This time of year always seems to be that time when the topic of “fitness” is everywhere. Magazines, newspaper articles and morning news shows are crammed with ideas for getting our bodies into shape for the New Year. Increasing concerns for health and well-ness tend to drive this focus, but so does the looming swim suit season!

Borrowing from the fitness frenzy, it is also important to take a look at our business processes and identify where they can be improved and “shaped up” as well. If your onboarding program has not been reviewed in the last year and updated, it is one of those processes that can definitely benefit from a shape-up.

If your organization is like most, you have had some type of process to integrate new leaders and new associates that has been developed over the last 2-3 years. The Aberdeen Group, in its August 2006 report on onboarding states that in 2005, 60% of all organizations did not have a formal onboarding process, compared to 24% who do not have them today. So the good news is that more companies understand the need for a more deliberate integration process and are actually doing something about it. But, most are probably not reviewing their metrics and results from their onboarding processes and making the appropriate adjustments. The original program may no longer be meeting the needs of the organization, and possibly may not being used or followed at all!


Five Steps to Onboarding Shape-Up:

Step One: Find out what is working and what isn’t. Ask some of your newest hires about their onboarding experience, and if it was timely and relevant. Take care to include those new hires that are in your target audience for onboarding. If your process is fairly new, you may want to include both new hires who have participated in the onboarding program and some who have not. You will get data about the impact of your process on the individuals as well as on the organization. Validate that each participant in the process is fulfilling the roles that were outlined. Check out simple things like making sure that all the new hires’ logistical needs were met. Document this information, or send out a simple email survey to capture the data.

Step Two: Review current best practices. Do some research on-line. There are a number of websites and blogs that give information about what companies are doing and what thought-leaders are saying about current trends and practices in onboarding. It may also be helpful to contact peers at other organizations to ask what they are doing. Articles in trade journals often include the author’s email address, so it may be beneficial to drop a note to one to get more information on the topic. Onboarding is also a popular conference topic these days, so there may be some information out there from conferences that have already occurred, or some upcoming events that may help provide more best practices data.

Step Three: Make recommendations for changes based on data. This cannot be overstated. Too many organizations decide to implement changes to a process or program with anecdotal information and not hard data. They may respond to one or two individual’s experiences without regard to the whole population affected by the process. By making changes based on real data, you also have a much greater chance of having a larger impact with those changes. For example, if you find that most of your newly onboarded associates are not feeling connected to the new community and are having difficulty finding personal transition support, you may recommend adding these resources. However, if you have isolated incidences of these issues, you may not want to take the time or commit resources to a change that could have little impact.

Step Four: Balance the three critical components for onboarding success. Look at your onboarding process to make sure that it includes and balances the critical three components for success:
1. Knowledge
2. Relationships
3. Feedback
Many onboarding processes are “knowledge-heavy”. They bombard their new leaders and new associates with information about the organization, its history, its purpose and immediate goals. Some do a good job of extending that knowledge to include functional and role information like, “how does my role fit within this company?” while others leave that piece a bit more to chance. It is important to continue to “hone” the right amount and right type of information that a new associate needs in his/her first months on the job.

Secondly, providing a method for building key relationships is extremely important to successfully onboarding someone, regardless of level. In a recent study by Deloitte, titled “It’s 2008: Do You Know Where Your Talent Is?” reports that people learn the most (67%) when working with a colleague on a task. The report continues with “people also learn from those they trust: bosses, subordinates, peers and mentors.” So it is critical that the organization create a structure to support such relationships if they want to see these results.

Thirdly, the organization’s ability to give timely feedback to a new hire and create a process to support acting on that feedback is essential. This is the most common missing component of the onboarding process. Without such feedback, a new hire (and particularly one with leadership responsibilities) can be making serious cultural mistakes without knowing it and creating damage to him or the organization that may not be repairable. Timely feedback, given in a way that the new hire can understand, process and create a plan to address is what sets apart a great onboarding process from an adequate one.

Step Five: Measure, Measure, Measure! Both quantitative and qualitative data are important to collect from your onboarding process. It is fairly easy to track the number of new associates and how many have engaged in onboarding. It can be a little more challenging to measure the effectiveness of the process, but it’s not impossible. Ask the same questions to each person or group—that way you will have consistent data. Use existing measures like retention information and employee engagement information to augment your results and show impact. Tracking the “time to performance” will be easiest while collaborating with your hiring managers and pre-determining a success profile for each position. That way you can benchmark the new hire’s performance against a standard. Comparing this data for those associates who were on-boarded versus those associates who were not, gives you impact data of your onboarding process on your associates and your organization.


While thinking about taking on a comprehensive review and assessment of your entire onboarding process may seem daunting, you can start with these first five steps to either “jump-start” your initiative or make a few changes that have greater impact. Either way, jumping in and doing something is better than nothing. You will get some results and the more you work at it, the better the results.

At least that’s what they say about exercise. Start small and make it a habit. You’ll wonder how you did without it.