Onboarding and the Manager Continued

Wow! What a response we got from our last webinar, Onboarding and the Manager! Seems like many organizations are looking for information and answers as to how to include and engage the hiring managers in the onboarding experience.

We did a poll question in our sessions and asked the following question:

"What is your top challenge with onboarding and the managers in your organization?"

-65% of our respondents said that it's the fact that the hiring managers think it's HR's job to do onboarding

-25% said that their hiring managers don't have the time, tools or skills to do onboarding

-10% said the their managers are simply unengaged in onboarding

Very interesting results that perhaps speak to the long-standing gap between HR processes and the business.

We spent a lot of time discussing how to engage the managers to bridge this gap and came up with the following tips:

-Don’t focus on how “it should be”
-Demonstrate what’s in it for the hiring manager
-Focus on the business
-Keep your onboarding action high impact and relevant
-Start with hiring managers who “get it”

We are interested to hear your thoughts, suggestions and ideas on this topic!

Onboarding and the Manager: From Reluctant Participant to Engaged Owner!

Everytime we meet with a potential client, the question always comes up, "How do we get our managers to onboard their people?" Unfortunately, most organizations have not done a great job of integrating their "HR" processes into the business and things like performance reviews, succession planning, and onboarding have been left to the Human Resources function to lead and deliver.

Most of the push-back from HR is usually when it comes to onboarding.

And they have a point.

The managers have the most to lose if their new hires are not properly integrated into their new jobs and the culture of the organization. And, they have the most to gain if these new hires can get up to speed quickly and deliver results faster and better because they have what they need to do so. But the managers usually drop the ball, or pass it to HR.

How can HR convert their reluctant managers to onboarding zealots? The answer is pretty simple to identify, yet not always easy to implement.

1. Show your managers what's in it for them.
2. Keep it simple.
3. Demonstrate the impact.

Read more about engaging your managers in your onboarding experience in our newsletter and join us for our next free webinar on November 16, 2010 @ 11 AM EST.

High Potential Moves and Onboarding

Do you have high potential talent identified in your organization?

Do you have assessments, coaching and development plans for each of them?

Do you plan to move these high potentials into different roles to either "stretch" them and/or solve a business issue?

Most mid to large organizations probably have some type of talent review in place that allows them to identify and develop their star employees and next generation leaders. However, most do not include onboarding as a key strategy to smooth the transition between these roles and head off potential failure--failure that could result in the missed opportunities and business objectives, as well as the potential loss of some great talent.

There are some pretty unsettling statistics in the May issue of Harvard Business Review's article, "How to Keep Your Top Talent". The article reports that based on the research HBR did with the Corporate Leadership Council of 20,000 employees, "nearly 40% of the internal job moves involving high potention ended in failure."
The article goes on to point out the most common mistakes that organizations make with their high potential employees. Because many times a role change is used to develop these high potentials, a well-planned and well-executed onboarding experience can and will surface issues before they result in big mistakes or failure.

Internal transitions are the riskiest for an organization and for the individual because so many assumptions are made.

Here are the top five (wrong!) assumptions made for internal moves:
1. The transitioning employee gets the culture. Not necessarily--even different business units, geographic locations and teams can have a culture different from the "corporate" culture.

2. The transitioning employee knows what he/she is supposed to focus on. Not every hiring manager is clear about the job or role. This trips up even the most seasoned employee.

3. No relo, means no personal needs. Just because someone isn't moving to a new location, doesn't mean there won't be personal transition. New hours, longer commute, more travel can create stress and challenge for the transitioning employee.

4. The hiring manager can deal with all the transition issues. Most hiring managers are not focused on transition, especially internal ones. Peers, direct reports and Human Resources contacts can be a hugs support during transition, especially if their roles are defined.

5. No news is good news. Feedback is critical and even more so during transition. These employees are vulnerable and need to hear how they are hitting (or not) the mark in their new roles immediately.

For more on how to successfully onboard internal high potentials, visit our website or call 1.888.793.8805.

Onboarding for New College Grads-Tips for Early Success

With hiring starting to pick up a bit now and organizations starting to look at how they will replace their "boomer" talent pools, hiring college grads is becoming more popular. However, getting these new grads integrated into the organization's culture and getting them up to speed so that they can be productive is the challenge.

It's hard enough for some of these new grads to transition from campus to corporate, but almost impossible without the support of the organization. Onboarding (not just sending them to a day-long orientation, or to skills training classes) is what they need. A good onboarding process will lay the foundation for a successful transition and productive first year, as well as create a roadmap for career development.

Here are a few tips for locking in your new grads and making them productive and engaged in their first weeks and months on the job.

-Keep in touch after the offer. Sometimes it can be weeks or months since the job offer is made and accepted and a lot of things can happen. Make sure that you are building in communication and touch points with your new college grad hires up until the first day on the job.

-Make orientation count. The days of 8 hours in a classroom with endless slides and and filling out forms are over. New college grads want and need a more interactive and relavent experience to introduce them to what it's really like to be a part of your culture. Use case studies, subject matter experts and FUN to introduce the company's stragies, processes and values.

-Engage the hiring managers. Before you bring in your "class" of new hires, make sure that the hiring managers are up to speed on what the onboarding experience should be and how they contribute to it. If consistancy is one of your main objectives, getting your hiring managers to understand what is expected of them and then giving them the tools to do it will be essential.

-Leverage the group. By reconvening the "class" of new college hires who have joined your organization at the same time, you can create a support system and network for them. They will be able to share experiences, talk about their challenges and successes, and learn from one another. Topics for workshops can include how to build a personal network, adjusting to the culture, and/or working through a 90 Day Onboarding Plan. Group assignments can also be a great way to build relationships, foster teamwork and demonstrate expected leadership behaviors.

Hiring talent right out of college can be a win-win for the organization and the new hire if done right. The organization can get strong talent without paying a steep price for experience and then have the opportunity to shape that new talent to fit its culture. The new hires get a chance to prove themselves and gain valuable experience inside an organization. Successful onboarding makes it all work.

Offer Accepted? You are so not done! Five Onboarding Tips for Hiring Managers

I just got off the phone with a hiring manager who got his top candidate to accept the position and he starts in a couple of weeks.

He's thrilled and excited, right? Not really. More like anxious and concerned.

This hiring manager gets it. He understands that his organization has wooed this candidate with an impressive selection process and said all the right things of how things SHOULD or COULD be in their culture, but not necessarily how things ARE.

This manager is perceptive and right to be concerned. He knows that once the new hire actually comes onboard and starts to see the realities of the culture, he may start to question his decision.

Sound familiar?

It happens all too often that the "hand-off" from selection to onboarding is not handled properly or at all. Hiring managers tend to be "done" when the offer is made and just expect the new hire to participate in some brief orientation exercises, then hit the ground running. The new hires usually hit the ground, all right, but not running.

So, as a hiring manager what is the solution? As in most business situations, the best strategy is to be prepared.


Here are five tips to prepare for a successful onboarding of your new hires:

1. Talk to her before her start date. Do not let there be a void of communication from the offer to Day One. Stuff happens in the meantime--communicate it!

2. List the top things that the new hire needs to do in her first months on the job. Make sure that they are "on the job" learning activities that also contribute to the team's objectives.

3. Identify people in the organization who can make this person successful. Create the list then reach out to them and tell them why you need their support in building the right relationships with your new hire.

4. Work with your HR partner. Get input from your internal resources on how to build an onboarding plan, what organizational support is available and ask them to support you in the delivery of the onboarding process.

5. Give feedback early and often. This is the most overlooked and most critical component of an effective onboarding experience. New hires cannot change what they don't know, and they usually don't ask. You as the hiring manager are the best person to give feedback and allow them the opportunities to adjust before it's too late.

Read more on our website at www.connectthedotsconsulting.com

Onboarding-It's all about the Branding

I am not a marketing person, so I googled "history of branding" and learned a few new things. The modern version of what most of know as "branding" products, services, companies, people, etc. has really only been around since the 1950's. It was a post-war response to a mass-production of consumer goods and a somewhat frugal consumer base who still remembered the Depression.

Interesting. I can't help but draw some paralelles to today.

We are in a time when consumer goods are plentiful and affordable to pretty much all of the industrialized countries and we are still recovering from the worst economic crisis since the 30's. So, branding was born to differentiate the plethora of products that were now available to the masses via "super-center" shopping.

This was made possible only by the mass communication that television provided. Sort of a "perfect storm" of sorts about products and communication. Again, not unlike the communication strides we have experienced over the last 2 decades. Mobile communication devices and the internet have joined television in communicating to the masses and companies are forced to participate in these technologies wheter they like them or not, just to stay relevant.

Staying relevant. Isn't that really what branding is all about anyway? Staying relevant and meaningful to your customers, audiences, niche market, whatever you call it. So what does this have to do with leadership onboarding?

Consider if you will that your newest leaders are a subset of your customers, or niche market. When you offered them their new roles and they accepted, they were, at least for the moment, your biggest fans. Now, if you didn't immediately start the process to keep them engaged, excited and ready to hit the ground running, you have missed a huge opportunity. Your brand is weakened because a relocation detail got missed, there were no phone calls or emails before the new leader started. The office wasn't set up properly and access to the company's network was delayed.

All these onboarding experiences are negative ones for your new leaders and your brand. Think about that as you build or refresh your process for 2010. What brand messages do you want to deliver to your newest leaders? How can you help them understand your brand so that they may reinforce it in their parts of the organization and to the customers they touch?

By creating as much passion and energy into your internal experiences as you do your external ones, you can create a culture that is authentic and sustainable.

Besides, sometimes it's easier to change when you start with the new people!

Day One--Your Onboarding Continues

It's the first day of your new job. You probably didn't sleep much last night and checked your alarm clock 30 times to make sure it was set.

Now, you are on your way to the new office with excitement, anticipation and no doubt, a little anxiety. How do you make a good impression? What are the things you should not do to make a bad impression? Do you know enough about the culture of your organization to be able to decide?

If you have planned and prepared appropriately, you will be able to answer these questions for yourself and be way ahead of the learning curve when you hit the door on your first day.

Many new hires sit back and wait for this first day before doing research, asking questions and learning everything possible about their new organizations and the people with whom they will be working.

But let's assume you have done the right prep. (See last post, 12-16-09, below for more "prestart tips.) What are the keys to a great first day?

1. Be flexible and open. Unfortunately, not all organizations are as ready for you as they should be, so you may need to get creative and figure out how to make your "down-time" productive. Set up your office, load your address book, walk around and introduce yourself.

2. Make friends with your manager's assistant. This will be critical to your on-going success and ability to get in to see him or her, link with key people and generally know what's going on.

3. Meet your team. You would be surprised how many new leaders are so focused on meeting those above them, that they forget about their direct reports. You don't need to have in-depth meetings on Day One, but at least have a brief conversation with each one to start to get to know them personally. It will keep them from wondering and making up their own information about you.

4. Meet your peers. Again, you would be amazed as to how many people neglect to look "beside" them on the org chart and see who could help them in their new roles. Peers are usually the people who can be objective and have a much different perspective to offer than your boss or your direct reports.

5. Listen, listen, and listen some more. It is fine to give everyone you talk with a brief overview of your background and some personal information, but use the "60 Second Rule". Don't talk about yourself for more than 60 seconds without asking a question about the other person and then listening to her response. You will be "off the hook" for your opinion of things early in the game, and the information that you will gain will be tremendous. And, everyone will have the impression that you are great listener!

Follow these 5 simple steps during your first day on the job and you will set the tone for the next week and months. It can be overwhelming, but with planning, preparation and careful action, you will hit the ground running!