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!

Taking a job in 2010? Now is the time to prepare during PreStart

Maybe you are one of the lucky ones who is starting a new job in January?

Congratulations!

Now, it's time to work! The preparation for starting a new role is as important as finding your way to the office on the first day. During the onboarding process, this period between the time you accepted the job and your actual first day, is called "PreStart".

As onboarding consultants, we see this PreStart time becoming more and more important for a smooth transition. This is the time when you are becoming less engaged at your old job and more excited about the new one.

How can you take advantage of this energy and focus? Here are a few tips:

1. Read everything you can about your new organization. This may seem painfully obvious, but you would be surprised how few people actually do it. Use not only the organization's website, but other sources to get a more balanced perspective.

2. Talk to your recruiter or HR partner. Ask what has changed since you last met with someone in the organization. Continue to probe for any information that will help you better understand why they hired you, and what your focus should be.

3. Talk with your hiring manager. It's important to stay connected and start to build your relationship very early. You will begin to learn how she communicates, where her strengths lie, and how you can support her.

4. Identify and meet with key stakeholders. Who are the people that are absolutely essential to your success? Was there an internal candidate who didn't get the job? Are there important board members, clients, or team members who could "make or break" your success? Find them and meet with them, preferably in a casual, conversational setting.

5. Start a plan. What did you hear during the recruiting process? Does the organization want change or stability? What specifically were you hired to do? How can you strategically build relationships to support your goals? You can start to lay out a 90 Day Onboarding Plan with what you already know, but realize that it will need to be adapted as you learn more.

Searching for a job and finally landing one is hard work, but don't think it's over once the offer letter is signed! But your time and effort during the PreStart period will pay off exponentially with a smooth transition.

Follow these 5 simple steps during PreStart, and you will blow them away in your first 90 days!

Hiring in the new year? 4 critical steps for making your team successful

I was talking with a client last week and he mentioned that he was planning to add several new associates to his team in early first quarter. I asked him how he was planning on integrating them to the existing team. He answered that he hadn't really thought about it, but wanted to know what I had in mind.

I told him that adding one person certainly affects the team, but adding three people will significantly impact the team, and without preparation and intentional onboarding, he may not get the results that he hoped for.

This is a pretty common event. Hiring managers get so caught up in the "selling", budgeting, and recruiting of their new staff, that they forget to plan for their smooth onboarding. By the time they get the positions approved, it gets through HR and they then finally get the people hired, they are "done". The new associates and the team are supposed to integrate seamlessley and figure out how to work together on that huge backlog of work that accumulated during the last weeks and months.

Well, that smooth transition doesn't usually happen and the new people may not be able to make the "positive cultural changes" that the hiring manager had in mind. Why? Because a formal onboarding plan was not created and the right communication was not shared with the existing team.

Hiring managers who are thoughtful and prepared for their new hires will be the ones with the most successful teams. It is not an option in most very lean organizations for the team members, even the new ones, to not be able to pull their weight. However, in order to hit the ground running, the organization must set up the new hires for success.

Here are the four critical steps to making your new team successful:

First, have a plan. Clearly identify the roles and responsibilities of each new position, as well as any changes to the existing ones. Restate the team's purpose and how it supports the overall organization.

Secondly, put objectives in writing. This leaves nothing to assumption or interpretation.

Thirdly, communicate both the above to everyone on the team. This includes existing staff and new hires.

Lastly, allow for discussion, questions and input of the team members. They just might have some ideas that you didn't think of--and they are probably right.

Interviewing? Ask for Onboarding

Are you one of the many job-seekers out there interviewing for those precious-few positions? Do you want to stand out from the crowd of candidates vying for the same position?

Try this. Next time you are blessed with an interview, (yes, blessed, even interviews are hard to come by these days) ask about the organization's onboarding program. Is there one and what's it like?

This will not only suggest that you are well-informed on the latest talent management practices, but it will also tell you a lot about your prospective employer.

From this one question you will learn--

-how well do they value their new hires?
-how much do the invest in the development of their people?
-is there culture supportive and open?
-do they plan to contribute resources to your success?

This information can be extremely helpful in making your decision whether or not this organization is a match for your values and objectives. It may also provide you some leverage when discussing an offer on the table. You will have a chance to ask for support and resources that may have been missing.

Onboarding may not be an intergrated part of every organization's talent management but every new hire deserves support from the organization to make a smooth transition and to be set up for success.

It's better to know what's in store for you sooner rather than later.

Back to Basics: Leadership Onboarding Unplugged

I guess it's the rising unemployment rate, the still unsure banking and financial industries and the general "wait and see" mode that everyone seems to be in now. But what we are hearing from our clients is pretty much the same thing--it's "back to basics" as the approach to their talent management strategies.

We thought this would be a great opportunity to again define and position leadership onboarding in the scope of the talent management cycle.

We wrote a white paper, titled, "Back to Basics: Leadership Onboarding Unplugged" to do just that. We also have quoted some recent stats about the "failure rates" of the current talent management practices and how a well-aligned onboarding experience can address these gaps.

To read the white paper, click on "articles" in the navigation bar above.

Let us know what you are doing to get back to basics with your talent management strategy.