Page 104 - Successful Onboarding

Teaching Culture So That Our New Hires “Get It” • 93

unwritten performance values, i.e., things that the organization believes
make for a great employee. Organizations judge an employee’s perform-
ance and prospects according to how well he or she embodies accepted
performance values. One company might posses a culture that features
vigorous open debate as a performance value, whereas another might
value quiet consensus building behind the scenes. At both firms, this
dimension of culture helps determine whether an individual’s job per-
formance comes across as strong or weak. Clearly everyone benefits if new
hires understand exactly what these performance values are.
In thinking about performance values, we can break them down into
the six categories outlined in Table 3.1 on the previous page.
Our clients offer a number of common responses when we show them
Table 3.1. They note that our list of sample performance values is far from
complete. Many times organizations do not line up at the extreme end for
any given performance value, but hover in a murky territory in between.
Performance values are constantly shifting and evolving. And certain
attributes are far easier to discern in some organizations than others.
Clients also point out that many of the performance values we discuss are
subject to interpretation. One new hire might conclude after a discussion
with his boss that the company is “hierarchical,” “slow,” and “political,”
whereas another might just as reasonably conclude that the company is
“careful” and “has strong processes” and “checks and balances.” Finally,
clients remark that no organization is comprehensively any one thing as it
relates to distilling culture. Although an attribute may largely describe an
organization, some parts of the organization might diverge from the norm.
What may hold true for one work group may not apply to the larger divi-
sion, nor the whole business unit or corporation.

The New Hire’s Perspective

Often, cultural norms at companies are inherently elusive, ill-communi-
cated, or implicitly transmitted; and these cultural norms directly inform
judgments about performance. It’s safe to say that new hires face quite a
challenge indeed. Let’s imagine the trepidation a new hire must feel when
he or she first comes onboard. In fact, there is no need to imagine it—
we’ve all been there. We have all been thrust into a new environment that