Page 105 - Successful Onboarding

94 • Successful Onboarding

is much different from what we are used to but in ways we can only par-
tially grasp. Lacking deliberate instruction in a firm’s implicit code or lan-
guage, we’re left floundering on our own, coming up with a fuzzy sense
of the rules from what little data we have.

Learning the lingo

Workplace slang offers a great example. Each workplace and industry has
its own unique vocabulary that has developed over time and through shared
experience. When you start at Procter & Gamble, you need to figure out
what acronyms like SMOT (Second Moment of Truth; i.e., the moment
when a customer uses and judges their product), GBU (Global Business
Unit), or XFS (Cross Functional Solutions) mean (a full 34% of Procter &
Gamble’s search activity on internal corporate networks are for acronyms). 2
FedEx Office’s workers need to understand what the firm’s “purple promise”
is (shorthand for the firm’s commitment “to make every customer experi-
ence outstanding”). Army clients we’ve worked with use slang that is quite
funny at first to outsiders, asking questions like, “Who is the belly button
(i.e., the person in charge) on the issue?” or “What does it look like from
your foxhole?” At Accenture, employees track billable hours by “entering it
into ARTES,” whereas at Booz Allen Hamilton it’s “entering my TOL.” At
all organizations, being able to “speak the language” builds confidence and
shows that you are a part of the firm—an insider.
We hear so many reports of new hires struggling to learn the lingo. Some
companies provide dictionaries, but nine out of ten times we find that the
dictionary simply provides technical definitions (e.g., spelling out the
acronyms). They hardly ever instruct new hires as to the deeper meaning,
origins, and evolution of key words, nor do they provide an explanation for
why they remain so central. By failing to help new hires understand vocab-
ulary to the fullest, you are missing a huge opportunity to fill in the blanks
and teach what really makes the organization tick. In the case of the pro-
fessional service firms we have noted, the language used to reference the
time entry systems speaks directly to the firms’ core business model and
how they drive profitability. By bringing forward these definitions, the
company can meaningfully discuss the business model and supporting
management structure that contributes to the company’s success.