Page 134 - Successful Onboarding

“Connections That Count”—Empowering Employees by Nurturing • 121

won’t it set the wrong tone? Is this really our business? Aren’t we much
better off using our budget on training?”
Fortunately, our client managed to win over this skeptical audience; the
data were too compelling. As he pointed out, the company was wrong in
regarding high attrition as a fixed reality. Although managers had written
off Gen Y campus hires as self-indulgent “job-hoppers,” the reality was
more complex. Gen Y sought satisfying, meaningful work more intensely
than earlier generations had, and they also were moving around the coun-
try more in pursuit of their careers, both of which left them more eager to
forge strong bonds at work. An opportunity existed for the organization to
win comfort and loyalty among new hires by helping them become more
socially connected. Enabling new hires to nurture social networks better
would add value for new hires, redefining the employment compact in
ways they found relevant, while simultaneously benefiting the company.
Our client turned out to be right. The investment he was proposing dra-
matically reduced employees’ likelihood of leaving. It also did something
unexpected: Connections created by the programs helped to enhance
business performance.
State-of-the-art onboarding programs treat new hires not as a short-term
resource but as a long-term asset, one with the potential to appreciate in
value if nurtured with upfront and sustained investments. In the last chap-
ter, we made a case for investing in cultural orientation. This chapter
argues that investment in relationship building, at all levels of hire and for
all generations of employees, is also critical if we are to achieve the
Onboarding Margin.
Most executives accept that professional networking is a necessary and
incredibly valuable business function, and companies have long supported
networking in various forms. Since the popularization of the term in the
1980s, networking has thrived as a means of identifying new opportunities
for sales professionals and business development executives and of
strengthening professions and careers in general. In its early incarnation,
networking took the form of socializing in informal groups (e.g., the golf
course, barber shop, local charities, sidelines of children activities, etc.)
and formalized associations (the local business association, formal net-
working clubs). More recently, online social networks like Facebook have
become popular, with sites like LinkedIn focusing exclusively on business
communities. Despite all of this interest, as well as significant scientific