Page 140 - Successful Onboarding

“Connections That Count”—Empowering Employees by Nurturing • 127

If your company hires its managers externally, then the social compo-
nent of a strategic program clearly merits attention. However, for those
firms that promote largely from within, a social component is arguably
even more vital to include for the few outsiders these firms do hire; after
all, these individuals will find themselves all the more behind their peers
in understanding whom in a firm to leverage for their needs, both with
regard to business needs and cultural orientation.
In all firms, a more comprehensive approach to building internal
networks will prove helpful in allowing new hires entry into the perceived
(or real) exclusive networks that seem to prevail in many workplaces. We
found in our work, some of these networks might seem exclusive not
because members of the network are actively preventing new hires from
gaining entry, but simply because nobody has taken time to open the door
and invite new hires in. To assimilate new mid-level and senior hires, firms
need to integrate them into informal groups that exist within firms, under-
standing that existing employees are often too busy or distracted to recog-
nize the need to do so on their own. A strong social component to a
systemic onboarding program can compensate for the thoughtlessness or
obliviousness of individual managers and help new hires gain access to a
seemingly “closed” group of friends and colleagues.

Internal personal networks

A second kind of network that companies should help new hires nurture
is the internal personal network. These are friendly relationships new hires
develop with other employees within a firm. Personal internal networks
might include members of a new hire cohort, employees who sit near a
new hire, friends new hires might make in the company cafeteria, and col-
leagues the new hire interacts with regularly in meetings. Such relation-
ships do not necessarily serve a specific business function; rather, they are
nurtured on account of the happiness people find in having a “best friend
at work,” and they are built upon perceived personal affinity; for instance,
a shared view on topics such as sports, politics, or religion.
Most new hires are going to make friends eventually at work, especially
in larger organizations, which contain many diverse personalities. There,
though, the task becomes finding people. The sooner you can help new
hires find their friends, the better. Younger workers often enter a firm