Page 148 - Successful Onboarding

“Connections That Count”—Empowering Employees by Nurturing • 135

after they join the company. As one employee was quoted as saying,
“I never went to a meeting where I was not introduced and made to feel
7
welcome.” Likewise, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
(OCC), a division of the United States Treasury Department, brings in
new hires as a group and establishes a cohort identity for them, even
though these new hires are scattered in offices across the country. The
organization brings back these new hires at multiple times during the first
two years, fostering the relationships built at the beginning and allowing
new hires to share experiences they encountered in their regions. The
extended time frame coupled with the small group approach helps with
new hires’ cultural acclimation, as these employees have a chance to com-
pare and contrast their cultural knowledge and experiences. Since the
organization brings in more tenured individuals to offer advice to cohort
groups, the onboarding process also contributes early career support,
which we will dig into more in Chapter 5.

Best Principle #6: Think small.
Working new hires into small groups during the onboarding process is a
great way of fostering more and deeper connections. Enmeshed in a small
group during the first few days or week, new hires experience the firm in
a personalized way and are more inclined to engage with the onboarding
process overall. Assigning new hires into small groups or cohorts leaves
them with a “go-to” peer resource group that can handle their questions
or concerns, leaving new hires more comfortable and better able to engage
in team-building. Working with small groups requires that firms devote
more time and resources to onboarding, as it’s more efficient to onboard
employees en masse rather than in multiple small groups. Small groups
might also require additional planning around the composition of the
groups. Still, small groups provide the benefit of simulating small work
groups—the context in which most new hires eventually spend most of
their work time, regardless of overall organization size. Small groups also
force new hires to build relationships with individuals with whom they
may not have a natural affinity. Relationship building is a necessary skill
and one that the onboarding designer should stimulate right out of the
gate. Even if you choose not to organize your entire onboarding program
into small cohorts, you can take advantage of the learning and interaction
that comes from small groups by breaking up your larger new hire class