Page 167 - Successful Onboarding

154 • Successful Onboarding

example illustrates how informing new hires around career development
resources that are available to all can help motivate and engage them
about their futures.
Initiating career development early for a broad spectrum of employees
can offer firms considerable benefits by aligning strategy and initiatives
with employee skills and interests; in effect, creating an internal employ-
ment market. Suppose your firm (a large company with a long-established
channel) wants to adopt a strategy to develop new channels. You might
already have new entrants with career interests in channel development.
If you can figure out who those people are and match them to needed
skills, you will save money on the external recruiting you would normally
do to support this strategic initiative. The existence of an internal employ-
ment market unlocks new value for the firm because of the enthusiasm
and energy created by making the match.
To see how this might work, consider the professional services firm
Booz Allen Hamilton (Booz Allen). In recent years, the company has
pursued a strategy of creating and growing a new cyber security business
to meet growing market demands. Given the labor shortage that exists for
what is essentially an emerging discipline, Booz Allen has had to work
incredibly hard to find qualified external recruits. One option the firm
has explored: training existing employees in the new skill set. Here
the firm’s onboarding program has come in handy. As vice presidents
participate in Week One onboarding and speak to new hires about their
respective businesses, the leader of the company’s cyber security initiative
can talk about the opportunities that are present for those who pursue
additional career development to gain the necessary skills to play in this
specific market. In this case, not only are employees gaining exposure
to the strategy, with all the benefits to that in which we’ll discuss in the
next chapter, but new hires learn that cyber security could comprise a
promising career opportunity for them if they can get the special interests
and requisite skills. Booz Allen is enabling the new hire to self-select and
take actions, thanks not only to the information it is providing about the
new strategy, but also to the complementary guidance they provide regard-
ing performance values and culture.
Beyond support for a company’s strategy, early career support can work
wonders for the firm’s employment brand, its competitive position, and