Page 169 - Successful Onboarding

156 • Successful Onboarding

Figure 5.1 Structural Requirements to Stimulate Progress and Achieve One’s
Prospect

potential, as noted in Figure 5.1; these are Assignments, Guidance, Insu-
lation, and Remediation.

Assignments

Assignments relates to the character, order, and pace by which tasks
(defined broadly) are taken on by the hire, whether the most junior
employee or the senior-most executive. The onboarding system should
require that each hiring manager think through the character, order, and
pace of these assignments with the general idea of progress in mind. Set
up the new hire to win at every step of the game—in their eyes and in the
eyes of peers and superiors. With a real sense of achievement, they will
emerge energized, confident, and proud of what they are accomplishing
for themselves and the company. Senior hires often enter with an ambi-
tious agenda that they create for themselves or that is dictated by the enter-
prise. It is critical to counsel these executive or managerial hires to pace
themselves. If they are going to succeed, they can’t flame out soon after
entry. For any level of hire, first assignments should be carefully selected
so that they are both valuable and relatively modest.

Guidance

Guidance entails the degree to which the system (and specifically, the
individuals who surround the new hire) recognize that the new hire will do