Page 172 - Successful Onboarding

Personal Progress and Prospect: Early Career Support • 159

days, “no one was assigned as the official buddy [of someone else]—there
was no process or list of responsibilities. Because of this, everyone involved
thought someone else was taking care of a Buddy’s responsibilities, and
the new hires suffered.” The firm’s new buddy system, by contrast, pro-
vides standards as well as training (called the “Buddy School”) for program
participants. “This ensures a more consistent onboarding experienced for
all new hires, leading to an accelerated timeframe in which they will be
fully engaged, productive members of the organization.”
Another prime opportunity for systematization of early career support
involves the mentoring programs that many firms currently maintain. Our
own research affirms how helpful formal mentoring programs are in inte-
grating new employees by teaching them how to succeed in the current
position and how to assess and determine an exciting career forward.
You should remember that a lot of early career support simply involves
managers taking the time to speak one-on-one with new hires and offer
helpful advice. Just having regular conversation might be a step forward
in many firms, and it can be a hugely effective tool for engaging a new
hire. The opportunity cost of having conversations is small, as opposed to
the large investment that some firms make in delivering formal perform-
ance review programs. Conveying one or two helpful hints—a suggestion
to take a class, or cuing a new hire into a potentially damaging behavior
quirk—can go a long way. If a firm can find a way to activate all managers
to observe new hires, think about them, and intervene to help them, both
the firm and the new hires will benefit.
A leader in our firm recently participated in a “pulse check” review with
a subordinate who joined the company at a mid-management level
nine months earlier. As a formal part of the process, the leader had occasion
to offer a piece of advice. “You’re doing great in many areas,” he said, “and
you have my support. Yet your career here might be limited, since other sen-
ior people in the firm don’t see you, and you haven’t yet demonstrated con-
tributions to the firm more broadly.” This leader advised the new hire to
find and take ownership of a project or initiative that, once completed,
would give him visibility with senior management across practice areas.
Informing the new hire that Kaiser Associates expects employees to make
“firm contributions” outside of their client work was a key performance
value for us. This new hire thought about it and came back a week later