Page 176 - Successful Onboarding

Personal Progress and Prospect: Early Career Support • 163

mean new hires do not bear ultimate responsibility. They do, and state-of-
the-art onboarding reinforces this message. At our own firm, we tell new
hires that they drive their own development. We give them tools, but we
do not hold their hands, and we stress that new hires need to be proactive,
that they should actively use the tools available to them, and we expect
them to help frame the agenda.
At the technology firm Teradata, development resources for new hires
are available for self-service on a portal. The firm has managers use this
portal to obtain assessment tools, a personal development plan, welcome
packets, buddy checklists, etc. Although such a delivery system may not
offer the governance of a state-of-the-art strategic program, it at least offers
the content and the structure—an enormous gain over most of its peers.
Another company whose program offers new hires tools to manage their
own development is Verizon Wireless. The company’s intranet provides
new hires with individualized career support resources. The site’s “About
You” section offers specific eLearning modules as well as mentoring infor-
mation, “go to” resources, announcements of social/team-building events,
and a “development manager” that helps new hires chart their career
progress, plot career path next steps, and select and register for recom-
mended classes relevant to the job function. This section allows the new
hire to personalize and visualize the complete set of onboarding resources.
Starwood’s StarwoodONE intranet likewise serves as a central hub for
new hires’ career development. Employees can reference their develop-
ment goals in the “About Me” tab. Managers and employees jointly develop
five professional goals (e.g., “secure 10 new customers”) and three personal
goals (e.g., “Enjoy a better work-life balance”). They also access Starwood’s
corporate training materials and sign up for classroom-like sessions. Learn-
ing needs are identified through review feedback, while the system also
interfaces with Starwood’s software for career planning applications.
Best Principle #5: Encourage new hires to create career
development plans.
While creating career development plans are certainly not a new means
of supporting employee’s careers, not many companies regularly create
such plans as part of the first-year onboarding program. We see this as a
lost opportunity to take a proven tool and use it to help new hires identify