Page 205 - Successful Onboarding

“Limited Upside in Flying Blind”: Driving Strategic Insight • 189

Formal follow up discussions should be scheduled and can take place
at the 6-, 9-, and 12-month points. At all of these meetings, the conversa-
tion should run in both directions, with the new hire’s manager or men-
tor first gauging the employee’s understanding of the strategy and then
asking the new hire to share his or her ideas. These ideas should include
suggestions to inform any revisions to the strategy, but with greater focus
on business unit, function, and role-specific related issues, and they should
also include ideas for how to better execute the current strategy.
By engaging new hires in this way, the conversation reinforces a key
principle of the new employer-employee compact: That the company truly
cares about the new hire’s opinions and ideas and is willing to invest in
the time to hear them. Reinforcing that the company cares is important
not merely because it helps the new hire to feel good. “Truly cares” means
that your company is going through this exercise because it expects a con-
tribution of significance from the new hire community on this front. The
“expects” part is important; there is no need to put undue pressure on your
new hire class, but you should set an expectation early (ideally in the
recruiting stage) that the company believes all employees can potentially
to contribute to its plans. You should communicate this upon the new
hire’s arrival, throughout the various orientation communications, as part
of the broader onboarding conversation, and most certainly in the core
periodic check points. Employees will come away more motivated than
ever to do their best because they feel that they are being listened to and
that the potential exists for them to make a real difference.
Solicitation of strategic insights can also take place in the form of
an open-ended survey as opposed to an actual interview. For larger enter-
prises, insight collection/synthesis is obviously easier with electronic
collection, and as long as you have a very strong analyst reviewing the sub-
missions, it can be an efficient and effective exercise. We strongly suggest
that you collect strategic insights live in the form of discussion with a men-
tor or managers; that way, you can in the same forum provide feedback
and together make plans with the new hire to socialize or take action on
the ideas. Here are some questions we recommend covering:

1. Do you believe you have a good understanding of our company
strategy? Business Unit (BU)? Functional? How would you
explain it?