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“Limited Upside in Flying Blind”: Driving Strategic Insight • 193

important strategies when these come into conflict with less important
ones. The more new hires understand the priorities, the less they will
need to run to superiors to ask for clarification or guidance. And more
importantly, the less frustrated they will become, as they will be able to
avoid misinterpretation of company actions and intentions. When the
strategy is well communicated, organizational efficiency improves,
whereas new hires feel more empowered and gain more confidence in
their own decision-making abilities.

Summing Up

Even more than other onboarding components, strategy immersion for
rank-and-file employees remains uncharted territory for most firms. Yet
the opportunities are huge. Similar to high-potential executive hires, low-
and mid-level employees feel empowered and motivated when they are
able to connect what they do every day with the organization’s higher pur-
pose. Engagement increases, and with it productivity and the Onboard-
ing Margin. As an extension of early career support, strategy orientation
stands as an important way of redefining the employer-employee compact
in a way beneficial for both the company and the new hire. Organizations
can realize benefits from strategic onboarding without strategy orienta-
tion, yet alerting new hires to the bigger picture remains necessary if com-
panies are to squeeze the most value possible from their onboarding
programs. In ways we have suggested, strategy immersion (Table 6.1).
works together with social networking, cultural mastery, and early career
support; it is the organic meshing of all four that allows for the greatest
impact.
So far we have covered the four key topic areas that a strategic
onboarding program should include so as to unlock vast new value for
organizations. Yet all the thoughtful program content in the world will
not do much good if the company fails at execution. Onboarding must
be systemic and of extended duration if it is to achieve optimal results,
and this means having adequate processes, technologies, and resources
in place to coordinate the different players so that the program appears
seamless and of superior quality. An onboarding program also needs a