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The Onboarding Margin Life Support System • 205
Managing Administration Properly
To manage administration properly, we recommend that you implement
a Provisioning and Administrative Support process that runs from the hour
of offer acceptance all the way through the greater of the new hire’s entire
first year or complete business cycle. This process needs to include all the
materials and support necessary for a new hire to work well in his or her
position. Certain materials, such as laptops and badges, should be ready
by Day One, whereas others such as site-specific supplies and support will
be provided later. Still other materials, such as reminders and organiza-
tion for the performance review process, mentor meetings, learning and
development activities, the remediation of at-risk employees, benefit sup-
port, and other program elements should run continuously.
Firms should take care to account for all of the “behind the scenes”
activities that need to take place so as to support program execution
throughout Year One. They should develop process flows and checklists to
provide process owners with the necessary tools, guidance, and support to
execute new hire activities during each program phase. To ensure that
administrative processes do not get lost in the course of rolling out various
phases of an onboarding program, these processes should be laid out explic-
itly as part of the formal program blueprint described in the next chapter,
and they should run concurrently with all phases of the onboarding
program. Writing administration into the blueprint formally recognizes
logistical support needs and provides insight into possible provisioning gaps
in the various phases. It also enables seamless process hand-offs across the
four phases, all the way from Prepare to Excel, thus ensuring consistent
support for new hires throughout the first year.
State of the art administration does not just involve planning and allo-
cating for logistics and coordination; it also means deploying technol-
ogy. To handle some administrative tasks, many firms have turned to
off-the-shelf—and to some extent customizable—onboarding software.
Software is great at helping firms arrive at a standardized approach for
common tasks. Software packages vary, with many of them also serving
as platforms for distributing learning materials to new hires, hiring
managers, and other stakeholders. Some packages automate only certain
relatively simple processes, such as providing benefits information or
allowing new hires to fill out and submit forms for procedures such as