Page 251 - Successful Onboarding

232 • Successful Onboarding

the designed and formal program elements of onboarding, but also the
entire range of experiences that the new hire and new hire managers have.
Finally, we recommend that you benchmark against best-in-class and key
competitors (either industry competitors and/or regional employers that
compete for your labor talent, regardless of industry), which helps in eval-
uating your performance relative to critical benchmarks.
We now take a closer look at each of the four steps in turn. Although
we’ll present the diagnostic phase here as a neat linear process, in prac-
tice it can unfold in a far more fluid and uneven fashion. The diagnostic
can also be performed in a way that does not result in a bogged down
“analysis—paralysis” exercise. Internal discovery will sometimes yield intu-
itive knowledge of the root causes before the formal analysis of the data.
More generally, diagnosis has an iterative or circular character, unfolding
gradually and on an ongoing basis. What follows is best regarded as a
model of a proper diagnostic process rather than as an iron-clad depiction
of what the diagnostic phase will look like for your organization.

Internal discovery
As part of internal discovery, members of an onboarding redesign team
should do two things: Assess the current state of the program and identify
the organization’s actual greatest needs so as to prioritize key onboarding
opportunities.
Understanding the current system activities, tools, and resources that
exist for new hires in their first year helps us diagnose the root causes of
program underperformance as well as dissatisfaction among new hires and
managers. As the diagnostic process unfolds, it also allows you to compare
what you have with best-in-class and competitor programs, and later on,
to measure your own progress against the baseline. Some organizations
have pre-existing process flows, checklists, and new hire guidebooks that
outline the program’s current state. Others need to go through the process
of mapping out the current state to develop an understanding of all the
touch-points and activities that exist as new hires go from offer acceptance
to orientation and then into their business unit or function. Put differently,
these firms need to understand all the critical “firsts” that do so much to
shape new hires’ impressions of their new employment.