Page 254 - Successful Onboarding

Getting Started: Conducting a Program Diagnostic • 235

the needs of new hires, managers, and the organization as a whole. Here
the point is not merely to look for program elements that are failing to
deliver, but also program elements that are working well. Identifying
internal pockets of “best practices” can prove extremely helpful in many
situations, since we can often find ways to leverage these best practices
for use within the firm as a whole. Just as with external benchmarking,
however, you should evaluate each internal best practice to make sure
that it fits the needs and circumstances of diverse corners of the business.
Here are some common sources of data to consider when performing an
internal analysis.
Onboarding designers need to conduct internal interviews with key cor-
porate, business unit, and functional executives. It’s important to interview
these individuals to understand better the primary strategic initiatives and
what they most require out of the new crop of talent. By interviewing these
leaders, you will not only learn about key business and human capital
priorities that should be a focal point for your design, but you will also have
the chance to win over these leaders to support the effort with the resources
necessary to build a program that can deliver against these needs.
Of course, you hire new people in the first place because managers
need to accomplish certain goals and they believe their current resources
are not sufficient. These hiring managers are the most important stake-
holders, and you need to determine how they think new hires are falling
short. These interviews need to be exploratory. They need to not only
cover satisfaction levels and ideas for improving the onboarding system
but they should also produce:

• An outline of hiring managers’ own business objectives. It’s
important to understand these not simply as line items; rather you
need to know the nature of the challenges that hiring managers
tackle. You also need to explore how managers believe current
entrants are falling short and how they could be better equipped.
• An overview of the administrative and business processes with
which the new hires and their managers have contact. This will
help you understand the challenges of being successful as a new
hire as well as the systemic elements of business operations you
need to leverage in the redesign effort.