Page 256 - Successful Onboarding

Getting Started: Conducting a Program Diagnostic • 237

Think carefully about which demographic components to include, as
this helps determine the quality of your insight and associated program
customization. In general, a sampling approach will suffice to get the job
done. However, you should consider the brand value of engaging all new
hires in the survey activity. If the surveys are designed to speak from the
perspective of the new hire and hiring managers, you get an additional
benefit—a chance to convey to new hires that your firm cares about their
success and takes seriously its role in assuring it. This is a message every
new hire and hiring manager deserves to receive.
In evaluating an existing program’s performance, the onboarding design
team should also consider how far the program compares with state-of-the-
art program characteristics described in Chapter 2. Does the existing
program offer tools, experiences, and support in all four pillars over the
first year? Are these tools customized to the needs of key new hire groups?
Are the key stakeholders in the program participating enthusiastically? On
an even greater level of detail, do program elements incorporate the Best
Principles described in Chapters 3 through 6?

External benchmarking

Once your organization has assessed its onboarding program’s current
state, the next step is to catalogue the program elements and techniques
deployed by leading onboarding programs and that of your competition.
Again, members of your onboarding redesign team should resist the urge
to simply expropriate “best practices” without further analysis. When look-
ing at a specific best practice, your team needs to try to understand what
is behind the practice—the root causes that the company was trying to
address as well as how the best practice related to the firm’s unique strate-
gic objectives. Finally, your onboarding design team needs to consider
best practices and comparative performance metrics through the lens of
your own firm to determine if they fit strategic needs and organizational
constraints.
Depending upon program objectives, you might also want to evaluate
onboarding programs at your chief labor competitors in the recruiting
marketplace, typically leading employers in your region(s) or leading
employers in your company’s key functions (e.g., the leading companies