Page 284 - Successful Onboarding

CONCLUSION AND

NEXT STEPS

We’ve expressed throughout this book that onboarding is an experience—
for the new hire, the hiring manager, and for the enterprise more broadly.
We are certain that this experience shapes outcomes, and it is in the best
interest of all parties for the experience to be managed with great skill.
To engineer this experience for optimal outcomes, your enterprise will
be well served to (1) adopt design principles, (2) be strategic, and (3) be
systemic. Successful Onboarding is far more than traditional orientation in
new clothes; it is an innovative strategic program that can boost a company’s
bottom line and improve its future prospects. By establishing a program
covering culture, social networks, early career support, and strategic insight,
and integrating onboarding into the infrastructure and processes of a com-
pany, you can reduce time to productivity, increase level of productivity,
and lower attrition (specifically, regrettable attrition). These measures in
turn lead to a clear financial gain—the Onboarding Margin. Tailoring the
day-to-day experience of new hires through their first anniversary date,
strategic onboarding can produce more satisfied employees and a more pro-
ductive workforce better aligned with company objectives. In the process,
it can produce a stronger, more dynamic, more profitable organization.
With very few exceptions, onboarding remains an untapped promise
in business. To realize this promise, the leaders in an organization need
to think of onboarding in new ways. HR leaders need to grasp the full
opportunity they have before them. The programs need to be focused on
far more than efficient administration of paperwork, compliance, and
distribution of the tools of the trade; it is a substantial, year-long invest-
ment in one of a firm’s greatest assets—its human capital—with raised
expectations for return on investment. Hiring managers need to treat
onboarding as a real chance to help an organization create the quality

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