Page 34 - Successful Onboarding

The Business Case for Onboarding • 23

To help drive efficiencies, minimize waste, and allow for better new hire
experiences, many companies invest in software to administer the process.
What most leaders don’t realize is that minimizing this Day One and early
entry waste is actually the least that strategic onboarding can deliver. Min-
imizing Day One waste is a decent opportunity. In fact, sometimes it’s
helpful to make greater efficiency as the primary objective when getting
a program off the ground. By delivering results there, you’ll have momen-
tum and have an easier time getting buy-in for subsequent investments.
Yet managers and executives shouldn’t make the mistake of limiting
the idea of onboarding to a piece of software or the single business result
of minimizing waste. These cost savings are largely a one-off savings
opportunity, and they exclude the far greater upside. Table 1.1 lists big-
ger ways in which strategic onboarding will help a firm improve per-
formance. It also lists specific business impacts—including minimized
waste—that firms can expect to see as a result of achieving their improve-
ment objectives.
As Table 1.1 suggests, a solid onboarding program can deliver much
more than simply reducing administrative cost. Some of the objectives
listed here (e.g., attrition) are easier to quantify in their business impact
than others (e.g., improvement of the employment brand). It’s also impor-
tant to realize that no single strategic program, no matter how well con-
ceived, can hope to deliver on every single objective; in fact, many
companies go wrong precisely when they attempt to tackle every objective

Table 1.1 Outcomes from Strategic Onboarding
Improvement Objectives Business Impact
• Knowledge Transfer • Attrition
• Engagement Levels • Time to Productivity
• Employment Brand • Level of Productivity
• Automation • Ability to Meet Emerging Talent Needs
• Consistency of (Positive) Experience • Competitive Position
• Organizational Transformation (business • Recruiting Cost
and /or cultural) • Labor Cost
• Accountability—Roles and Responsibilities • Onboarding Administration Cost
• Other: unique to your organization and • Other: unique to your organization and
circumstances (as determined by your circumstances (as determined by your
diagnostic) diagnostic)