Page 45 - Successful Onboarding

34 • Successful Onboarding

productivity. We believe that onboarding presents an exciting opportunity
for a firm to think differently and make an explicit promise and then deliver
more value to the new hire beyond a resume line item and a paycheck.
Onboarding benefits employees in the first instance by giving them the
tools they need to succeed and grow into more fulfilling careers. When
effectively onboarded, employees gain new skills better and faster, secur-
ing their job and job prospect, moving up the ladder, and growing finan-
cially at a quicker clip. Doors open as employees’ skills improve and
relationships develop, both inside and outside the firm. Employees are
able to move more quickly from positions that don’t necessarily excite
them to ones that do. If new hires enter a top company in the finance
department because of their accounting degrees, onboarding might help
them gain confidence that this company will offer a better chance of nav-
igating toward their true aspiration of, say, running a part of the company.
It allows them to become aware of the skills they need to develop, provides
the network connections they need, communicates an understanding of
the overall organization and how it makes money—all this allowing them
to make the right choices to take themselves where they want to and have
the capability to go.
Beyond providing skills, Strategic Onboarding helps employees by
inspiring them and giving them the appropriate sense that they are per-
forming meaningful work. Most workers today want more than a paycheck.
They want to be happy at work, realize a great future, and feel connected
to something bigger. Onboarding’s strategic piece helps new hires connect
their own work with the organization’s larger objectives. If you define your
job as a customer service representative in terms of how many calls you
take, it can only be so interesting. By contrast, if the CEO gets you excited
to be part of an organization whose mission it is to help customers and
drive profits, then your job has meaning above and beyond its purely func-
tional elements. You are not just another worker in the factory building;
you are the agent of the brand. You become more satisfied with this entry
position, and your engagement improves right out of the gate. And if you
continue to receive experiences that reinforce the vision and your future,
you are far more inclined to stay at the job and work more productively.
We crossed paths with a recent ivy-league finance graduate who, thanks
to a poor economy, was working retail for a top fashion brand. She had a