Page 47 - Successful Onboarding

36 • Successful Onboarding

flown to Apple’s headquarters for a full month of training, all expenses
paid. The first two weeks involve intense classroom work, followed by a
week of self-study and a week of testing. Upon their return, Geniuses are
made to shadow other Geniuses and establish formal relationships with
mentors before being allowed to proceed with their jobs. It’s a huge
investment for retail, but it produces employees who are unusually pas-
sionate about their jobs, expressive of Apple’s brand, and appreciative of
Apple’s investment in their success.

The Needs of a New Hire
Let’s take a more methodical look at employee needs and the ability of
strategic onboarding to meet those needs. The psychologist Abraham
Maslow described in his 1943 paper, A Theory of Human Motivation, a
hierarchy of human needs (Figure 1.3), starting from base physiological
needs and extending upward through safety, love/belonging, esteem, and
full self-actualization. The overarching premise of the model is that
individuals start at the bottom and really only pay attention to the next
level of needs (higher up the pyramid) once they satisfy the ones on
the current level. Maslow’s hierarchy helps guide our thinking about
employees. Corresponding to bottom-level physiological needs are the
employee’s need for financial resources in the form of compensation—
the paycheck that allows us to eat, live with a roof over our heads, and
achieve a lifestyle that increases our chances of attracting a mate. Of
course, this is the need that recruiting, not onboarding, fulfills for a new
hire. Thanks to a firm’s recruiting function, employees have their most
basic physical requirements met; they’re able to survive. But this is where
Recruiting’s ability to fill employees’ needs ends.
Once employees enjoy a steady income, they naturally become con-
cerned with keeping it—an imperative that corresponds to “safety” or
security on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. New hires need to feel reassured
that their livelihood will remain intact, the company will remain healthy,
their function won’t be outsourced, and they possess the basic skills
required to remain in the organization. New hires also need to feel like
they understand the firm’s culture well enough so that they won’t make
any career-limiting gaffes, like ordering a drink at a business lunch (or not