Page 62 - Successful Onboarding

2

THE STATE OF THE ART:

ESSENTIALS OF

STRATEGIC ONBOARDING

Fact: Every new hire in your organization is onboarded. This is true
regardless of whether or not your organization has any formal strategy or
program for doing so. As a series of on-the-job experiences interpreted
separately by the hiring manager and the new hire, the process includes
formal events as well as the far more numerous everyday experiences that
take place from the moment of offer acceptance through, say, the end of
the first year. In the mind of the new hire, onboarding also includes all
non-experiences that the new hire may have expected but that never
actually occurred or were disappointing. All of these experiences—and
non-experiences—shape new hires’ perception of employment and thus
influence their engagement and ultimately their long-term interest in the
position and the company.
Everyone is onboarded, but not all new hires are onboarded particu-
larly well. Not all of them are integrated in a deliberate, consistent way
that creates optimal value for a firm while providing more value for new
hires. Very few companies have a system in place that provides the major-
ity of new hires an optimal onboarding experience that lasts for the entire
first year, is truly strategic in design and impact, and significantly redefines
the employer-employee compact to both parties’ advantage.

• 51 •