Page 67 - Successful Onboarding

56 • Successful Onboarding

Whereas big government, business, and labor had triumphed in World
War II, it struggled in Vietnam and Watergate. A wave of corporate down-
sizing during the period led to a new skepticism about the virtues of size
and stability. Companies now sought to appear “lean and mean.” And a
new generation of employees developed who was less inclined to trust
institutions.
After the long boom of the late 1990s, with their managerial fat skimmed
away, companies suddenly faced a shortage of skilled managers—what
some commentators dubbed a “war for talent.” Corporate profits strength-
ened, and HR departments received new attention. With a great deal of the
growing HR budget now going toward recruiting costs, commentators
argued that a company’s future competitiveness would depend not on tech-
nology or other material resources, but on the skills of its employees. Many
observers and commentators called on employees to see themselves as free
agents, with no expectations from a company beyond what a contractor
would seek.

Present Day Orientation and Onboarding

If you had polled human resource consultants and specialists during the
early 2000s, you would have found that many companies still saw orien-
tation as mere paperwork. Firms typically spent only a day or two, and they
did almost nothing to explain even their basic operations and culture. Most
companies were now putting their employees through at least some kind
of job training as part of quality improvements, computerization, or a
change program. Yet training usually had little to do with getting employ-
ees started or establishing a career path. A 2000 survey by the American
Society for Training and Development suggested that companies spent less
than 10% of their training budget on orientation.
Since 2000, onboarding has become widely recognized as an emerging
discipline within HR circles. The word evokes a practice that goes beyond
the traditional orientation, yet precisely what it means has remained elu-
sive. Onboarding seems to have its roots in certain pioneering steps taken
at a few companies beginning in the mid 1990s. Corporate downsizing of
both people as well as benefits had weakened employee loyalty, and the
media was warning of a “war” for the most talented employees. In response