Many professionals share the experience of having shown up for their first day of work only to find their new company isn’t quite prepared to welcome them. Maybe a desk hasn’t been cleared, or a computer ordered; in some cases, management is too busy even to sit down and discuss job responsibilities.
If you never get a second chance to make a first impression, then these employers have blown it.
“That person can feel very disconnected,” says Jennifer Adcock, a partner with Excelerant who has more than 10 years of human resource experience. “It’s very important that on that first day, everybody is prepared for this person, everybody’s expecting this person to come in, and everybody’s on the same page about their role in helping this person leave thinking they made the right decision.”
In Adcock’s world, this is called employee onboarding. She’s helped companies document their values and culture—what she calls the “foundation of any good onboarding program”—all the way to developing an extensive orientation program that can last up to one year.
According to a 2013 study conducted by Aberdeen Group, “Employee onboarding has become a key business initiative and an accelerator of company growth and performance.” The research firm’s study of 230 organizations explored best practices used and found that 91% of employees were retained at organizations with the best programs compared to 30% at organizations they found lacking.
LSU assistant professor of management Daniel Whitman says employee retention is only one of the major benefits of onboarding thats done well. “New employees will feel that they ‘fit in’ at the company,” he explains. “When an employee feels like they fit, they are more engaged and better performers on the job. This ultimately leads to an organization with higher levels of morale and productivity and lower levels of turnover.”
Making new employees feel like part of the company culture plays a big part in “fitting in.” As Adcock says, documenting exactly what that culture is is important, but companies also need to be able to impart that culture to new hires.
At CC’s Coffee House, the name of the company’s orientation program—Fresh Brew—hints at what this chain of coffeehouses is all about.
“We have a very energetic, caffeinated team of baristas that really just strive to serve each other and serve our guests better than anyone else,” says Senior Director of Company Operations Sean Marlow. “That’s really achieved through teamwork, a passion for what they do, and a drive to be exceptional. Through our hiring process, we try to hire the individuals who fit those values.”
New hires at CC’s go through this two-week orientation, which covers everything from products offered to company policies, procedures, mission, vision and values. This is followed by what’s called “Baristaville,” or on-the-job training.
Designated trainers mentor new recruits for two to three weeks, but Barlow admits it can take up to three months for a new employee to learn all the recipes and feel 100% acclimated.
Adcock says that most companies think about onboarding in 30-, 60- and 90-day increments, but “it’s really no different from day one to day 365. To me, the best onboarding programs are going to control for a year to 18 months where you have check-ins along the way,” she explains.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, which has more than 2,000 employees, continues its orientation process through an employees first anniversary with the company. A new hire’s first day consists of a group orientation with other new employees, which helps them explore the company’s core values and uses a storyboard activity to illustrate the company history.
“They have to come together and put the storyboard in order,” says the company’s corporate learning specialist, Kara Still. “This has more meaning to them about how the history sets the stage for future activities.”
New hires are also assigned “buddies” to show them the ropes and have access to a program called Becoming Blue Onboarding, complete with a Louisiana Onboarding Resource Assistant avatar named LORA. She also helps guide the new employee through the first year by walking them through information on benefits, company policies and culture.
Adcock is an advocate of programs like those at CC’s and Blue Cross that pair new hires with a buddy. “That buddy can help indoctrinate that new employee into the culture just by saying this is the way it’s done here,” she says.
At Business First Bank, Assistant Vice President of Human Resources Heather Roemer has the challenge of explaining a culture that strives for a balance between professionalism and fun.
“Our typical clientele is high net worth and used to a certain level of hands-on help and accessibility,” she says. “I tell employees we’re the face of the bank. It’s important we make a good impression.”
With 90 total employees, Business First’s onboarding process is not as formal as whats done at some larger companies, but Roemer recognizes the importance of the first day. In addition to going over basic paperwork, employees are introduced to the team by their hiring manager and Roemer sends out an email letting everyone know that a new person is starting.
LSU’s Whitman notes that onboarding is more of a social experience rather than a technical one.
“Newcomers to organizations often begin their new jobs feeling both excited and overwhelmed,” he says. “New employees should be introduced to other newbies so they will have somebody else to lean on who is experiencing the same thing, and orientation should be designed to explain to newcomers how we do things around here.”
While onboarding should begin with a documentation of company mission and values, the process should end with a measure of what’s working and what’s not.
Whitman says having a written plan is paramount, complete with milestones to check progress. For businesses that just don’t have the time or manpower to devote to follow-up, Adcock says good old-fashioned conversation works, too.
Asking an employee how they’re doing can go a long way. She adds that more innovative companies are setting up Facebook pages and chat rooms where new employees can ask questions and voice concerns without the intimidation of face-to-face contact.
At CC’s, a mystery shopper program is used to find out how new baristas are performing, and an internal quality assurance assessment is also conducted once a quarter in every store.
While these methods have given the company some good feedback, Marlow, who has been with CC’s for 15 years, says success goes all the way back to the hiring process.
“You have to understand what types of individuals and personalities you’re looking for,” he says. “Then, as you’re going through that interview, you’re screening for those specifics because you want to make sure they’re going to fit in with your team. Once you’ve hired them, you give them all the tools to be successful and you hold them accountable.”
