Do you remember your first day of work? Many organisations are now focusing on providing new hires with a memorable on-boarding process to help them transition into their new role – and stay there.
L.J. Brock, vice-president of talent acquisition and infrastructure at Red Hat, says companies have to make a point of capitalising on the staff’s excitement of starting a new job.
“Accepting a job is a very personal and emotional matter, so on-boarding must work many ways,” he says. “This is the first chance to empower them to be everything they were hired to be, and more. Then you can carry that excitement through to their job, their first 90 days, and beyond.”
Nick Foley, president, Southeast Asia and the Pacific at Landor Associates, agrees, adding: “You never get a second chance at making a first impression, so let us make it a good first impression.”
Foley says new hires are given the “rock star” treatment on their first day, starting with being ferried from home to the office in a chauffeured car. “If I am here I will go downstairs to greet the person or the line manager will do it.”
Following that, the employee is introduced to a mentor who takes them out for lunch, and is even pampered with an hour-long massage or facial before being driven home at half past four.
For Landor, a strong on-boarding process goes a long way in attracting the talent it wants.
“When you start a new job, there is all the lead up to it, so we are also hoping this is something that generates buzz – someone going, ‘Wow, look at what happened to me on my first day’,” Foley says.
Attaching a mentor to the new hire is also something practised at MEC. Gareth Ling, director of people and culture at MEC APAC, says every new hire is given a buddy “who takes them to lunch within the first week and becomes a point of reference for all things MEC, helping them explore and exploit”.
He says providing new employees with an avenue to understand the organisation better is crucial.
“Not having transparent and coherent orientation into a company’s culture and systems or processes is the equivalent of sending a new hire blindfolded into a maze and expecting them to find the exit,” Ling says.
Another aspect of employee on-boarding at MEC is a lunch meeting where they are introduced to management, “where anything goes in terms of questions about the agency”.
“Communication is king and translates into business efficiency,” Ling says.
All eyes and ears
Julianne Truda, HR director at Microsoft Singapore and Southeast Asia new markets, says new hires should be given the opportunity to meet with key stakeholders during the on-boarding period, especially members of the senior leadership team they have to work with.
“We understand social relationships are very important in an organisation and we try to encourage and facilitate this from the start,” she says.
Truda says Microsoft’s on-boarding process involves engaging employees in the company’s culture and values “to show them how they fit in and can contribute as well as how they can be effective in their roles”.
Brock says HR leaders must also remember to provide employees with all the information they need to get off on the right foot. However, he admits this can be challenging because staff in different roles will have different needs.
“We give new hires everything they must know as an employee and how to find information for processes and systems, but we balance that with information about how many parts of the company work together. This helps give them the larger view and how they fit in – both micro and macro,” he says.
Ling echoes this sentiment: “If you fail to give an employee all the necessary tools to operate effectively upfront, you are setting the talent you are investing in to fail, instead of being an effective contributor.”
Play hard, work hard
So how do companies ensure they sustain that engagement throughout the employee’s tenure with the organisation?
“Employees who have a great on-boarding experience can also have a positive effect on the retention of your existing workforce,” Truda says.
“New starters with a great experience to tell tend to encourage existing employees to stay on with the organisation for a longer time.”
Leaders must also consider how to articulate and demonstrate the values and culture of the company in an interesting manner to engage new talent, says Truda, adding feedback can also help assess how successful this has been.
“A successful on-boarding programme should receive strong positive feedback from new employees in both the first three months and then perhaps six months after they join the company,” she says.
Managers should also be roped in to ensure new staff are coping well, being brought up to speed and becoming productive quickly.
Foley says continuously living the company values introduced during on-boarding is important to maintain high levels of engagement.
“Every quarter everyone gets to nominate their peers for living one of our values,” he says.
“Whoever receives the most nominations gets their name up on the values board and they also get $300 in cash. You want the rational reward, which is the cash, but also the emotional reward which is the recognition.
Ling says one way to measure effectiveness of an on-boarding process is by the “smiles and laughter, and the new team member having fun”.
Brock says Red Hat executes 30 and 90-day check-ins to make sure new employees are adapting well.
“The 90-day check in is more to see if the job they were hired for is meeting expectations, how they’re working with their manager, and how they view the entire new hire experience.”
Inside Scoop: On board the training train
While on-boarding processes should be fun and engaging there is still a serious side to be taken care of, writes Sabrina Zolkifi.
The first few weeks of an employee’s life span at a new organisation can be overwhelming.
“Starting a new job is a whirlwind of information, no doubt, but it is important to get an overview of the company and the big picture before you dig in and begin work,” says L.J. Brock, vice-president of talent acquisition and infrastructure at Red Hat.
Gareth Ling, director of people and culture at MEC APAC, says it is important new hires get acquainted with “understanding the internal language of the business”.
“There is nothing more frustrating than joining a new company and being confused with terminology that does not make sense,” he says.
However, Julianne Truda, HR director at Microsoft Singapore and Southeast Asia new markets, says her organisation prefers to take a more holistic approach. “From the first day at work, new employees are receiving a lot of information, so the on-boarding process is also about knowledge management,” she says.
This involves pacing the information-sharing in the best way to enable the new hire to get a good grasp of all the necessary things needed for them to succeed.
