Onboarding New Hires is a Skill

Onboarding starts with the induction of the new hires. It includes their acclimatization with all the important aspects of the new organization, such as the business, the organizational culture, the people, and the environment. Since onboarding is such an important activity; it is not right to think that it is just yet another of the many tasks that HR does. It goes a lot more beyond paperwork and documentation.

Onboarding is a series of steps and measures

Joining formalities constitute a very small part of onboarding. Onboarding is mainly about connecting the new talent to the organization. This work is all the more important when one onboards important personnel such as leaders. Organizations induct leaders in the expectation of something different and out of the box. They are not hires that are expected to carry out routine tasks.

It is a poor commentary on the HR’s onboarding skills if the special talent is wasted because HR could not make the onboarding effective by familiarizing and ingraining the organization’s expectations fully at the time of onboarding. If HR fails to convey the organization’s core to the new leader and lay out its expectations; it means a great opportunity has been squandered.

Keeping the motivation up

Since onboarding is the first and very critical step to the whole process of absorbing and assimilating the new hire; HR has to do everything in its capacity to ensure that the initial excitement that the new hire experiences upon joining a new organization is sustained and does not fizzle out soon. It has to pull all the stops in retaining the tempo. This is a test of how well good onboarding works. The main goal of effective onboarding is keeping the motivation and excitement levels consistently high over time.

The importance of good onboarding can be understood in the following:

• One in three new hires looks for new openings in just half a year of joining new companies if onboarding is not done effectively;
• Poor onboarding results in one in three of newly hired employees in the executive cadre falling short of their targets in the first couple of years of taking up a position in a new organization;
• At the current rate of 10-15% annual rate of turnover, as much as two thirds of the entire talent base will be lost by organizations in just four years of recruiting new talent if onboarding fails to serve its purpose.

The Aberdeen Group estimates that organizations have as high a chance as 70% of retaining new leadership talent hires if it gets its onboarding right. From this, it can be understood that the right onboarding has the ability of preventing organizations from losing its valuable resources on making a hire that stays for only a few months.

The emotional point of connection

What is that most critical element of good onboarding that makes it a success? Organizations have tried several techniques and have got mixed results. Yet, all the tools and methods companies use notwithstanding; no factor is as important in making onboarding successful as inculcating that emotional connection with the new hires.

The organization has mastered the art of onboarding if HR creates and builds that emotional connection between the organization and the new hires. This is the final decider of the success of onboarding. In this lies the driving force of aligning the organization’s culture to the new hire, especially, a leader.

Understand how to bring this about

A webinar from TrainHR, a leading provider of professional trainings for the HR industry, will present and explain the finer elements of how to bring about this emotional connection between the new hire and the organization. Marcia Zidle, who is CEO of Leaders At All Levels and a board certified executive coach based in Dallas, Texas, will be the speaker at this webinar. Please visit http://www.trainhr.com/control/w_product/~product_id=701730LIVE?abilogic-SEO to enroll for this webinar.

Retaining talent and helping it raise the organization is an art

At this webinar, Marcia will explain the steps and decisions that HR can take to make onboarding effective. Without doubt, this is the most important means to keeping leadership talent for the long run and helping the organization derive the most out of it. She will cover the following areas at this webinar:

• Learn six mistakes to avoid in your new hire onboarding process
• Review best practices in executive onboarding accelerating executive success
• Understand three onboarding approaches to integrate the new hire into their job and organization
• Review an onboarding 90-day timeline with key tasks and tools to measure goals and milestones
• Identify the top derailers for the critical stakeholders the manager, the new leader, human resources
• Learn from focus groups what new leaders consider the top onboarding issues and ways to ensure success.

About TrainHR TrainHR is a comprehensive Human Resources training solutions provider. In offering trainings that are valuable, yet cost effective, TrainHR is the ideal medium for Human Resources professionals.