The 5 rules of successful onboarding
Onboarding processes are highly debated – with good reasons, since every company has to design one’s own according to its specific culture. There is no magic recipe to make your onboarding process work – the only golden rule is making sure it fits into the company culture.
In my view, adapting an onboarding process to your work environment can be done in 5 easy steps:
- 1. Pay attention to the jargon you use – every company has its own, and is often unknown from the outside world. There is no need to build a dictionary - limit yourself to the words or abbreviations you use every day. E.g. what does “I.P.” mean in your company? Internet Protocol? International Power? Intellectual Property? If you don’t tell them, new joiners will need a while to figure that out and feel a little silly or dizzy upon their arrival. Personally, when I get into a new company, I tend to question every expression I hear, just to make sure I got that right from the beginning. I’d rather feel dumb for a short moment than for weeks!
- 2. Explain the hierarchical culture transparently: how can you approach managers and directors in your company? Are they easily approachable or do they prefer being approached in a conventional way (email, meeting set through their P.A., etc.). Of course, everyone is different – don’t be afraid to mention each manager’s preference whenever possible. New joiners will be grateful for that, for there is nothing worse than making a bad impression on a senior manager upon your arrival!
- 3. Tell them what kind of behaviour and attitude is appreciated within the company. Are they expected to take a lot of initiatives, or simply stay in the background? Are they expected to go out with their colleagues in the evening? Is it unpopular to eat our most of the time? Are they expected to talk a lot about their private life or not? These are questions that sound ridiculous, but I think companies are very different from that perspective. E.g. in some companies, it would be unthinkable to ask questions about people’s health, like “so you were ill last week, what was it?” In some companies or department, it would be really weird if you didn’t tell everything about your illness, your temperature, how bad you were, etc.
- 4. Tell them all about the appraisal system. Tell them how it works, how often they can expect a formal feedback and which are the main criteria in use within the company. It may sound obvious, but most bosses don’t provide information about the appraisal system before the 4th of 5th month of joining – most of the time simply they have other priorities to communicate to their new staff.
- 5. Make sure you seek feedback from your new joiners in order to respond to their needs. Everyone is different, has a different job and a different boss. New joiners will need your unconditional and discrete.
In the end, people will be grateful for your openness and will perform better, I can guarantee!
What is your experience about onboarding? And what do you see as the absolute priority among those five rules ?
