Tag Archive for: Onboarding new employees

How to Implement a Highly Effective Onboarding Process

, , ,

Having an effective onboarding process has never been more important in today’s competitive workforce. Talented employees are among one of the strongest assets for innovative companies, but poor initial onboarding experiences often lead to unpleasant, costly results.

 

The following statistics emphasize the importance of an effective onboarding process:

– 33% of new hires look for a new job within their first 6 months on the job
– 23% of new hires quit before their first anniversary
– It takes about 8 months for a new hire to reach full productivity
– Estimated employee turnover costs range between 100% – 300% of the replaced employee’s salary

Statistics Source: Harvard Business Review

 

Understandably, managers have busy work lives. It’s often a challenge to implement stimulating, effective onboarding experiences. Luckily, there are ways to streamline new-hire processes to engage and drive long-term success. Below, we provide 4 suggestions for implementing a highly effective onboarding process:

 

Create an Onboarding Video

A quick onboarding video is one way to effectively show newcomers what they can expect. The video may highlight things like culture, core values, and the next steps in the onboarding process.

  
Use Technology to Speed up the Paperwork Process

We have the technology at our fingertips, so why not use it? HR systems like Talentwise, Silkroad, and Taleo provide new hire portals that are capable of implementing electronic signatures, up-to-date employment records, and socializing features.

 

Create a Mentoring Program

To make the onboarding process less overwhelming, create a mentoring program. Mentors will often be able to help newcomers understand the organizational structure and employee processes. Such a program usually increases productivity as well.

 

Involve All Stakeholders & Give a Warm Welcome

The development and implementation of the onboarding process doesn’t have to be limited to the HR department. There are several other departments that can make a good first impression as well. For instance, streamlining a process where the new hire gets to meet different sectors of the workplace every other day is a good way to encourage increased employee engagement and motivation.

 

Are You Setting Up New Engineering Hires for Failure?

, , ,

successfully onboaring engineersIn engineering professions industry wide, a well managed onboarding program can have a measurable impact on employee retention, productivity, employment brand, product/service quality and future hiring success. For these new and highly sought after engineers, a well designed onboarding program addresses the specific information that will help them understand the company and how they fit in to the big picture.

A few tips:

1. Be sure to build in time for open and honest discussions about their interests, your company culture and expectations. This can include asking questions to reaffirm that the new hire and company are a good match.

2. Don’t overload new engineers or any new hires. The best onboarding programs limit the information and forms required on the first day or throughout the week. If you want them to retain information, be sure to spread it out over time. Placing too much pressure on new hires makes it less likely that they will make good decisions or ask pertinent questions.

3. Include fun activities that give your new engineers a chance to meet their team members an other co-workers in a comfortable setting. This is a wonderful opportunity for them to get to know people within the organization. For example, Brightwing regularly takes new hires to volunteer at Art Road, a non-profit working to bring art back into Detroit Public Schools.

4. The most effective onboarding programs include key metrics that cover new hire retention rates, new hire referrals and time to productivity. Setting clear objectives makes people accountable for producing measurable results that impact your business.

 

April Jennings

Author: April Jennings

Google

5 Key Tips for Recruiting Engineers

, ,

recruiting engineers

It’s no secret that engineers are some of the most sought after professionals today, and the marketing to attract and retain their talent is incredibly important. In the words of Pete Soderling, software engineer and founder of Hakka Group, “Engineers are in massive, disproportionate and obscenely high demand. In other words, they’ve become the hottest girls at the bar.”

Recruiting engineers (mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer engineering and other engineering professionals) may be as simple as Marketing 101, Soderling explains:

Know your product like the back of your hand
Engineers of all types have an incredible amount of opportunities laid before them, so when you speak about your product, this job opening, you better know exactly what you’re talking about because you probably only have one shot. Like in retail, you should know all facets of this product: What is the culture like, what team would they work on, what hours would they work, what engineering problems would you need this resource to solve, what kind of person would thrive in this environment, how the position could progress, etc, etc, etc. The better you are at communicating and answering questions, the better the picture will look. Know your stuff.

Know your target audience
What type of engineer do you need? This goes along with knowing your product. Are you looking for entry level, recent college graduates? Do you need a degreed professional or an engineer with hardcore experience? If you define the type of professional and level of experience you will have a better road map to hiring an engineer who will stay with your organization, not quit three weeks later.

What makes your product stand out?
According to Soderling, there are three essential aspects of a job that an engineer will dissect:

• Your company’s engineering challenges and projects
• Your people (because people do business with people that they like)
• Your company culture

You MUST be able to differentiate your company on these three points. Engineers by nature solve problems. Make this problem as attractive as you can, “The bigger, the badder, the hairier the challenge, the better.” Also, every professional wants to be happy at their job, and a huge aspect of that is their environment and the people they see every day. Make sure that you are able to talk about the culture and those that work in it quickly and effectively.

Allow current Engineers to tell your story
Content is king, but it is more effective when communicated by a relatable source. You wouldn’t want me, a marketing professional speaking to biomedical engineers about our engineering challenges. Your internal engineers are your best sales people, and also show your target audience that great engineers not only work at your company, but love to work there. Commence engineer magnetism.

Promote, promote, promote!
Now that your story, audience and who your spokes engineers are, you are ready to spread your message. This is a process, and takes planning and a lot of scheduling but will get your message out on several fronts:
1. Map out events, forums, conferences, and plan meetings or meet ups where you are able to tell your story to the right audience.
2. Attack socially: post videos, blogs and other materials on social communities where your audience would most likely see and more importantly share.

If you dissect your current engineering recruiting efforts, are you taking the right steps? Are you missing a piece? The engineering community is so highly sought after, that evaluating your process is invaluable to your company.

Click here to read the original article posted on Soderling’s blog.

 

Five Strategies for Effective Talent Procurement

,

Five Strategies for Effective Talent ProcurementToday’s procurement professionals face significant challenges. Increasingly asked to do more with less, these individuals must also move beyond traditional roles focused on cost reductions and streamlined sourcing and become an integral part of an organization’s strategy team.

What does this mean for talent acquisition? Simply put, procurement professionals who seek to lead in their field must re-examine how they approach the hiring process to ensure their organizations remain nimble and competitive. Following are five strategies for effective talent procurement for forward-thinking professionals.

1. Understand the talent situation.
Despite persistently high unemployment levels, many organizations are facing a talent shortage. The competition for talent is expected to increase in the coming years. In a recent Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) survey of 235 C-level executives, more than half (53%) of respondents cited talent shortages as their primary area of concern. Meanwhile, the contingent workforce is growing exponentially, driven by advances in technology and the desire of organizations to flex their capabilities based on market demand. Understanding these trends is key to finding a solution.

2. Know who you need.
Talent shortages and hiring challenges are highest in areas that require advanced skills and college degrees, such as IT, professional services, healthcare, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. Hiring talent in these areas therefore requires a different approach than hiring for lower skill sets. To adopt the right approach in hiring, it’s imperative to know the types of roles that need to be filled in an organization.

3. Put systems in their place.
The trend toward a larger contingent workforce and a desire to standardize hiring is leading to an increased adoption of software-enabled, cloud-based, systems-driven staffing solutions. In a recent survey of hiring managers and executives across a range of industries, approximately half currently use vendor management systems (VMS), managed vendor systems (MVS) or managed service providers (MSP). The chief advantages cited by those using the systems are a faster hiring process, lowered costs and decreased workload as well as tracking and reporting capabilities.

In an environment that demands process consistency and in-depth intelligence, these systems present an attractive solution. Indeed, the ability to save time and resources and integrate sophisticated workforce analysis tools can provide a competitive advantage—when these systems are applied in the right way.

4. Understand the limitations of VMS/MVS and MSP solutions.
Despite the benefits of VMS/MVS and MSP solutions, they’re not a “magic bullet” for acquiring talent. When asked about the performance of VMS/MVS and MSP solutions, only one out of four survey participants rated performance across all attributes as very good or excellent. Hiring managers and executives were also neutral on the performance of automated talent acquisition systems in identifying candidates—only one-third rated the quality of candidates that are hired as very good or excellent. The primary challenge cited by those using VMS/MVS and MPS solutions was the sourcing of unqualified candidates or candidates who are a poor fit for the organization. High turnover and a lack of engagement are common. On average, respondents said they work around the established process of a VMS/MVS or MSP 34% of the time.

5. Leverage the value of human involvement.
Approximately half of all respondents prefer to work with a combined hiring solution using both an automated system and a specialized staffing/recruiting agency, noting that both methods have advantages for different requirements. VMS/MVS or MSP solutions can fill positions quickly that require less skilled or less specialized employees, while specialized staffing/recruiting agencies are preferred for higher skill sets and more specialized recruits who require more time and effort to identify.

An additional 23 percent of those surveyed indicated that they prefer to work only with a specialized agency because of the agency’s ability to source high-quality candidates, target specific needs, and provide clear communication and better control of the process.

Standardization and commoditization have their place in the procurement chain. However, when talent matters, human involvement on a personal level is essential. By adopting strategies that recognize the value of personal, professional attention in the hiring process, procurement professionals can play a key role in positioning their organizations to lead in the next workforce paradigm.

Source:

Brightwing Market Research Study on Team Member Recruiting and Talent Acquisition, Clear Seas Research, Troy, MI, Dec. 2012.

Onboarding Is More Than a Welcome Wagon

, ,

SWAG is great. Who wouldn’t like a new company  tote bag, bottle of wine and candy jar on their new desk? Welcome wagons are just that. They are usually things and small events that welcome someone new to a company, and after a few weeks are gone. If there is no more than that to bring someone new into your company, you are potentially setting your company as well as new employee up for failure. So from a technical and strategic view,  where does onboarding fit in the hiring process?

Successful onboarding is the result of several human resource management functions moving and working together in harmonious fashion. According to Karla Walker of American Family Insurance, five components make up the Strategic Onboarding Process and it is a collaborative process:

 

  1. Align: Ensure the organization agrees on the need for the new hire and specific role. This is key, the organization has to be on the same page before bringing in anyone otherwise a poor fit for the company in general may be hired.
  2. Acquire: Recruit, interview, and select the new hire based on hard skills, and cultural fit for the company.
  3. Integrate: Provide the building blocks: socialization for new hires to connect with others who can provide information and build relationships; culture to learn a sense of the organizational norms; clarification to ensure employees understand their new jobs and expectations and; compliance to teach the basic legal and policy-related rules and regulations.
  4. Support and Development: Give new hires and agents tools, resources, experiences needed to do the work. If this is not provided you are impairing the new hire’s ability to grow or succeed in any way.
  5. Accelerate: Help new hires/agents and the team perform better and faster.

Welcome bags/ boxes/wagons should still be provided. Introductory lunches are great for team building and a morale booster for existing employees, but be sure that you focus on more than SWAG when bringing in a new hire from administrative to executive level.

If you need help with your onboarding strategy, Brightwing’s Brightstartwould be more than happy to help grow your workplace culture.

Author: Jenny Dickey

Change Your Onboarding to Get the Most Out of Your Investment

,

Hypothetically speaking, I want to lose 10 lbs.  I could start out by running, but if I don’t take the extra steps to eat healthy and get more sleep for example, I won’t be getting the most out of my investment. Just like when you hire an employee, one of the largest investments an organization can make, you have to be diligent enough to take the necessary actions to make them a fully functional member of the organization.

A well thought out onboarding strategy can ensure that your new employees are engaged and healthy members of your culture for a long time to come.

In the short term, a high-potential onboarding program improves productivity of employees by showing:

  • Quicker ramp-up in the company and performance in their job
  • Confidence as they navigate the new organizational waters and do their job well
  • They are motivated and well-adjusted in their role
  • They know who to go to when they have questions
  • They understand their role and job expectations
  • They are socially comfortable and accepted by peers
  • They have no poor job attitudes

The long-term outcomes of onboarding will show that employees have:

    • Higher job satisfaction
    • Organizational commitment
    • Lower turnover
    • Higher performance levels
    • Career effectiveness
    • Lowered stress
    • Research shows successful onboarding leads to good employee retention rates and improved performance is a long-term outcome of successful onboarding
    • Employees will navigate to the company’s culture and find their place within it

If you need help with your onboarding strategy, Brightwing’s Brightstartwould be more than happy to help grow your workplace culture.

 

If You Provide Only Orientation, You’re Failing Your Employees

, ,

Having been in the business for over 40 years, we have been asked a multitude of questions. One that has come up frequently in conversations with clients is “What is the difference between orientation and on boarding?” There is a definitive difference, and if you are only providing orientation you may be missing out on the opportunity to get new employees up to speed effectively and efficiently. Here’s the breakdown:

Orientations are meant to orient newly hired employees. Orienting is good. It provides the new hire with insights into the company’s mission, vision, and values. It gives new hires an introduction to the organization’s history and gives them more detail about their department, benefits plans, and set up for payroll. (Steve Cohen, On Boarding Can Mean More To Company Than New Hire. January 27, 2012). Orientation is the introductory stage in the process of new employee assimilation, and a part of his or her continuous socialization process in the organization. Many organizations focus here, and conclude any formal program within the first few weeks of employment. (Knowledge Advisors. August 5, 2009.)

Onboarding, however, takes it to the next level. It is the structured way a company brings newly hired employees into their “fold.” It is more about getting insights and information from the new hire. (Steve Cohen, On Boarding Can Mean More To Company Than New Hire. January 27, 2012).

  • This takes several meetings within the first 90 days. It starts with the candidate being “sold” on coming to work with the particular organization, an interview to ensure both the individual and the hiring company are a good match, one-on-one meetings with the supervisor, manager, and manager’s manager. And a meeting to determine if there is variance between what the new hire thought it’s like to work at the company and what the actual employees think it’s really like to work there. Then there are meetings to evaluate the new hire’s performance.
  • Onboarding is about communicating up and down. It is about finding out what is good, as well as what needs improvement, and then dialoging about it all.
  • Onboarding is a process of aligning, assimilating, integrating, and transitioning a new employee. (Knowledge Advisors. August 5, 2009.)

 

Author: Jenny Dickey

4 Ways to Lose the People You Hire

,

If this list describes your recruiting process, you may soon be looking for a new employee to fill the spot you think you  just filled.

73% of employees expect to leave their current job for another job at some point.
32% want to leave their job now.
28% expect that to happen within two years.

For employers, those are shuddering statistics. Replacing employees is time consuming and expensive. When you bring a new person on board, the last thing you need is to be replacing that position again in the short term.  Yet, many employers find themselves in this time consuming and money-draining situation. Here are four ways to ensure that you’re not one of them.

#1: Hasty Hiring Process
The fact that you have a position to fill indicates you have an unmet need, so your haste to fill that need is understandable. But it’s not smart. If you rush the candidate screening process (or don’t have one at all), fast-forward the interviews without really getting to know your candidates, or extend an offer before giving the candidate a chance to meet the team, you will likely find yourself with an incomplete match. Culture fit is essential to the long-term success of your employees, and getting the right culture fit takes time. If you are simply focused on filling a seat, you’ll get exactly that – a filled seat (for now).

#2: Poorly Structured Onboarding Process
You found the person you wanted, extended an offer, and they accepted. Everything has been signed, and your new employee is walking in the door for their first day. Check the box! Recruiting is over, right? Wrong. The success of your recruiting depends at least as much on the onboarding process as the recruiting process. If you simply throw your new hire into the fray without the proper introductions, expectations, or the right tools to do the job correctly, you will lose the employee – mentally if he sticks around, and physically if he doesn’t.

#3: Lack of People Focus
Every company watches the bottom line; what are you doing to watch your people just as closely? They are more than just “equipment.” They have unique needs. They feel emotion. They want to know how they are contributing to the organization’s success. They want to enjoy coming to work. Too many companies forget to formally recognize their employees for jobs well done, provide ongoing personal/professional development opportunities, or offer regular feedback on job performance. These companies find themselves with dispassionate, unhappy, and unproductive employees. That’s because the best employees have already left.

#4: Poor Benefits
Total compensation will always be a primary factor in employee satisfaction and longevity. We’re not just talking about salary, medical and 401k plans however. What kind of creative benefits (gym memberships, time off for volunteer work, flex work schedules, etc.) do you offer your employees? How flexible are you in accommodating their personal time? What opportunities do they have to participate in work outside their normal job descriptions? The cost of these types of fringe benefits is more than offset by the increased engagement and happiness of your employees. If they are not excited to work for you, they will find another business where they are.

Enough negativity. This list does not have to describe your company. With appropriate attention to the right details, you can hire top people and be confident that they will be with you for a long time. Brightwing is committed to helping you do that. We do more than just provide qualified candidates; we partner with you to make sure those candidates fit your culture and want to work for you. We’ll help you bring the right people in, then help you make them want to stay.

Tell Pride Stories During Onboarding

, , ,

Consider adding pride stories in various sections of your on-boarding program. One of the most important messages is to communicate “Pride Stories” (implicitly and explicitly) that will attract and retain employees so they can be proud to work at your organization.

Implicitly: by conducting a well-designed, well-organized, effective on-boarding program so new hires can see the organization does things right. It shows “I’m part of a great organization,” and respect for management “The organization knows what they’re doing here.”

Explicitly: by sharing stories that communicate “You can be proud to work here” by sharing stories that demonstrate why your organization is worthy of pride. Consider stories new hires can share with their families.

Key themes your stories may include:

1. What makes your product or service great.
2. How your product or service has made a difference in the lives or businesses of your customers.
3. The good things your organization does in your local community, or for the world community.
4. Examples of employees or contract workers performing at elite levels, such as providing over-the-top customer service that blows your customers away.
5. How your organization is run with integrity, respect for its people, and competence.

How do you obtain pride stories?

  • Collect them from employees at all levels, about Moments of Truth that illustrate why they are proud to work in your organization.
  • Collect and cataloged them in a database. (Note what they communicate and what value they personify.)

Once you have collected the stories, you can: 1) include them in the on-boarding program, 2) include them on your recruiting site and/or 3) have recruiters share them at job fairs and in hiring interviews.

Sharing stories that inspire pride as part of your new hire on-boarding program not only will make your program more inspiring, it will also help to “confirm the decision” in your new hire’s minds that they made the right choice. So be sure to add pride stories that communicate “You can be proud to work here” in your on-boarding program.

How Strategic Onboarding Affects Employee Retention

,

How you approach a new hire’s first day may determine whether he’s with you for the long term.

Fact: 46% of new hires are gone within eighteen months,1 and almost half of those losses occur in the first forty-five days of employment.2  Those numbers aren’t just startling; they’re expensive.  How can you design your hiring process to help your company do a better job of retaining its talent?

The most critical point in your hiring process actually occurs after the hire is made: the employee’s first day on the job.  You must have a systematic and comprehensive onboarding process to:

  • Help new employees feel welcome and comfortable in their new surroundings.
  • Minimize the time before new employees are contributing value to your organization.

Helping New Employees Feel Welcome and Comfortable

New employees are excited, but they’re also nervous.  They don’t know what to expect and may still harbor doubts as to whether they made the right decision.  Overriding that nervousness, however, is an intense desire to make a good impression and contribute right away.

Here’s the secret most new hires don’t realize: most of that could also be said for you, the hiring manager!  This is your chance to make a magnificent first impression!  The last thing you want is for the new hire to spend his first day sitting alone in a cubicle, filling out paperwork, wondering where to get a cup of coffee…and thinking about contingent plans if this doesn’t work out.

Make the first day a celebration!  Imagine if the new guy walks in to find a bottle of wine on his desk, his computer ready to go, and supplies waiting?  Wouldn’t that leave a lasting impression?  More importantly, get to know him!  One of the primary reasons cited for unsuccessful onboarding is the inability to establish effective working relationships.3  To proactively avoid this problem, perhaps each team member could take him out to lunch over the first few weeks.  Furthermore, each executive could schedule a special one-on-one meeting to lay out the goals of the organization and cast a vision for the employee’s role in achieving them.

One thing’s for certain: that employee will leave his first day more excited than when he arrived, and that bodes well for the people who hired him.

Minimizing the Time Before New Employees Are Contributing Value

You can’t just throw a new employee into the mix and expect great results.  In addition to technical training, he needs to be taught the core values of your organization and how his work helps achieve the company vision.  Training should also include suggested action plans for issues the new hire may encounter.  This will save valuable time as he settles into a new role.

A study of employees in the United States and the United Kingdom found that businesses lose an estimated $37 billion annually due to employees not understanding their jobs.4  The faster the new hire assimilates to your organization, the faster he can leverage the skills for which you hired him in the first place.

How Brightwing Wins at Onboarding

To help new employees feel welcome and comfortable, we provide:

  • A welcome basket
  • A tour of the building
  • Introductions to staff
  • A profile of the new hire sent to all employees
  • Pictures of existing employees for easy identification
  • An assigned mentor
  • A personal overview of paperwork, company programs, and benefits
  • Lunches with all employees
  • An introduction of the new hire at a company-wide meeting

To minimize the time before the new hire is contributing value, we conduct:

  • A review of assessment results
  • A core values overview with the CEO
  • A company history lesson with the company president
  • One-on-one conversations with the manager
  • Clear communication of goals and objectives
  • An overview of the corporate marketing philosophy and materials
  • Training on email and phones
  • In-house software training
  • Meetings with various employees to understand their roles in the company

Failed hires are expensive.  Brightwing can help you take deliberate steps to avoid that cost starting with the onboarding process.

Sources:

  1. Leadership IQ
  2. The Wynhurst Group: 22% of staff turnover occurs in the first forty-five days of employment.
  3. Journal of Management
  4. International Institute for Management Development

How to Use a Mentor System

,

No matter how confident a person may seem, they are still likely to be a little overwhelmed when starting a position. A lot is placed on the shoulders of new employees. They have to get to know a fresh office with new faces as well as get into a routine for their workload. It’s almost as scary as being thrown into a labyrinth with a Minotaur. Wouldn’t it be awesome if they had a specific person in the organization to go to for help when they needed it? Someone who has been there for awhile and knows the ropes?

Flight Restriction

Mentoring is an amazing way to integrate a new employee, but how does a manager make sure that he creates a successful mentoring program?

Take Off

The first thing to do is find mentors suitable for the task. These people have to be the definition of your company’s values. The point of initiating new employees is not simply to have them learn the job. One of the main aspects a mentor provides is an example and teacher of what your organization represents. Your mentors should also be able to communicate effectively. It does not help a new employee if his/her mentor does not have the heart to point out mistakes and ways to correct them along with the compliments. Make sure that your mentors have the time to devote to the cause as well. Some employees want to focus on their work and don’t have time for added responsibility. Your mentors should also realize that they are becoming teachers and not royalty with servants. New employee abuse is the leading cause of work related deaths.

The next step is to give your new employee and his/her mentor clear expectations of what they are to expect from one another. Nothing is worse then putting two people in a position in which they have no idea what they are doing. Brightwing’s mentoring program delegates a set time frame for the mentorship period. It also sets clear expectations that the mentor and mentee will meet at least once a week and monthly with the mentor program leaders. Mentors are expected to provide constructive and honest feedback, teach by example, encourage, and maintain open communication. Mentees need to listen and utilize feedback, accept challenges, ask questions, and inspire his/her mentor. These are just a few guideline examples for what each person should get out of the program.

The final strategy is to stress the perks of the mentoring program to keep people interested. Mentors are given personal growth, and the ability to strengthen their communication, leadership, and coaching skills. Mentees get a better understanding of the organization’s core values and how to uphold them. They also develop a relationship with a fellow employee faster and receive more clarity on their job and where to go for help. Wouldn’t it be great if I could end this paragraph there? The truth is that people like physical rewards as well. At Brightwing, there is a Mentor of the Year award chosen from mentee feedback. Each mentor/mentee team is also given a monetary sum to place into future mentoring programs.

Maintaining Altitude

A mentoring program can only strengthen the integration of new employees if done right. If you utilize the points I have presented, you will see the benefits firsthand. Picking the right mentors assures that the new employees are in the right hands and that can make all the difference.