Management/Exempt Level Onboarding
I am looking for "best in class" examples of employee onboarding (not orientation).
Specifically I am looking for what are the best ways of networking the new employee so they get very connected ASAP and how to create small productivity wins so the new employee feels relevant and successful. Both of these in the first 3 to 12 months.
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Hi Bob ...
Consider creating some kind of new hire scavenger hunt / onboarding checklist of many different new hire-relevant activities and/or missions they must accomplish by seeking out different people around the organization. That should make it more fun while at the same time creating reasons for the person to interact with others for the sake of networking.
If the checklist/hunt had a theme with corresponding milestones, it would be even easier to stratify it so that the employee earned recognition for completing different phases of the process. E.g. bronze, silver, gold medals in an Olympic theme...or different badges for various accomplishments (whether that be scout-style or in the spirit of Fitbit badges!).
BTW - in case its of any interest, my company put together this e-book last year on this very topic.
Hope this helps!
Jessica Stephenson
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Hi Bob,
Something we have implemented that has been very successful is creating a training guide before the individual starts. The training guide includes their job description and a description of what success looks like in the role. We then break out the different teams they will need to get to know, and list out individuals they need to schedule one-on-one meetings with. We have the employee schedule these meetings to get to learn our email/calendar system and how to book rooms, etc. We have a master guide that provides them with questions they could ask to help guide the conversations, depending on who they are meeting with. New hires will meet with HR, finance, the company owners, leaders of various teams, attend team meetings, and shadow people. This helps them integrate with the company immediately. Again, this is all listed out in the document so there is no guess work for the new hire.
Everyone in the organization is familiar with this process, and embraces meeting with new hires, having them shadow them and learn from them.
Aside from having the new hire attend meetings and shadow employees to learn about the company, we also list out job specific goals for week 1 (simple things, as you can imagine), 30 days, 45 days, 60 days, 6 months, and 1 year -- this sets very clear expectations. The manager is very involved in this process. The manager checks in with them regularly and uses the document as a guide for training.
Allison
