Article

Transform Employee Onboarding: Cultivating Commitment from Day One

Originally contributed by Amara Hunt for TrainingIndustry.com.

Whether you’re connecting with a sales representative or being introduced into a company, first impressions matter — and onboarding is the definitive first impression an employee has of an organization. When done well, employee onboarding forms a strong foundation that ensures employees feel good about the decision they’ve made and have what they need to be successful. A recent study found that effective onboarding resulted in a near 20X increase in employee commitment to the workplace.

A great onboarding experience can jump start employee engagement, performance and loyalty, while a poor one can be a catalyst for regret. Onboarding is often the first meaningful chance you have to show new hires what your workplace, mission and culture are all about, and why they should want to commit the majority of their waking hours to your vision and purpose. Yet most organizations fail to take advantage of this opportunity to build momentum right out of the gate.

In fact, research shows just 12% of employees believe their employer’s onboarding process is adequate or successful. This represents a missed opportunity to unlock employee performance potential and foster a strong commitment to the organization.

What Most Onboarding Overlooks

Onboarding should be a springboard that gets people prepared and excited for what lies ahead. Unfortunately, most people don’t emerge from the experience feeling more energized and connected to the company. If anything, they feel overwhelmed and overloaded.

That’s because most onboarding is simply an information dump. New employees are bombarded with an onslaught of information about processes, policies, procedures, products and services, and administrative tasks, while minimal attention is given to the factors that foster an connection to the company. A slide or two might offer a brief overview of the vision and values, but there’s little opportunity for a deeper discussion about how the employee will be contributing to the broader purpose and how that connects to their own beliefs and values.

Understanding what needs to be done and how to do it is important, but it’s not enough. What most onboarding overlooks is the why, the pivotal link between mindset and skillset. Mindset, beliefs and values are powerful. These factors directly influence a person’s views of the company and its solutions as well as their own confidence, motivation and achievement drive. It’s the reason two people can experience the same training and receive all the same information, yet only one is a high performer. Success requires both skill and will.

The mistake many organizations make is assuming that someone either has the mindset and drive to succeed or they don’t and nothing can be done to change that. In fact, a positive, productive mindset must be continually developed and reinforced, especially in complex and highly service-oriented businesses where customers are demanding, the work is often challenging, and collaboration and alignment are critical.

Because mindset is so instrumental to engagement and performance, it’s an essential part of any effective onboarding process. Understanding how an organization’s value proposition aligns with personal values and ethics promotes a level of congruence that unlocks employee potential and increases resilience. Furthermore, it fosters a culture of common purpose and shared experience, which has consistently proven to be a driver of high engagement and retention.

Rethinking Your Approach to Employee Onboarding

To get the most benefits out of onboarding — for the employee as well as the organization — you have to address the underlying mindset and employee experience factors that drive engagement. If your current approach is weighed heavily toward the tactical information dump, here are a few ways to improve the process and get a better return on your investment (ROI):

Start with your value proposition

It’s naïve to think that corporate discussions of values and ethics won’t be met with a degree of flippancy or suspicion, even for those who have a proven track record of commitment. Starting with your organization’s value proposition, or what problems it helps to solve, is an on-ramp to talking more explicitly about norms. “How we do business here” is an important conversation that can quickly be connected to personal values and ethics.

In complex sales environments, where long-term relationships matter, integrity is essential to success. Here, trusted and sustained partnerships are often the hallmark of a thriving business. To establish a purposeful connection with the business, people need to understand what problems your organization helps solve prior to delving into the technical product knowledge. This lens will color how employees view the value of your solutions and, in turn, how they’ll talk about the value your organization provides and how they’ll show up with customers, vendors and the public.

Clarity around values and ethics is also essential for fostering connection and commitment. People want to know what the company stands for and that it aligns with their own values.

Emphasize purpose

Purpose is the big why — it shifts perspective by giving people a higher reason for doing what they’re doing. When things get tough, purpose is what keeps you going, keeps you connected to the mission and motivates you to do more, for yourself, your customers, your colleagues and the business.

Use onboarding as an opportunity to help people tap into their own purpose and identify how they’re contributing to a bigger mission or goal. Simply having them write out a career statement is a great first step in conditioning the mind to think more broadly about why they do what they do. When they have a strong why, they’ll find the how.

Focus on finding congruence

Because a person’s internal beliefs affect their overall performance, onboarding must set the stage by bringing these issues to the forefront and surfacing any gaps or misalignment. For example, when a salesperson’s values or their belief in the product conflicts with their view of selling or their view or their abilities, it can cause mental or emotional blocks that will inhibit their success. Bringing beliefs into congruence reduces stress and releases achievement drive.

By starting this process during the onboarding experience, you give your employees a running head start, and you demonstrate to them that you’re invested in their success.

Get managers actively involved and aligned

Today’s employees are looking for feedback, support and opportunities to grow, and that starts with their managers. The most effective managers have a strong belief in their people and see possibilities they may not even see in themselves. As a result, they’re able to help their team members move past self-limiting behaviors and reach new levels of success.

Considering the huge role managers play in engaging, developing and retaining employees, it’s important to factor them into the onboarding process. Make sure they understand the significance of mindset and purpose and are willing and equipped to work with their employees on these issues. That’s how it becomes engrained in the culture.

Retaining Talent Starts on Day One

Voluntary turnover is a self-inflicted and costly business problem that can be minimized starting on day one with an effective onboarding approach. Beyond providing information, training and tactical day-to-day guidance, think about how you can leverage onboarding to help employees feel valued, supported and personally connected to the mission.

Finally, keep in mind that while onboarding sets the tone, it’s only the beginning of the process. It’s up to your leadership and front-line managers to deliver on those promises through ongoing reinforcement, development and ever-boarding practices.