What is Onboarding?
According to IPADE Business School, "it is a practice that seeks to accelerate the incorporation of human capital into the company". In other words, what this practice seeks is to help new collaborators to incorporate and adapt to the organizational culture quickly and efficiently. Also that they socialize and be accepted by the members who are already part of the organization today.
Many of these socialization tactics in the organizational environment were analyzed and structured by Van Maanen and Schein (1979 ) and, over time, they have given way to current trends such as the Employee Journey, imported from marketing, and which makes it possible to structure a map with the phases in the employee's journey from his first contact with the company to his last day.
Making use of these type of actions represent benefits both for those who enter and for the company, some advantages that have been evidenced are:
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Feeling of personal satisfaction.
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High level of commitment.
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Develop a sense of belonging.
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Better performance in their future role.
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Visible results: increased productivity.
How can we apply successful Onboarding processes?
To carry out this strategy, we must first create an action plan that covers the experiences prior to the employee's entry, from operational and practical aspects such as the
reading and signing of the contract or delivery of
materials work (computer equipment, stationery, etc.), through
accompaniment on their first day, to long-term aspirational aspects such as the
creation of a sense of belonging strong>,
involve the person in the organizational mission and vision, up to the development of satisfaction questionnaires for the reception process itself for subsequent analysis and improvement of the applied strategy.
And in order to make this happen we must be especially careful about two parts of the plan:
The first is that we must make sure to
instill a sense of belonging in the new collaborator, and we can achieve this with acts as simple as: a
welcome kit with corporate materials, assign a sponsor/mentor to accompany and train them in their new functions, invite them to meetings and take their opinion into account, open contact spaces not related to work, among others. All of the above will allow the collaborator to develop engagement and voluntarily invest their energy, passion and willingness to carry out their duties in the best way.
The second part in which we must be careful is in
the feedback that we can receive from these new participants in the organization. This is where tools such as
personal surveys are an ally for you, since you have to take advantage of the fact that the new team member comes up with new ideas for them to share before they completely adapt and forget to give us that " fresh vision" of the early days. In addition, people will like to feel that their opinion matters to us and is taken into account.
In addition, it is important to ensure that you monitor their learning period during the first months. For this, we can count on self-assessments, as well as evaluations by their direct managers or closest collaborators. Thus, the employee will have the opportunity to demonstrate how much they know and have learned about the organization, its values, its mission. He will also be able to value their strengths, the role they will play from now on, who their colleagues are, and they will even be able to express what their desire is for the future within the organization.
Having this information will help to better direct the person's focus and efforts, as well as to confirm if we are indeed incorporating the right person into the team.
It is also necessary to emphasize that it is not only important to launch surveys, but the subsequent analysis, which is of great importance to make decisions that allow the human resources areas, a 360º management of human talent and in special retention and development of the same.
All these new tools and strategies, developed and implemented every day by thousands of companies, show us that they are necessary not only to attract the best talent, but also to enjoy it for a long time.
And do you already apply these practices within your company?