Finding the Right Fit

HRO Today – October 2018

by Lilith Christiansen

Only 44 percent of employees believe their employer does a good job bringing new talent into the organization. Strategic onboarding seeks to solve that issue by moving beyond automating paperwork. Instead, it delivers a personalized journey that transforms new hires into fully functioning, integrated members of the team. Today’s onboarding approaches should provide clear expectations in terms of behavior and interaction with management, customers, and other employees.

Strategic onboarding is made up of four pillars: cultural mastery, interpersonal network development, early career support, and strategy immersion and direction (see Figure 1). Cultural mastery is a critical component, but one that often gets overlooked. Providing employees with a sense of formal and informal norms and how to thrive within them enables new hires to fit in quickly. New hires need to understand the ins and outs of company culture in honest and authentic ways, or else businesses risk losing them.