Human Resources: On-boarding - Term Paper Example

 Onboarding (Human Resources) Abstract In recent years, onboarding has become one of the fastest growing buzz words in the corporate world, and its definition has grown along with its popularity. The term has come to include everything from getting the office keys to onboarding coaching. This paper examines the current trends in onboarding practices, components of onboarding processes, differences between onboarding and traditional orientation programs, effective onboarding, failures in onboarding, recommended practices, and the return on the investment of an effective onboarding program. Introduction Onboarding is a relatively new term used extensively nowadays by organizations in the human resources (HR) department. Generally speaking it is a process of making the employee custom made for the organization in order to derive the maximum out of the employee. It is a process of making or helping the employee to get "on board."  The main goals of onboarding are to make new employees feel comfortable in their new surroundings and also to reduce the time period needed for the employee to attain his maximum productivity. Oboarding can be well defined in five words; Aligning, acquiring, accommodating, assimilating and accelerating. Align: Make sure your organization agrees on the need for a new team member and the delineation of the role you seek to fill. Acquire: Identify, recruit, select and get people to join the team. Accommodate: Give new team members the tools they need to do work. Assimilate: Help them join with others so they can do work together. Accelerate: Help them (and their team), deliver better results faster. (Onboarding) Current trends in onboarding practices “Newcomers Need to Adjust to the New Organization in Six Key Areas; Performance, Proficiency, People, Politics, Language, Organizational Vision, Values, and History” (Dai & De Meuse) The performance expected from the employee must be made well aware to him by the organization and onboarding is the better way to accomplish this goal. The organization culture, the duties and responsibilities assigned to the employee, the past, present company history and the future goals of the company will be explained to the employee during this period. The employee needs to understand the company language and the politics inside and outside the organization in order to prepare himself for his mission. Onboarding is a two stage process; the first few days assessment’ and the employee's first few months training. First few days assessment’ focuses on the employee’s previous experiences and skill sets. During the period of ‘the first few days assessment’ the parameters like the effective hand-off from recruiter to manager, access to the equipment they need, smooth payroll process, security, orientation, etc will be focussed and then focuses on the employee's first few months, aiming to integrate them into the organization, making them feel part of the team and part of its success as soon as possible. (Comprehensive On-Boarding) The organization and the newly employed employee need to understand each other well before the actual meaningful training process starts. For this purpose the initial phase of onboard training period is designed for the assessment period in which the onboard trainers will decide up on the requirements of the employee’s onboard training based on his academic history, work experience and skill sets. After the realization of the employee’s requirements, the second stage of vigorous training will start. During this period the employee will be trained to become the part of the organization. Moreover the employee will be made aware of his future career prospects with the company Components of onboarding processes The high-level objectives of a good onboarding program include: Helping the employee to identify with their new employer. Allowing the employee to understand some of the company's values and priorities. Building an optimistic attitude towards the company. Avoiding misunderstandings. Helping the employee feel valued. Encouraging socialization and creating a sense of belonging. Reducing new employee anxiety. Setting of performance expectations. Decreasing the learning curve. (Employee Onboarding) The proper identification of employee and the employer is essential for retaining the employee in the organization. In some cases the employee may be victimized by rumors about the organization, spread by the competitors and he may no longer continue in the organization. On the other hand the employer also needs a better understanding about the employee in order to assign him important assignments. Moreover the onboarding program will provide proper knowledge to the employee about the company’s ethical, environmental and social standards. This training process will also help in strengthening the bond between the employer and the employee by avoiding misunderstanding between them. Onboarding is also intended to make the employee aware of his importance to the organization, setting his targets, and also to reduce the anxiety levels regarding his responsibilities. Differences between onboarding and traditional orientation programs Traditional training programs are designed generally for a group of newly appointed employees. Most of the organizations will not concentrate on individual aspects of the employee while giving training to them using the traditional methods. But onboard training is custom made for each and every employee. Organizations have nowadays understood that no two individuals are alike and their attitudes, culture and skill sets, all will be different. Traditional training may start only after the recruitment of employees whereas onboarding starts even before the recruitment takes place based on the information gathered during the hiring process. Traditional training process may not segregate between the internal employees and the newly employed ones. But onboarding will treat both internal and external employees separately since the internal employees already have some views about the organization while the external ones may not have any idea about the organization. Effective onboarding “A good onboarding program must address; Company / Departmental Overviews, Job expectations, Policies and Procedures, Administrative and Housekeeping Items” (Employee Onboarding) “The key to successful onboarding are a complete and consistent process, a technology platform with a configurable work flow, and a seamless integration with your organization’s talent management system.” (Taleo research white paper, p.3) Most of the organizations are nowadays providing training for the employees in various other departments of the company apart from the specified department the employee is assigned to work. In a globalized work environment, this is essential since all-rounders are more prominent rather than the specialists as per the modern organizational culture. The onboarding training is usually done in conjunction with modern technologies to integrate the employee into the organizational culture. Failures in onboarding Onboarding may create adverse results if it is failed to implement properly. Trying to cram 20 hours worth of information into four mind-numbing hours of orientation, running a careless orientation program, making the training sessions as dull as possible, or using the “sink or swim approach all may result in failures of onboarding program. (Lee) It is important that the training sessions must be interesting and motivational. Most of the training sessions were just to demonstrate the intelligence and knowledge level of the trainer. If the trainer adopts such an attitude such training sessions may not provide the desired result to the employees. The information must be provided at different times like capsules in order to make the employee fully understandable, what the trainer is intended to say. The trainer must make his training sessions as interesting as possible to motivate the trainees. Also the trainer should never threaten the trainees about the safety or guarantee of their jobs. Sink or swim attitude from the employer always serve as the sword of Damocles to the employees and hence they will never concentrate on their work out of the fear of losing the job. Recommended practices “A web-based employee onboarding system will let you standardize, streamline, track, and coordinate every step of the process, all while making your company’s most recent hires feel valued and supported.” (Platz) The usage of internet and computer technologies can be a good practice for onboarding. The employees can make use of the internet if all the information regarding the training is posted on the web and providing them a customized link. The usage of internet and customized link will be equally useful to the organizations and the employees since the organizations can utilize custom made training procedures for each employee through the customized link provided to them. In a classroom it is difficult for the trainer to focus all individually. On the other hand through internet he can formulate training strategies for each trainees based on their requirements. Return on the investment of an effective onboarding program Research at Corning Glass Works revealed that employees who attended a structured orientation program were 69% more likely to remain with the company after three years than those who did not go through such a program. Another study conducted at Texas Instruments showed that employees whose orientation process was carefully attended to reached “full productivity” two months earlier than those whose orientation process was not. More recently, Hunter Douglas found that by upgrading their onboarding process, they were able to reduce their turnover from a staggering 70% at six months, to 16%. These changes also translated into improved attendance, increased productivity, and — not surprisingly — a reduction in their damaged-goods rate (Lee) Onboarding can help the employee to attain his maximum productivity within a short time period. Proper awareness about the employer will force the employee to continue for a longer period with the organization. Conclusions Onboarding is the latest trend in HR. Instead of the conventional general training system, onboarding focuses on specific training to each employee. Onboarding will help the employee to attain his maximum productivity within a short time period. Onboarding is intended to make both the employer and the employee well aware of each other which is necessary for the smooth functioning of the company. Works Cited 1. Employee Onboarding,2007, Retrieved on May 5, 2009 from http://www.money-zine.com/Career-Development/Finding-a-Job/Employee-Onboarding/ 2. Platz Brian, Employee Onboarding: One Chance for a Positive New Employee Experience, Retrieved on May 5, 2009 from http://humanresources.about.com/od/orientation/a/onboarding_2.htm 3. Lee David, 2005, How to Avoid the Four Deadliest Onboarding Mistakes, Retrieved on May 5, 2009 from http://www.ere.net/2005/11/22/how-to-avoid-the-four-deadliest-onboarding-mistakes/ 4. Comprehensive On-Boarding, 2009, Retrieved on May 5, 2009 from http://www.humancapitalinstitute.org/hci/tracks_comprehensive_onboarding.guid 5. Onboarding, Retrieved on May 5, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onboarding 6. Dai Guangrong & De Meuse Kenneth P. , 2007, A Review Of Onboarding Research, Retrieved on May 5, 2009 from http://www.kornferryinstitute.com/files/pdf1/Review_OnboardingLiterature.pdf 7. Taleo research white paper, Onboarding: Speeding The Way To Productivity, Retrieved on May 5, 2009 from http://www.taleoconnection.com/pdf/WP_Onboarding_SpeedingTheWay.pdf Read More