Feature
Onboarding: It’s a
Personal Experience, Not
a One-Time Event
By Deb Maher, DeVry, Inc.
The Challenge
What it means to “onboard” an employee has changed
dramatically in the last 10 years. Not long ago, onboarding
was synonymous to the day-one orientation — filling out
paperwork, getting a badge or business cards, and having a
first-day lunch. Creative organizations assigned mentors;
had follow-up new-hire lunches, and showed videos or
PowerPoints that gave folks a glimpse into the organization.
My first day at my current organization was 11 12⁄ years
ago. A benefits coordinator gave each of us a stack of
papers. We filled out a new-hire document, an I-9, read
pamphlets on benefits and 401k, and were given a 15-page
document to elect our benefits with a pen and turn it in.
They played a 20-minute video, handed out a paper copy
of the employee handbook and two hours later, turned us
over to our manager. It was not fulfilling.
But now, we all know better. Most organizations realize
how important onboarding is; however, it is rare to have in
place what is needed to be fully impactful. In my view, true
impact comes from thinking of onboarding as an “Experience,” and not an “Event.” What is the difference between
an experience and an event? Think of an amazing experience you have had. Most are not just reserved to that
moment in time. They had precursors, nuances, follow-up,
reminiscing with those who shared the experience or with
whom you would have liked to have shared it. A really
transformational experience becomes a part of you, just as
onboarding becomes a part of you as an employee.
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Imagine a good, workable orientation at an average
organization. Do you see videos and PowerPoints? Do you
see an online component? What about remote employees
too far from a location to have a live orientation? How are
engagement, acclimation and excitement created for
them?
Research has shown that onboarding efforts are still not
taken seriously – it’s an often used buzz word, but without
impact. The “2012 Allied Workforce Mobility Survey:
Onboarding and Retention,” sponsored by Allied Van
Lines, showed that one-third of companies spend $0 on
onboarding. The average annual spend by all companies
surveyed is $99,191 – the spend per employee is about
$67.00!
Serious onboarding focus is critical. Allied’s survey
shows that companies with a specific budget and strategy
for onboarding programs are more likely to:
• Retain their employees;
• Get them to full productivity; and,
• Develop them into corporate leaders/influencers.
So what is a real focus on onboarding? Not just talk,
but a true impactful approach? Forrester’s research on
onboarding is very comprehensive. To me, it begins to hint
that real onboarding is more than a moment in time.
According to Forrester, the onboarding experience is
“the process of acquiring, accommodating, assimilating,
and accelerating new users into a system, culture or
methodology.” This means that onboarding is much more
than an administrative task of collecting paperwork,
getting new employees on the payroll, and organizing an
orientation meeting. Onboarding maximizes the first
months on the job and includes activities such as: consistent communications to employees; automation of logistical details, including formerly manual processes;
understanding the organization’s key work processes;
helping with relationship-building across the organization;
job mentoring as a way to build competencies; and access
to online learning modules and job-specific materials.
I believe that onboarding is an experience, not an event.
It starts before you “acquire” a new hire and follows them
through a “journey” that is experiential and impactful.
How to best achieve this goal is the real opportunity. Organizations must partner with an HRIS vendor to leverage
technology and create an ongoing experience that will
transform how new employees come aboard organizations.
I believe that onboarding is an
experience, not an event.
The Opportunity
Best-in-class onboarding can support critical organizational goals and directly impact the return-on-investment
(ROI), such as:
• Voluntary turnover in first 90 days or first year;
• Faster time to productivity;
• Higher engagement levels by new employees; and,
• Stronger performance by new hires in their first year.
These are not HR goals. These are business objectives
with tangible ROI.
Aberdeen research has demonstrated that organizations
with formalized onboarding processes have significantly
better performance. In their study, a formal onboarding
process created a 60 percent greater year-over-year
improvement in revenue per full-time employee (FTE) and
a 63 percent greater year-over-year improvement in
customer satisfaction than those with an informal or adhoc onboarding process.
Kevin Martin, vice president and principal analyst for
human capital research at Aberdeen Group said, “The
initial experiences of new employees have a direct impact
on the productivity and profitability of an organization.
This is where onboarding becomes a competitive necessity
and helps explain why 58 percent of 466 executives
surveyed for this research indicated onboarding will
increase in importance at their organization this year.”
Leveraging technology in onboarding was absolutely critical for best-in-class results. In fact, 65 percent of best-inclass organizations indicated that their onboarding
process is at least partially automated.
Again, the opportunity here is to really think of
onboarding as an “experience” and not an event. Forget
the first day for a minute. Think of the bigger experience.
Now, break that into parts: “sub-experiences,” if you will.
Preapplication (Branding Subexperience)
Your real experience with an organization starts before
you even apply for a job. It’s the reputation and branding
of an organization. Do you leverage your career site to be a
part of onboarding?
Acceptance to Start Date (Preboarding
Subexperience)
Here’s the magic sweet spot. You’re thrilled. Your
candidate accepted the position and starts in two weeks.
Why is it that often we don’t communicate with that
person again until their first day? Maybe we e-mail them,
but the opportunity that exists in this window is huge, and
often not leveraged to the extent it should be.
Preboarding is the moment of acceptance until the
employee shows up for their first day. The focus here is to:
seal the deal, create excitement, educate, engage, prepare,
acclimate and accelerate, so that the new hire is excited
about their new job. They haven’t started yet and are
Preboarding is the moment of
acceptance until the employee
shows up for their first day.
thinking about the new organization, talking to their
friends about it. Maybe they’re deciding what to wear on
the first day and how early to start the drive in case there
is traffic. They are excited and maybe nervous. They are
eager. It is fertile ground for their minds and hearts to be
impacted.
At my organization, we use our HRIS system, cfactor
Works, to create a robust preboarding experience that can be
a game changer. The moment the recruiter hits the button in
the applicant tracking system to indicate an acceptance of a
job offer, magic happens. How do we do that? Think of it at a
high strategic level and at a tactical level.
Strategically, you must choose what you want to
achieve during this experience. Common choices can be:
• Provide concrete information for them to consume;
• Create excitement and make them feel good about
their decision;
• Immerse them in the culture and values;
• Allow them to “meet” senior leaders and those
relevant to their new roles;
• Acclimate with systems they will need to alleviate
fears and accelerate learning;
• Let them meet other employees online; and,
• Make them feel as though they are already a part of
the team.
Tactically, there are a great number of things that can
be done to achieve these and other goals. They can range
from the mundane, like providing benefits summaries and
comparative tools before their first day so that they are
prepared to make benefits elections; all the way to online
discussion groups, personal profile pages, threaded discussions with other employees in relevant communities and
networking before their first day so they have contacts and
familiar faces when they show up.
Some things I have focused on in the preboarding phase
are to create a robust experience that:
1) Conveys our culture and values;
2) Communicates what to expect; and,
3) Allows you to meet others before you even start.
With those strategic goals chosen, leveraging technology
in an HRIS became simple, engaging and fun. To start, we
ensure that as soon as the new hire accepts the offer, they
are immediately sent an e-mail to their personal e-mail
account that takes them to a preboarding site. The site
mimics the normal HRIS they will work in once they start,
so they are actually already becoming accustomed to the
system they will use every day once on board.
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“experience” creating a greater focus before the first day.
Once employees join the first day, it’s a flurry of decisions,
finding directions, learning your way and getting busy and
productive. A great opportunity exists during those exciting few days before you show up and get too busy to read
anything.
There are tangible results to be gained from great
preboarding. Once preboarding was put in place, we found
that employees were more likely to get involved, fill out a
social networking profile, complete tasks and spend time
learning.
This preboarding site above leverages the cfactor Works HRIS system to provide a
multi-media experience for new hires. A video is projected to welcome the new hire
and targeted letters are based on their specific role.
Our preboarding is a personalized experience, based on
the new hire’s division/branch, role, job and/or location.
The welcome letter you see in the screen shot is from his
or hers specific institution leader. The history and culture
section is specific to their institution, etc. Thus, different
new hires have different experiences based on their location and role. Further, we emphasize our values by having
our current employees welcome new hires to our organization and tell them about each topic. Effective preboarding
for my organization.
• Tells new hires what to expect during their first year;
• Allows them to learn about the organization, branch,
leader and location;
• Provides answers to common questions;
• Helps them create a personal profile and join online
work communities so that they meet others and get
connected before they even start; and,
• Creates excitement and interactive experiences with
videos and multimedia.
Note how the preboarding site is focused on employees. One way to convey your
culture and values in preboarding is to focus on what is important at your organization. Here, current employees introduce topics, bringing to life what could be dry
information on benefits elections, leadership bios, and the history of the organization.
Best-in-class preboarding can transform how new
employees join an organization because it enlarges the
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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2012 • Workforce Solutions Review • www.ihrim.org
w/o Preboarding
and Onboarding
With Preboarding
and Onboarding
Profile Started
and in Progress
39 percent
64 percent
New Hire Tasks
Completed
84
percent
percent
w/o
Preboarding 93With
Preboarding
and Onboarding and Onboarding
Profile Started
39 percent
64 percent
Providing
a preboarding experience is instrumental in
and
in Progress
getting
employees
fully involved and ready for their first
Preboarding
Experience
New Hire Tasks
84 percent
93 percent
day. If given the option to access a preboarding site, most
Completed
74
percent
of
all
new
employees
go
to
the
employees will fully utilize it if it is robust preboarding
and provides
site before their first day
value for them.
Those employees spend an average of 71 minutes
becoming acclimated and getting information they need
Preboarding Experience
74 percent of all new employees go to the preboarding
site before their first day
New Hire Hub
Those employees spend an average of 71 minutes
66
percent acclimated
of employees
access
theinformation
new hire hub
becoming
and
getting
they need
A new employee goes to the new hire hub for
information an average of six times
Day
One (Orientation
22 percent
of employees Subexperience)
go to the new hire community
New Hire Hub
(social
networking)
So, now
it’s the first day. Your employees are ready.
66
percent
of employees
new hire
hub
They know what
to expect.access
They’vethe
learned
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feel good
A new employee
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to thethe
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hire hub forthey have
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andan
theaverage
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information
of sixlevels
timesthey have already
achieved.
Day
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the focus
22 percent of employees go to the new
hireTake
community
off
paperwork
and
benefits
elections.
Put
the
focus
on
(social networking)
teamwork, culture and a great first day. The goal then is to
have every employee leave at the end of the day and tell
someone how great their first day was.
Remember, technology can help you here too. While
this could be an entire article by itself, technology can
create a more interactive experience, and also ensure that
there is consistency of experience, even in a geographically
dispersed situation where there is no senior leader or HR
person physically present.
The First Year (Onboarding Subexperience)
The entire first year is a “subexperience” of its own,
with many parts. How you break those into parts depends
upon your organization, learning curve and expectations.
Regardless, Forrester onboarding research shows that
effective onboarding takes six to nine months. For some
organizations, it may be longer.
Unfortunately, too often onboarding programs focus on
processes. Certainly, there are processes to automate –
taxes, direct deposit, address, emergency contacts, benefits
enrollment, 401(k) information and much more. Of
course, you should automate these things and leverage an
HRIS to handle reminders and notification and to populate data from one system into all systems without duplicate data entry. To me, those are a given – the price of
entry. The opportunity in onboarding is how we leverage
our HRIS to focus on the employee, not the process.
w/o Preboarding
and Onboarding
With Preboarding
and Onboarding
Profile Started
and in Progress
39 percent
64 percent
New Hire Tasks
Completed
84 percent
93 percent
This “New Hire Path” in our system demonstrates one way that an organization can
use visuals to help employees see where they are and what resources they will
need. The material is engaging and interactive.
Preboarding Experience
single
place
in the HRgo
system
new-hire
74Having
percenta of
all new
employees
to the(apreboarding
hub)
to
support
just
the
needs
of
new
employees
is imporsite before their first day
tant. We have an avatar move along a path as the
Those employees
spend
an tenure.
averageSocial
of 71networking
minutes
employee
progresses
in their
becoming acclimated and getting information they need
and targeted, specific tools are available to the new
employees, and they use them frequently.
This screen grab of our HRIS system shows a New Hire Hub. Multi-media greets you
immediately. Personalized views allow you to find your own senior leader and HR
contact, along with their bios and contact information.
A focus on the employee is very different in how it looks
and feels than onboarding that focuses solely on a process.
Employee-focused onboarding is personalized, presenting
information based on role and location. Best-in-class,
employee-focused onboarding includes:
• A special hub just for new hires;
• A visualized path for new hires where an avatar automatically moves down the path based on tenure
known in the HRIS;
• Targeted resources and information based on where
the employee is on the path for the first year;
• Tools to help new employees, like “find a colleague” to
allow an employee to put a face to a name;
• Formal and informal ways to find and connect with
mentors and create a personal network;
• Interactive ways to meet others and hear from senior
leaders; and,
• Specialized social networking communities to chat
with other new employees.
New Hire Hub
66 percent of employees access the new hire hub
A new employee goes to the new hire hub for
information an average of six times
22 percent of employees go to the new hire community
(social networking)
What else can you do with an Experience View?
Once you think of things as ongoing experiences for
your employees, a whole different set of inter-relationships
become evident that were previously hidden by a silo view.
Activities are not one-time events. Take employee engagement, for example. You may survey your employees once a
year, maybe more often, maybe less often.
How does an experience view change that? With a
broader view, we are going to be using our HRIS to look at
the entire experience with “employee life-cycle surveys.”
We will survey our employees during preboarding, during
the first month of onboarding, and again at exit interviews. We will track engagement questions throughout
these phases of the employee life cycle to allow a more
holistic view of the employee experience and to track
www.ihrim.org • Workforce Solutions Review • OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2012
17
when/why engagement increases or is negatively
impacted. We maintain personal confidentiality, but can
track overall trends throughout the many experiences the
employee has. Again, this is only possible because of the
focus on the employee experience and not siloed events.
When you broaden your view to the perspective of the
employee, all of these things become possible – and so
much more.
References
2012 Allied Workforce Mobility Survey, Onboarding
and Retention, March 2012, 500 HR respondents,
www.alliedHRIQ.com.
Claire Schooley, Paul D. Hamerman and Ralph Vitti,
Case Study: First Horizon National’s 90-Day Onboarding
Program Benefits The Company, Forrester Research, Inc.,
April 23, 2010.
Kevin Martin & Justin Bourke, Aberdeen: Onboarding:
The First Line of Engagement, February 2010.
About the Author
As the senior director of HRIS and Shared
Services at DeVry Inc., Deb Maher oversees
process re-engineering for operational efficiencies, all elements and modules of HR technology solutions, and the interfaces between each
of the systems. She has implemented an HRIS, learning
management system, applicant tracking system and
compensation modeling system, and much more. In her
tenure at DeVry, she has served as the director of Human
Resources, the organization's ethics officer, and is a senior
faculty member at DeVry University's Keller Graduate
School of Management, where she has taught Employment
Law, Legal, Political and Ethical Dimensions of Business
and Strategic Staffing. She holds her J.D. from Northwestern School of Law and her B.A., magna cum laude, from
The American University in Washington, D.C. She has
been admitted to practice law in Virginia, the District of
Columbia, Michigan and Illinois. Prior to joining DeVry
more than 11 years ago, she was a trial and corporate and
employment lawyer for almost a decade. She can be
reached at dmaher@devry.com.
Once you think of things as ongoing experiences for your employees,
a whole different set of inter-relationships become evident that
were previously hidden by a silo view.
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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2012 • Workforce Solutions Review • www.ihrim.org