The Importance of Onboarding New Staff
The new university lecturer arrived at work early on Monday morning and sat in the reception. He was not sure what was going to happen. Fortunately, the university had an established onboarding procedure. Precisely at 9 am a person from HR greeted him and said that they would assist with his ‘onboarding’. The new hire had not heard this term before but presumed that it would be something to do with his induction to the university - his new employer. So, he said, “Sorry, I am not familiar with the term ‘onboarding’, can you explain it to me please?”
What Is Onboarding?
The HR representative thought about how to explain employee onboarding and why is it important. The response was that the purpose of onboarding is to allow employees to build confidence in their new role during their first few weeks or months of employment. Onboarding may include a variety of elements - such as one-on-one meetings; independent learning; and development modules. The new lecturer thanked the HR representative and asked if they could be more specific about the benefits of onboarding.
Benefits of Onboarding
The response was that an effective onboarding process is designed to help new hires feel more valued, better understand their role, and increase their productivity and performance, resulting in increased engagement, and will create –
- Better employee experience;
- Higher employee engagement;
- Better employee retention;
- Stronger company culture;
- Increased productivity;
- Better business outcomes;
- Easier talent attraction.
How not to do it?
The new hire went to his mentor - his former lecturer - and spoke positively about his onboarding process. The older man laughed and reflected on his onboarding process when he worked in commerce after graduation, before becoming an academic. He said his onboarding experience was very basic. He arrived at 8:30 am, but a staff member of this small firm did not collect him until 10:15 am. He was quickly shown the bathrooms and kitchen, given a copy of the company manual and asked to read it. He did so for the first three days. Nobody actually talked to him for three days. On both Thursday and Friday, he was busy doing menial tasks such as photocopying, delivering and collecting documents from various city offices. At the end of his first week, he was not very enthusiastic about staying in the job, considering that he was very highly qualified. As it was, he only stayed three months and went to a new position which was more - people friendly.
How to onboard?
The older professor said that he then did some investigation and found out that more aware organisations use the 4 Cs method of onboarding or a version of it. It is a framework to help an organisation review its onboarding process, with all four onboarding Cs being critical to fully integrating employees into an organisation. He said that they are –
- Compliance: It covers company procedures, policies, rules, and requirements, and informs the new hire about key relevant laws and regulations that they need to follow;
- Clarification: Here supervisors provide additional detail regarding assignments, and employees can ask questions to better understand their role and the company overall;
- Culture: Here company norms, accepted behaviours, and traditions are shared with new employees. This C is often not covered, to the detriment of the new hire relationship;
- Connection: This includes team-building exercises, networking opportunities, icebreakers, and other bonding endeavours. Connection is crucial to helping teams break down walls and get to know one another. Feeling connected and integrating new members helps teams run smoothly and effectively.
The Inducted Employee
The new hire was so pleased that his employer was ‘enlightened’ and that it sensibly took onboarding seriously. He was pleased that he did not experience what happened to his former lecturer.
Associate Professor Cyril Jankoff is the Associate Dean of Scholarship at UBSS and a member of the GCA Compliance Directorate.
