Michael Moretti

Sr. Staffing Analyst

HR.com

mmoretti@hr.com

Best Practices in Onboardingand Employee Orientation

�Introduction�Definition of Onboarding & Orientation�Case Study �Designing the Process�Mechanics of the Process�The Return on Investment�Top Ten Objectives�Summary & Wrap-up�Q&A

We will go through an introduction and a definition of onboarding and orientation. We

will take a brief look at a case study on actual onboarding itself and designing the

process, the mechanics of the process, the return on the investment, some of the

objectives that you should consider when you are looking at an onboarding and

orientation program as well as a summary and a wrap-up. So before we get started,

looking through some research on onboarding and orientation, I found something that

might be interesting.

How many of you have been through an orientation or an internship or an introduction to

a company that included this kind of a conversation – "You pay me for the privilege of

working here." Not the kind of introduction you want to give a new employee. Especially

in this day and age when they are being that much more discriminate about where they

decide to work.

In January 2003 a survey of 5643 workers conducted in the U.K. found that 4% of new hires had such a disastrous first day that they never went back.

-Reed Executive

Consider:�How fast do your new employees become key contributors?

�Does your organization proactively build relationships with newly hired top talent?

�What distinction does your organization make between on boarding and orientation of new hires?

We looked at a number of different surveys and studies. One interesting study that we

found was done by Reed Executive back in 2003. Of 5,643 workers who were surveyed,

4% of new hires had such a disastrous first day that they never went back. For those of

you who follow our Thought Leader Series, we recently had a conversation with

Coleman Peterson, who used to be the Global VP of Human Resources for Wal-mart.

When we started talking to Coleman about some of the orientation that they had put

Wal-mart employees through, they found out that when people first come through the

door, one of the first issues that they assess is what kind of environment people are

looking to work in. They did a study when they realized that a large chunk of their

turnover was actually due to the fact that 60% of the people who left in the first year left

within the first 90 days, which speaks directly to an onboarding and orientation program.

So, they set up an exercise where they gave each of their personnel managers a stack

of yellow sticky notes and they were asked to write down each orientation function that

they have introduced during the process. While they were doing this, they placed those

sticky notes at which step during the orientation process they actually introduced this

information to new hires. They found that the majority of the information that they were

feeding new hires came at them in the first 90 days. Within that, 95% was in the first

week, so if you can imagine the information overload within the first week of working at a

place like Wal-mart, it would certainly turn people off an employment situation. They

realized that they had to spread out the orientation and onboarding program over a

period of weeks, and follow up with an orientation program that led them over a course

of a couple of months. They dramatically reduced the amount of turnover within the first

90 days. In many instances that exercise was very much credited with allowing Wal-mart

to grow to the point where they are now, where they can actually keep their new

associates on board for longer than the 90-day period. In fact, they have a lesser

number in actual turnover, so when we speak about volume of people who leave within

the first 90 days, Wal-mart is a great example of the kind of information that can get

loaded on to somebody in the first week.

Consider how fast your new employees become contributors. How does your organization

proactively build relationships with newly hired top talent? If you are dumping information on

their lap within the first week and then basically ignoring them for the rest of the first three

months that they are there, what kind of impression does that leave? What distinction does your

organization make between onboarding and orientation of new hires? Is there a differentiation in

your environment?

Definition of OnboardingOnboarding is the process that starts with the first contact of a potential new hire - building and establishing engagement earlier in the employment stage and continuing after the traditional orientation program ends.

When we talk about actual onboarding, we are talking about the step right from the pre-

offer stage through to the offer stage, and we will look at that shortly.

Definition of OrientationThe Orientation program is a part of or one stage of the more comprehensive on boarding process.

The is the stage designed to educate new hires about your company and more specifically about their job functions. These programs need to be consistently applied to all new employees and are usually spread out over a number of days.

There are actually programs in place that need to be consistently applied to all new

employees and they are usually spread out over a number of days, over the course of

three months with follow-up and so on. It is important to make sure that that kind of

information is disseminated over a period of time and not just lumped on people’s desks

as they start with the new company.

In other words, we do not want a situation like the one we see in the graphic here. New

Peon Orientation, hardly the right title. My boss is great. My boss is great. My boss is

great. Not necessarily the kind of message that you want to send to new employees in

their first couple of days or first couple of weeks.

Case Study

� 150,000 employees� 35,000 hires� HR discovered the attrition problem could actually be traced

to employees' very first days on the job. � The result was a renewed respect for the orientation program

that ultimately led to a vast overhaul of the organization's existing program and the development of new tools that would better equip managers to welcome new hires.

Here’s a quick case study. This organization actually was in a pretty precarious situation.

They had 150,000 employees, 35,000 hires. HR discovered the attrition problem could

actually be traced to the employee’s very first few days. So, they actually developed a

new respect for orientation program and it ultimately led to a vast overhaul of the

organization’s existing program and a development of new tools that would better equip

managers to welcome new hires.

� Task force dubbed Strategies and Tactics to Achieve Reduced Turnover (START).

� Task force consisted of 65 to 70 people ranging from directors to managers to hourly workers.

� Within the broader framework, START was divided into approximately a half-dozen subgroups, each charged with examining a different aspect of the employment experience, such as recruitment and hiring, training and development, pay and rewards, rewards and recognition, and orientation.

Strategy

As we look at the strategy here we can see that they actually developed a task force.

They called it Strategies and Tactics to Achieve Reduced Turnover or START, for an

acronym. The task force actually consisted of various groups of people from directors to

managers to hourly workers right across the board and in various departments, so the

task force was just that, people from across the organization that were able to input

specific information about specific departments and their needs when it came to actually

developing an orientation program. Within the broader framework they actually divided it

into about six subgroups, each charged with examining a different aspect of the

employment experience. When we talk about recruiting, hiring, training, development,

pay, rewards, recognition and orientation, we talk about that from various angles within

an organization whether it is production workers, salary workers, somebody in the

marketing department, or accounting department. Each department has its own unique

situation to deal with, so it is important that this task force be spread out over the

organizations. If you are in a smaller company, with perhaps not as many employees,

and you have a Marketing and Sales Department, Finance and so on, it is still important

to have an individual from each one of those groups contribute to this kind of a program

because we want to make sure that it is a unique program for each person, and not just

one broad brushstroke for the entire new employee population because, again, there are

specific needs for specific departments.

Designing the Process

Have you actually designed a process? The above graphic is a little hard to look at in

any sort of great detail, but it gives you a sense about the top stages, the stages of

onboarding in its entirety. Steps 1 through 5 look at the various aspects of the orientation

program and the post orientation, but the first two stages are pre-offer. The actual

extending of the offer itself is something that we will not look at here as we are

examining the orientation and onboarding process. So after job description, performance

matrix, contracts, policy and procedure hand books, videos and mission statements, the

offer is accepted. From the start of the first day, people get things like a password, a

desk and equipment and get introduced to their peers and mentors. They get details on

parking, security issues, and the lay of the land as far as where different departments

are. Once we start that process, we are talking about the orientation program. We will

look at that right through to the actual evaluation process.

Mechanics of the ProcessStage One – “The Pre-Offer”

�Earliest stage in the onboarding process�First impressions are being formed�Make a positive and realistic impact on the employee’s

understanding & expectations of the company� Involve a variety of people in the interview phase�Actively manage candidate’s expectations and communicate

clearly�Give candidates a realistic overview of their role

As we look at the next step of the process here, we look at the mechanics of the

process.

Stage 1: The pre-offer: Is the earlier stage in the onboarding process and the first impressions are

being formed here. Imagine, going through the process with somebody talking about a specific

salary amount and actually getting to the point where you are starting to think about making an

offer to this person. Making sure that those discussions are healthy and productive and not

confrontational, obviously is very important, but also ensure that you are as informative as

possible about every possible aspect of employment - whether it be compensation, the actual

structure itself, benefits and so on. Those kinds of conversations are very important, especially in

today’s marketplace where it is that much more competitive, and candidates are really taking their

time to investigate and educate themselves on the companies that they plan on working for. It is

not as simple as making someone an offer any more. Making a positive and realistic impact on

the employee’s understanding and expectations of the company are so important. You certainly

do not want to be in a situation where you over promise and under deliver because that could just

as easily turn into that hire that does not show up within the first week. It’s important to make

sure those conversations are very clear, concise and to the point. Involve a variety of different

people in the interview phase to make sure that they understand who their peers are, who their

direct supervisors are, who those supervisors reports to and how the infrastructure works within

the organization. Make sure that they get a really good overview of the organization and all of

the intricacies involved in working there. Managing expectations is just as simple as it sounds. If

somebody is coming and expecting to work a 40-hour week, and you know for a fact that the

minimum is a 44- to 48-hour week, have an in-depth conversation about why it is important to

consider a 44-hour work week, and why your company is structured that way. People appreciate

the honesty and do not become disillusioned within the first two weeks of working there. It is

probably the biggest complaint of people who leave employment after the first week or two - they

were oversold on a position. Give candidates a realistic overview of their role. If in fact they are

going to be doing very menial, administrative tasks, explain that to them. If there is a possibility

for the role to evolve past that, explain that to them as well, but do not leave them with

expectations that really it is a minor part of the job, and that they can expect to be doing greater

and bigger things. Eventually people are going to realize that they are stuck in the same situation

that they thought they would be able to get out of after a week or two, and again, disillusionment

with their expectation level is one of the biggest factors for people leaving that early.

If we look at examples of specific documentations and subjects that should be

addressed with the pre-employment package, look at things like equal opportunity

employment standards, WSIB forms or any sort of other legal or benefit forms that may

be pertinent to the position. Issues may include safety clothing, if there is a probationary

period, union memberships, all sorts of contracts and perhaps initiations that they have

to go through. Let them know if there is a news bulletin board that provides them with

up-to-date information or what is going on in the organization or with their position. Job

posting locations, if it is a retail environment, may provide an opportunity to work in three

or four different stores within a region. Make sure that they are aware of that. Holidays

and vacations is pretty much standard but again is often an issue that people cite as a

reason for leaving because the information was miscommunicated. Let them know if

there is any sort of training around safety or first aid that they have to go through.

Discuss the attendance situation and proper reporting on attendance. In many instances

people are not aware of exactly what they have to do when it comes time to actually

reporting extra hours worked or projects that were worked on and so on. Important

telephone numbers, internal and external, should be shared to make sure that they are

able to communicate within the organizations effectively. Things like cafeteria, dining

facilities, parking facilities, you can read through the list. It goes on and on and on. All

of these things are very important parts of the process so that people understand exactly

the kind of situation that they are getting involved in. This by no means is meant to be a

completely comprehensive list, but it gives you an idea as to how detail oriented you

should be when you are providing this level of information.

Stage Two – “Extending the Offer”

�Provide detailed and relevant company information to candidate�Customize the new employee package to the specific job family – should include information on benefits, insurance policies, practices, job description of the role and an employeehandbook�Provide a site tour to show where they will work and introduce them to their new colleagues

Stage 2 is explaining the offer - providing detail and relevant company information to the

candidate. You know if your company is about to go public, if your company is about to

get de-listed, if the company is in some sort of a financial situation. They need a detailed

explanation as to why the situation is the way it is as opposed to hearing it second hand.

There is nothing worse than being told that the company is in great financial shape and

then all of a sudden through the grapevine you hear that the company is losing money or

is about to be sold. Be honest with people. They understand that the situation is the way

it is. They can make an educated decision as to whether or not to start as opposed to

going through the offer stage, having them show up for the first day or two never to be

seen again. It actually ends up costing you more in the long run.

New employee packages are also very important – and being able to customize new

employee packages to specific job family, and by job family. Perhaps if you are pay

grade or above, your benefits change because you are entitled to a better package.

Whether or not that is the case with the organizations or not is something that somebody

should know. All the little details are still vitally important to make sure that people get a

sense as to what the culture is of the organization. Of course, job descriptions and the

role of an employee should be clearly defined in a version of a handbook that is tailored

to a specific role and a specific function. Also important is the site tour, so that they will

understand where they are working within relation to other departments, or other people

in the organizations, what their workstations may be like, and what their office

environment may be like. They like to understand that there is a certain culture within

the organization and a certain protocol that is involved in actually working in an

environment and being able to interact with their colleagues. Some people are very

much all about open door policies and being able to mingle and have a conversation at

the water cooler. Some companies are very strict about those sorts of things and people

need to know the kind of environment that they are stepping into. Again, make sure that

nothing is left to chance, so that everybody understands exactly what they are stepping

into.

Stage Three – “The First Day”

�Take advantage of a new employee’s enthusiasm

�Ensure they leave at the end of the first day, week and month with the same level of enthusiasm

�DO NOT cram too much information into the first day

�Introduce the new employee into the company and their role e.g. plan an informal breakfast or lunch meeting to welcome the new candidate by existing staff

Stage 3 is the first day. Take advantage of a new employee’s enthusiasm. They are

never going to be any more excited about their new job than they are on the first day or

so. Make sure that you take full advantage of all of that enthusiasm and participate in as

many lively conversations with them as you can to make sure that they feel comfortable,

and believe that this is in fact the right place for them to work. That sort of a relationship

building process can carry you a long way, especially if there are issues that come up

within the first week. Ensure that they leave at the end of the first day, week, and month

with the same level of enthusiasm. Again, many people get dumped on within the first

day or two or week or two weeks within the organizations and then basically get

forgotten. You need to make sure that when we introduce people to a new organization

that we keep the momentum going within the first 30 to 60 to 90 days. If they lose any of

that enthusiasm, and start to sour on the situation they are in that is when turnover really

starts to rapidly increase.

Do not cram too much information into the first day, especially. There is nothing worse

than having information overload and your head buzzing and not knowing which way is

up by the time you are done your first day. The amount of retention that actually

happens within the first day is limited to begin with because of the excitement involved in

a new environment, so be sure that you spread that kind of information out over the

course of a week or two instead of jamming it all into one session.

You can also accomplish this if you are a one-person shop. Develop a multi-department

team of people that can actually work on this process over the course of the first week or

two, so that it is not all one person’s responsibility. If you have a number of people in a

department who are responsible for this step in the process, you can take turns or build

out a schedule so that you are alternating every other hire or every other day. This

allows you to continually build on that enthusiasm that developed over the first day or so

and maintain that over a month. Retention levels actually shoot up when you can get

past that 30- to 60-day process of introducing somebody to a new employer. Introduce

the new employee into the company and their role in a form of breakfast or a lunch

meeting of some sort. This gives them a chance to meet a number of different people in

the organization. Sometimes, the actual person responsible for the orientation may not

click with them for whatever reason. Give them an opportunity to click with more than

one person, so that they do not get turned off with the organization simply because they

have been turned off by one person. The more people that you can expose new

employees to the better off you are.

Stage Four - “The Orientation Program”

� Structure a comprehensive tour� Educate attendees about your company� Provide a well designed series of learning modules Divide

the orientation program into 2 sections:� Organization - Everyone� Elements of the job – Specific to the role

� Solidify organizational goals and familiarize new employees with company terms

Stage 4 is the actual orientation program. Structure a comprehensive tour, and by this

we do not just mean the lunch room and perhaps the office space, but whether there are

other facilities, satellite offices, other locations, or whether it is a regional or global

company. Give somebody the lay of the land so that they understand exactly the scope

of the organization as a whole and not just the components. Educate the attendees

about your company. Have a number of different people from a number of different

departments educate them about the history of the company, the financial performance

of the company, the marketing initiatives of the company - perhaps explaining a new

product, or explain a new R&D development that is going to eventually bring your

company into a new light within the verticals that they serve. Perhaps there is a new

initiative by your organization that is about to be introduced to the market that is really

going to change the way the company is perceived in the marketplace.

Provide a well-designed series of learning modules. The orientation program is very

important in two phases. The first one is based on the organization. The second one is

really getting down into the nitty-gritty elements of the job. It is one thing to understand

where somebody sits within an organization and how they contribute to the bottom line,

but to really understand the overall responsibilities and not just basic understanding of

their job description is very important. As they move through their learning curve, they

find that there are obviously different aspects of the job. If they are made aware of the

overall responsibilities, nothing comes as a surprise to them and they are ready for

whatever comes their way. Really solidify organizational goals and familiarize new

employees with company terms, so that there is no mistaking what certain terminology

is. Unfortunately, we have evolved ourselves into an economy that lives in buzz words

and every single company out there has a marketing department that has come up with

a new way to describe the same thing over and over again. Sometimes the language

can throw people off when you are really talking about widget, but you call it gadget, and

it can be as simple as that. People need to understand your terminology, need to

understand exactly what language you are using and sometimes it is just a matter of

having a conversation in simple English about the actual terminology means, to have

them familiarize themselves and feel comfortable with exactly how your company

describes what you do best.

Stage Four Continued - “The Orientation Program” – The Organization

Comprehensive Tour might include:1. Company Vision2. Introduction to the Structure, Executive Team and Key

Personnel3. Company Approach to the Market4. Client Success stories and project highlights5. Marketplace trends6. Human Resources policies, procedures7. Training and Development8. Functional Responsibilities

As you move through the stage 4 orientation program, we also see that there are various

other components that you can include in a comprehensive tour. One may be a

discussion with the senior level management or senior management in the organization

to discuss the company’s vision, where they are and where they are going - the

introduction to the structure, the actual executive team, the key personnel, who reports

to whom and how that all fits into how their responsibilities actually interact with each

other.

The company approach to the market. Very different companies have very different

approaches to different marketplaces. McDonald’s and Burger King and various other

companies may all sell the same sort of products, but all take very different approaches.

Discuss how your company approaches the markets that you serve, why you serve the

markets and why the messaging is the way it is. It’s very important for people to

understand the overall culture and the vision of the company to be able to fit in properly.

Client success stories and project highlights - if there are specific examples that you can

provide to new employees on how perhaps other people in their current position or future

position have actually contributed to the overall well-being of the organizations, it really

gives them a chance to feel good about the opportunity that they are taking on and

perhaps we will consider ways that they can also contribute in bigger and better ways to

the organization. It is always important to make sure that they understand that the clients

that you have are actually happy with the products or services that you are providing as

well. It always gives people a great sense of accomplishment to know that their product

and services are being appreciated and they are working for a company that is well

regarded within the marketplace.

Discuss trends. Perhaps there are trends that are going to affect the way that your

company does business. Perhaps there is a change in the oil prices – that will affect how

people view energy services that you are providing, as an example, or perhaps the

change in gas prices has affected the pricing involved in the trucking service industry

that you are in.

Obviously, spending a lot of time on human resources policies and procedures is very

important. Being able to give them a detailed overview of exactly how certain aspects of

the employment process works within your organization is key. Discuss training and

development and how your company approaches that. Whether or not it is an internal

process, an external process, or a combination or blending approach to learning and

training and development is important for people to understand. Perhaps the people

prefer to be in a classroom situation when they are going through training. Others may

actually prefer to be Web-based or online when they go through a training process. It is

always important to make sure that they understand those expectations.

Functional responsibilities - everybody likes to know that they have a very good handle on what

their day-to-day responsibilities are, and that there is no miscommunication so that they are not

stuck in a situation where they are assuming that somebody else is responsible for something that

they actually should be taking responsibility for.

Stage Four Continued - “The Orientation Program” – Specific to the Role

Tour Modules might include: 1. Department responsibilities2. Role responsibilities and accountabilities3. Specific skills required – technologies,

methodologies…etc.4. Specific knowledge required5. Career paths and opportunities

We talked about an orientation program and how it is specific to the role. The actual tour

that we’re talking about - the comprehensive tour - would also include departmental

responsibilities. Which departments are responsible to which departments and within

those departments, what are the role responsibilities and accountabilities? Are there

dotted line responsibilities to departments other than the ones that they are reporting to?

Are there specific skills required, technologies, or methodologies? If you work in the

finance department, how do you build a table within an excel spreadsheet? How does a

product get assembled on an assembly line at an automotive plant? Every single

organization has its own specific technologies and methodologies to actually produce

whatever product or services that they are responsible for. It is important for someone

who has come from the automotive manufacturing environment to understand your

company’s approach to manufacturing as opposed to the company they were at. There

is a very big difference between the way Ford actually assembles a car and the way GM

assemble a car and in the way Toyota assemble a car. So, if you are going from Ford

to GM, it is important to understand the difference between the two company’s

methodologies and how you actually build a car. That is an example of how you should

never assume that because someone is coming into your company with specific industry

knowledge that they necessarily understand all of your methodologies and technologies.

So, really spending time on that is important in so many industries. In some instances,

the biggest turn off for some people - and that is why they leave organizations - is

because it is a very different process to what they are accustomed to.

Any kind of specific knowledge that is required - whether there is specific formula or

tabulation used to calculate a product that you are developing or whether it is the way

that you actually ask somebody to push a broom in a warehouse – must be

communicated to the new employee so they have a better understanding of exactly what

is expected of them on a daily basis.

Career paths and opportunities: If they are going to be stuck in a finance position, doing excel

spreadsheets for the rest of their life may be what some people will be interested in doing. They

may be looking for just that opportunity because that is the kind of approach they take to their

work life. In some instances people may want to know that they can achieve something beyond

what they are doing now within the next three months, six months, a year, two years, five years

whatever the case may be, but making sure that those opportunities are very clearly

communicated and understood is vital to make sure that a comprehensive tour is completed with

the new employee.

Stage Five – “Post Orientation”

�Onboarding process continues�Clearly define and communicate the post-orientation stage�Pay close attention to the new employee and provide

ongoing care, concern and a sense of security�Clearly monitor performance against role expectations�Actively demonstrate commitment to the new hire�Extend this stage until employee’s first year anniversary

Post orientation is actually the continuation of the onboarding process - making sure that

they understand exactly what is involved in this step of the process is important. Pay

close attention to the new employee and provide ongoing care, concern, and sense of

security. In many instances people may start to feel a little insecure because they may

not have zeroed in or keyed in on exactly what they should be responsible for within the

first day or two or week. They need to understand that you are not necessarily going to

cut them loose because they have not figured out how to actually put a price tag on a

product on a shelf in a department store. If that is not the case, make sure that they

understand that. In many instances a lot of the reasons why people leave in the first few

weeks or months of a position is because they feel that they are not being either

adequately retrained or not getting what they need to perform and, for fear of being fired,

would actually quit before the company has the opportunity to fire them. So make sure

that they understand that you are not necessarily going to cut them loose if they are not

figuring out how to pack a widget within the first week.

Clearly monitor performance against role expectations. So, for every single position, you

should have some level of expectations as to when their time to contribute should start

really kicking in and being able to monitor their performance if you have certain

expectations within the month. Do not just walk away and expect to go back in a month

and do a performance appraisal and find that everything is not the way you might have

expected. It is important to follow up after the first, second, third, and fourth week and

so on to make sure people are progressing to a position of responsibility as opposed to

being stuck in a situation.

Make sure that you have extended the stage until the employee’s first year anniversary.

Many people might find it surprising that you need to follow somebody long until their

first year anniversary, but again, if you think about most situations where you are dealing

with turnover in your organization, if they have not left within the first 30, 60 or 90 days,

they are probably going to end up leaving within the first year, if they’re going to leave at

all. You should be able to constantly focus in on a new employee in some shape or form.

Keep a close eye as to what their situation is, how their performance is improving and

whether they are actually growing into their position and are satisfied. What better way to

continually improve your orientation and onboarding process rather than to find out from

somebody within the 30-, 60-, or 90-day period, or the six-month or nine-month period

how things are going. And find out, based on the information that you provided to them

when they first started, what they think of the organization now. How has that opinion

changed? What has changed? Is there anything that has been missing from the

orientation program that you could include based on their suggestions? Perhaps the

onboarding process needs to be a little bit more definitive when it comes to roles and

responsibility. That is the best time to get the feedback within the first year. After the

first year, you probably lost them and you are probably not going to get that kind of

information in return.

The Return on InvestmentConsider:How do you measure your ROI?

$$ Cost Avoidance

$$ Cost Reduction

$$ Increased Revenues

How do you measure ROI? Is it through cost avoidance, cost reduction, and increase in

revenues?

1. Streamlined Cost and Time EfficienciesLarge variable costs associated with implementing onboarding & orientation programs1. Cost of time spent by recruiters and hiring managers

“selling” the company, the vision and future opportunity to candidates

2. Cost of time spent by trainers and managers to be involved in the programs preparing and transferring knowledge

3. Cost of travel, accommodation and meals when new employees meet centrally to engage in this program

Here is a streamlined look at some of the ways that you can actually work on ROI. It is a

pretty simple formula, but there are a couple of things to consider. There are a lot of

variable costs - and some of them are very comprehensive variable costs - that

implementing onboarding and orientation programs can run into. If done efficiently and

effectively with a good deal of forethought, the cost of time spent by recruiters and the

manager selling the company vision and a future is actually time well invested because

you will start to see the return in the reduction of turnover within the first 30, 60, 90 days,

even up to a year.

What is the cost of time spent by trainers and managers to be involved in the programs

preparing and transferring knowledge? Imagine being in a situation where you have

actually developed all of the content up front and can continually improve the

effectiveness of that information, as opposed to reinventing the wheel every time a new

employee starts. The investment of time that you have put into it from the beginning will

eventually start to pay off because you will find that you are spending less and less time

actually looking for ways to provide information and increase your effectiveness when it

comes to retention.

The cost of travel, accommodation and meals for the new employees to meet centrally to

engage in this program is an issue if you are a regional employer and you have multiple

facilities. In many instances, we often get asked, “l have only got one or two employees

starting in this facility, but we have 10 facilities within a 30-mile radius. Are we expected

to have a separate orientation program for each of them?” In many instances companies

will wait a week or two until they have had a number of new hires and do one program

for everyone. Or, you can actually develop various stages of the program that allow

people to step into the process at various locations, so that they get a better sense of the

various locations and what they are all about as opposed to being stuck in one situation.

If that does not accommodate your needs, companies will rent hotel space for a day or

two or a week and centrally locate everybody from disparate locations within a state or a

region, and accomplish the orientation program in that manner.

2. Maximized new employee performance

� Increase quality and effectiveness of the process

�Accelerate an employee’s learning curve

�Reduce the number of days it takes them to become “productive” to equal an average tenured employee

Increased quality and effectiveness of the process, accelerating an employee’s learning

curve: In many instances a new employee’s learning curve will not actually see itself

through to fruition and in many instances these new employees will leave before their

learning curve is actually completely experienced because again, we do not have a

comprehensive program and we are not painting the expectations properly for them.

Allowing them to actually accelerate the learning curve is when you really start to see the

benefits of a program like this.

Reducing the number of days it takes for them to become productive to equal an

average tenured employee: Again, if you are developing a performance chart, you can

typically work out a time line when you can expect somebody to be productive. If they

are meeting those time lines, then you know that you are going in the right direction. If

you are falling short of those a little bit then obviously there are ways that you can

continually improve the process. Go back again and ask people who have been through

the process what is missing, what has not been defined appropriately, and where they

could be learning the position in a more rapid, more effective manner. All of these inputs

of information should be going back into the original onboarding process to again

continually optimize it and develop a continuous improvement process so that at some

point you can determine to almost within days when somebody can become a productive

employee. There are people who have actually accomplished this within days. They can

target say, 35 days, as a time for contribution for a specific skill set of worker and they

are actually meeting those targets and exceeding them in some ways because they

developed a comprehensive orientation program.

For example:

120 The traditional number days to reach the average performer level: - 105 Less ‘new’ number of days to reach the average performer level

--------------------------------------------------------= 15 Equals number of days ‘saved’

(productivity improvement in days)

$150 The average cost of employee for one day (based on $40K/yr)x 15 multiplied by the number of saved days----------------------------------------------------------= $2,250

- $1,000 Less employee onboarding costs----------------------------------------------------------= $1,250

Equals the ROI (125%)

Looking at the example above, if we start at the top, we look at 120 as the traditional

numbers of days to reach an average performer level. So, if we look at subtracting 105,

that is less the new number of days to reach the average performer level, that is a

differentiator of 15 days. In essence, you have saved 15 days as it relates to time to

productivity improvement in actual days itself. If we look at an average base salary of

$40,000 what does that 15 days mean? If somebody is contributing at an average

performer level 15 days sooner because of an effective Onboarding and Orientation

Program and the average cost for the employee for one day based on a $40,000 salary

is $150, you multiply that by the savings of 15 days. That equals $2,250 and minus

$1,000 less employee Onboarding costs, as a general rule, it is roughly that number.

We can look at an ROI here of $1,250 or 125% and that is per one employee for 15

days. One hundred and twenty days is the traditional amount of time that they actually

become an average performer, but if we are going to try and save by performing an

excellent Onboarding and Orientation program here, 15 days after that total number

brings us down to 105; so 120-105=15 days saved. Those 15 days saved equals $150

per day based on a $40,000 salary equals $2,250 - $1,000 that it would cost you for the

Onboarding cost. That is an ROI of $1,250 or 125%.

3. Reduced Turnover�Design the process to

address the needs, concerns and interests of your new top performers

�Bring on new employees in a positive way and keep them happy and motivated

� Internally market and promote company

�Replacing employees is costly

(Based on $40K per year)

There aren’t many solutions out there, including talent management systems, which can

give you an ROI of 125%. This is something to seriously consider when you are talking

about Onboarding orientation: the retention issues, the time to productivity issues - all of

these numbers - no matter which way you slice them this is certainly a worthwhile project

to consider if you don’t have an Onboarding and Orientation program at this point.

ConclusionsA comprehensive, extended onboarding process

is essential to ensuring your new hires become effective – faster.

Recognize the distinction between Onboarding and Orientation.

While talking about really developing a comprehensive extended Onboarding Process, it

is essential to ensure that your new hires become effective that much faster, recognizing

the distinction between Onboarding and Orientation obviously being a key.

Make sure that you maximize the use of technology. There is nothing worse than having

to manage this process manually. Any way that you can actually facilitate this process

will make life that much easier. Thankfully, in the last couple of years, companies like

Recruitmax, Webhire, Virtual Edge, and also a couple of independent organizations like

Direct Personnel, offer orientation and onboarding programs that you can actually

purchase from them separately. Generally speaking, if you are looking at an application

such as a Recruitmax, Virtual Edge or Webhire, the general range is probably anywhere

between about 20% and about 35% of whatever cost you foretell of management system

for the actual onboarding tool itself. Those prices may vary depending on the vendor

situation and how they package the actual module itself, but the good news is that there

is automated help for the onboarding and orientation programs that you are putting out

there. It is not all just manual labor that has to be accomplished to make these things

successful so investigate, look around, find one that is best suited to the way that you

would like to approach the orientation program and typically you will find a vendor that is

able to accommodate whatever program you decide to put in place.

Goals of an effective Onboarding process� Engage new employees in a reinvented process

called onboarding� Engage new employees in comprehensive

orientation programs� Measure value to the organization in terms of:

1. Reduced costs2. Faster productivity3. Return on salary costs4. Increased employee retention

Summary & Wrap-up

The goals of an effective Onboarding process are to engage the new employee in a

reinvented process called Onboarding and make sure that you engage new employees

in a comprehensive orientation program. There is a very distinct difference between

Onboarding and Orientation and measuring the value to the organization in terms of

things like reduced costs, faster productivity, return on salary costs and increased

employee retention.

We did not delve into things like background checks and assessments. Obviously, they

are parts of any hiring process and in many instances things like assessments can go a

long way to make sure that you are effectively assessing the appropriate things that you

need to during an orientation program. You can certainly find out during the Onboarding

process whether or not that is an effective process. Using that information to go back

and reassess things like an assessment program or background check becomes an

integral part of the overall approach to staffing any organization. So if we look at the

overall value there is very little that can provide as good an ROI and certainly it will

impact your company in perhaps many more ways than you first expected when you

developed an orientation program.