Healing Employment - Hiring and Onboarding

Fourth in a Series on "Employment Is Broken"

There are seven critical stages of engagement in the employment process. The fourth and fifth key stages of engagement are HIRING and ONBOARDING.

Once you've succeed at attracting quality applicants, suited and sifted through your applicant pool to select your top candidates, and connected personally and professionally with your finalists, you don't want to inadvertently abort your mission in the offer stage! Further, the manner in which you ONBOARD precious new hires sets the tone for their experience (and longevity) with your company. Planning and ownership of the process will help ensure a successful launch.

In exploring the stages of hiring and onboarding, my company has found that, if done right, these processes are really one fluid motion. Below is a comparison of the hiring and onboarding experience at two difference companies. John is the candidate of choice at Laggard & Co., and Mary is the finalist at Best-In-Class Inc. Whom do you think will start his/her new job feeling the most valued, engaged, and eager to "kick butt" in his/her new position?

Laggard & Co. (John)

John receives a low-ball offer. He feels negotiation is not an option (and it probably isn't), so he accepts it. He will likely continue to job hunt up to and after his start date. There is no contact between Laggard and John before his start date two weeks after his acceptance; he will have lots of paperwork to contend with on his first day.

Day 1: John's computer and phone are not ready for him to use. Induction is done by HR, and he is left alone most of the day to complete new-hire paperwork. John wonders if anyone else knows he's started.

Week 1: By Friday, John's equipment is set up and ready to use.

Best-In-Class Inc. (Mary)

Mary receives a competitive offer and is asked how she feels about it. Some negotiation may take place. Mary's onboarding process begins from the time she accepts the offer. She receives a welcome letter from the company CEO and a link to complete new-hire paperwork online.

Day 1: All equipment and passwords are issued, and induction is done by the Hiring Manager. She is introduced to the team, taken to lunch, and a peer mentor is assigned as her "go-to guy" for questions. Mary feels welcome.

Week 1: Mary and her hiring manager work on 30-, 60- and 90-day goals and schedule follow-up meetings. Research has revealed that the most-valuable activities among best-in-class organizations to make new employees feel engaged are those that demonstrate the organization's preparedness for the new employee's arrival.

From our examples above, John will surely come on-board with the same lack of investment and enthusiasm that he was extended by Laggard & Co. He will likely continue to look for another opportunity and will be receptive to other opportunities that come his way. Laggard displayed a clear lack of ownership of the hiring and onboarding process and poor understanding of its impact on retention. In contrast, Mary will come on-board feeling valued and invested with her new employer. Her focus will be on her work, and her success will be reflected back to Best-In-Class Inc.

Stay tuned for the final installment in our series where we'll explore the concluding two critical stages of employment: RETENTION and DEVELOPMENT.


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Kim Shepherd is the CEO of Decision Toolbox (http://www.dtoolbox.com), a national recruitment process outsourcing firm. She is the author of the newly released book, The Bite Me School of Management: Taking a Bite out of Conventional Business Thinking. The book takes a large bite out of typical corporate culture. The lessons, funny and concise bite-sized servings, can be applied to all industries.