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A tight job market, speed of business and demands on employee productivity has greatly increased the value of comprehensive onboarding programs. Providing employees with the tools and information they need to quickly become productive – either as a new employee or in a new position – is vital. It can also be the difference between a motivated employee and one looking at the want ads or worse, an employee that “quits, but stays.”In the first article (http://Our Articles.com/?id=485630) of this series I outlined the traits of best-in-class onboarding programs and discussed the importance of analyzing your current process first before determining solutions. Subsequent articles will outline the components of a best-in-class approach to onboarding encompassing an employee’s entire career.Pre-Hire: You Only Have One Chance to Make a First Impression Onboarding begins prior to offer of employment. This includes the recruiting, interviewing and screening processes and initial communications with potential employees.Surprised? Well, the importance of the pre-hire phase to onboarding is frequently overlooked, but can be a contributing factor to a soon-to-be new employee’s disillusionment with his/her job and company. Think about it, in the pre-hire phase does your company:• Effectively introduce prospective employees to your company culture, values and mission?• Have an up-to-date and coordinated screening process?• Ensure all public company information is up-to-date, including websites, job boards, site locations etc.?• Effectively communicate the exact requirements and duties of the job?• Ensure interviewers have the proper tools, resources and training?• Clearly spell out the hiring process to prospective employees, including time frames?• Handle prospective employee questions and requests for information in a timely manner?• Know who is, ultimately, responsible for managing the pre-hire process?The key is setting expectations with the prospective employee – this is what we are looking for; these will be your responsibilities; this is what we are about as a company. Nobody likes to be a victim of “bait-and-switch.” The same applies to the pre-hire phase.Onboarding War Story – Oops, we didn’t realize that….. Company X, concerned about poor retention rates and slow time-to-productivity from new hires within their sales force asked us to analyze their onboarding process. The company had undergone significant expansion in the past few years necessitating a tripling of its sales team. Like most companies, their pre-hire process was administered by an understaffed Human Resources department. Unlike most companies, however, Company X had invested in their screening process – mapping out “ideal” employee profiles for various sales positions. These profiles were integral to their hiring process.A qualitative and quantitative analysis of their processes, including group interviews with new employees (month three to a year) revealed, among many items, a curious thing. The “ideal” employee profiles were out-of-date. The sales model had fundamentally changed. The job requirements, while not specific enough, were essentially the same – but the personality and characteristics desired to successfully meet those requirements had changed. Compounding the issue, many of the sales managers who originally gave input on the “ideal” candidate profile had either left the company or were now in other positions. Most of the new managers had never seen the candidate profiles, nor realized they existed. Oops.Not surprisingly, in the group interviews, the sales force expressed confusion and frustration with the sales model and management expectations. There were a number of other factors that contributed to Company X’s onboarding woes, but a breakdown in the pre-hire process certainly laid the groundwork for employee unease and frustration.Get It Right the First Time The pre-hire phase is, indeed, a company’s time to make a positive first impression. A disorganized hiring process and improper setting of expectations can lay the foundation for employee disgruntlement and hamper their time to productivity. Remember, 90% of new employees determine whether they will ultimately stay at a company at the six to nine month mark. That clock starts ticking in the pre-hire phase.Next Article: Missed Opportunities – That Hazy Period Between Hire and Start Date
Article Source: http://www.content.onlypunjab.com
Logan Sossman Director, Organizational Communications FutureTech Consulting www.futuretechconsulting.com
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