Abstract

This report has been prepared on the contemporary HRM issue going on in the corporate
world at present i.e. ONBOARDING. This is a process which organizations use at present to
get their new hires well versed with new organization’s working environment. So, new
employee onboarding is the process organizations use for welcoming a new employee into
their organization. New employee onboarding, often spearheaded by a meeting with the
Human Resources department, generally contains information about safety, the work
environment, the new job description, benefits and eligibility, company culture, company
history, the organization chart and anything else relevant to working in the new company.
Employee onboarding often include an introduction to each department in the company and
training on-the-job. New employee orientation frequently includes spending time doing the
jobs in each department to understand the flow of the product or service through the
organization.

So, in this report detailed information has been provided related to the topic of Onboarding
which includes the concept of onboarding, how an organization can build an onboarding
program, what are the major objectives that an organization wants to achieve through its
employee onboarding, what process is generally followed by organizations for employee
onboarding. Further after this all theoretical information, the focus if the report has been
shifted to the practical life i.e. our Corporate World at present. This report contains
information about onboarding procedures of big corporates like Unilever, Infosys, IBM,
Wipro, HP, Standard Chartered Bank, etc.

Further the report contains my recommendations part. In this, first of all some common
pitfalls have been discussed that most organizations have in their onboarding processes. And
at the end, some suggestions have been given which can help organizations in framing a
flawless onboarding program.

In corporate world, the terms Onboarding, Induction & orientation are used
synonymously so in my report I have used all these terms interchangeably.

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Table of Contents

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Serial Topic Page No. Teacher’s
Number Remarks

1. Objectives of Study 4

2. Introduction to the Topic:

ONBOARDING
 Meaning of Onboarding 5-6
 Definitions of Onboarding 6-7
 Difference between Onboarding 8
and Orientation
 Concept of Onboarding 9-10
 Building and Onboarding Program 10-11
 Example of an Induction Checklist 12-13
 Objectives of Employee 13
Onboarding
 Employee Onboarding Process 14-22
 Best Practices in Employee 22-24
Onboarding Systems
 Induction: A lot more than a 25-28
“Welcome Package”
 Streamlining the Onboarding 29-33
Process
 Does your Onboarding Process 34-38
lead to Employee Engagement or
Buyer’s Remorse

3. Review of Literature 39-46

4. Case Studies
 Effective Onboarding “Reducing 47-51
New Hire time to Competency”
 MWH Case Study 51-53

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 5. Current Scenario
 Unilever 54-55
 Infosys 56-58
 Wipro 58-59
 IBM 60-62
 HP 62-63
 Workway 63-65
 Standard Chartered Bank 66-69

6. Recent Trends
 Efficient Hire 70

 Cornerstone 71-72

7. Research Methodology 73

8. Recommendations
 Common Pitfalls 74-76
 7 things to do on an Employee’s 77-78
First Day
 Practical Suggestions 79

9. References 80-82

Objectives of Study
My first and foremost objective of doing this study was to have a realistic understanding of
this particular topic-ONBOARDING. Reason being I am myself doing a professional course
and in future I want to work in good company and make my career. So, an understanding of
this concept would tell me what organizations expect from their employees in their initial

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days of work. This will help me in framing my capabilities in accordance with the
organizational expectations. Hence, it will act as a facilitator for me to adjust in my work
quickly and much easily also.

Apart from the above, my secondary objectives for this study are:

 To have a clear understanding of the concept of Onboarding which is a contemporary

issue in Human Resource Management and the importance of effective onboarding has
increased to a large extent in recent few years.
 To know about what kind of researches and studies have been done on this HR issue in
recent times and what were the results attained from the analysis of those studies. Every
HR topic is expected to be very rich in literature but this is topic is not so. Not many
researches have been done on this topic yet. So, my motive is to draw maximum results
out of the small amount of literature that was available to me.
 To have an understanding of the actual Onboarding i.e. what actually onboarding means
for a corporate. For this, information about various organizations will be studied in order
to know what is the difference that exists in theoretical onboarding and practical
onboarding i.e. actually used in organizations in present times.
 To have an understanding of the practices that are considered the best for any
organization to do its new employees’ onboarding. This will give an insight into various
recent concepts that have emerged in this HRM issue in recent past.
 And last but not the least, to know about what can be the possible flaws in an
organization’s onboarding program and how the organizations can make their onboarding
program flawless.

Meaning of Onboarding
Onboarding or “on-boarding” is a business management term used for the process of
handling new employees to obtain the best results from them. An organization should be
prepared to handle this specific task. In a generic usage-Onboarding can be defined as the
process of acquiring, accommodating, assimilating and accelerating new users into a system,
culture or methodology. Proponents have described the process as being more than
orientation, and emphasize the importance of making the most of the “honeymoon” stage of a
hire, a period which has been described as being 90 days or 100 days. Rather than delegating

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the job of training the newcomer to a co-worker (called the “Just follow Joe around” method
by one commentator) or having the employee watch a video presentation, or letting the
employee learn on his or her own by trial and error, proponents of onboarding advocate
assigning the process to a person designated as an “onboarding manager”, or a similar title
reflecting specific responsibility for new hires.

Various writers have devised their own system of mnemonics when describing what an
onboarding manager should remember and the sequence in which the methods should be
carried out. One description refers to a four step process of “acquiring, accommodating,
assimilating and accelerating” new hires (and includes a fifth “a”, referring to “aligning”
other members of the management to the need for revising new hiring procedures to include
an onboarding process). Another refers to a four step “a.i.d.e” process of acclimation,
integration, dialogue and expectation management.

Onboarding is a core personnel and management skill. Effective onboarding of new

employees can be one of the most important contributions any hiring managers, direct
supervisor or human resources professional can make to long-term organizational success,
because onboarding done right can improve productivity and employee retention, and build
into complex roles, because it may be difficult for individuals to uncover personal,
organizational and role risks in complicated situations when don’t have formal onboarding
assistance.

The term “onboarding” has also been used to refer to the process where an ambitious new
employee maximizes his or her first months on the job to learning how to become effective
(and thereby to advance within the organization), emphasizing a different set of four “a”s
(“awareness, alignment, accountability and authenticity”), and attracting and keeping clients.

There's a fairly new concept in the talent management world and it's called onboarding
employees.  This idea has been around for quite some time and it used to be known as new
employee orientation.

Now further lets us discuss some definitions of this term Onboarding.

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Definitions of Onboarding/ Induction/
Orientation

 The act or process of inducting or bringing in; introduction; entrance; beginning;

commencement.
 An introduction or introductory scene, as to a play; a preface; a prologue.
 The act or process of reasoning from a part to a whole, from particulars to generals, or
from the individual to the universal; also, the result or inference so reached.
 The introduction of a clergyman into a benefice or of an official into an office, with
appropriate acts or ceremonies; the giving actual possession of an ecclesiastical living
or its temporalities.
 New employee orientation is the process you use for welcoming a new employee into
your organization. New employee orientation, often spearheaded by a meeting with
the Human Resources department, generally contains information about safety, the
work environment, the new job description, benefits and eligibility, company culture,
company history, the organization chart and anything else relevant to working in the
new company.

New employee orientation often includes an introduction to each department in the

company and training on-the-job. New employee orientation frequently includes
spending time doing the jobs in each department to understand the flow of the product
or service through the organization.

 Dr. John Sullivan, head of the Human Resource Management Program at San
Francisco State University, concludes that several elements contribute to a World
Class orientation program. The best new employee orientation:
o Has targeted goals and meets them,
o Makes the first day a celebration,
o Involves family as well as co-workers,
o Makes new hires productive on the first day,
o Is not boring, rushed or ineffective, and
o Uses feedback to continuously improve.

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  Keith Goode explains onboarding in more detail...

“The process includes activities that require communication, collaboration, tracking

and integration in order to prepare an employee for their first day. Specifically,
onboarding calls for the management of documents, information and the resources
needed to efficiently maximize a new employee’s productivity. HR administrators,
hiring managers and of course the new hires, all perform activities and have
responsibilities that impact the initial employer / employee relationship. These
activities often impact compliance, legal or effectiveness; therefore, it is imperative
that they are managed with accuracy.
As we explore the onboarding process in more detail, I believe there are two sides of
the fence that the HR Administrator must balance. On one side, it is the ‘Warm and
Fuzzy’ – the things that make the new hire feel right at home. An example is
providing the new employee with a Web site that provides key documents, which will
increase effective communication. With that, the new hire will be able to enter
personal information and manage his/her own onboarding experience.
On the other side, it is the ‘Down and Dirty’ tasks and mounds of paperwork that
must completed for all the compliance and logistical reasons. Both sides have their
challenges and can incur an exorbitant cost allocation.”

As I have mentioned in the beginning that the terms Onboarding, Induction & Orientation are
used interchangeably in the corporate world but technically there exists some difference
between all these terms. So, it is important to know these differences also.

What is the Difference between Onboarding

and Orientation?
While the terms onboarding and orientation are sometimes used interchangeably, they are
notably different. In some respects, onboarding is an evolution of new hire orientation. Here
are some of the important distinctions between the two:

Difference Number Onboarding Orientation

1. Strategic with an impact on Operational.

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 bottom-line results.
2. Evolving and progressive. Traditional.
3. Ongoing process. An event.
4. Comprehensive and focuses on Administrative in nature and
employee integration, typically involves completing
adaptation to the culture, new hire paperwork and
relationship building, enrolling in benefit plans.
providing ongoing feedback
and ensuring that employees
are positive contributors to the
success of the organization.
5. Delivers information that is Delivers information that is
unique and customized to an common to all new hires, often
individual employee and is in a classroom-style setting.
generally handed out on an as-
needed basis.
6. Used for transferred and Most often limited to new
promoted employees, as well employees.
as new hires.
7. Long-term focus and can last Short-term program, typically
for several years. lasting a day or two.
8. The success of an onboarding Orientation tends to end once
program can take months (or the necessary paperwork is
years) to measure. finished.

Concept of Onboarding
The concept behind employee onboarding is best defined as a systematic and comprehensive
approach to orienting a new employee to help them get "on board."  There are two high-level
goals of the onboarding process:

Making Employees Feel Welcome

Studies conducted by the Corporate Leadership Council indicate that it's important for new
employees to quickly acclimate to their new work environment.  It's also important for these
employees to start building rapport with colleagues so they can begin to assimilate into

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existing workgroups. By doing so, new employees experience a sense of purpose within their
new organization and the transition into this organization is less disruptive.

Minimizing the Learning Curve

From the employer's perspective, onboarding can help minimize the downtime typically
experienced when bringing a new employee into the department.  And by sharing information
such as performance expectations right away their can be a significant reduction in the
amount of misunderstandings which can often lead to frustration and even the premature
departure of a new hire.

K. Mallikarjunan, Retd. Deputy General Manager of UCO Bank, Hyderabad has explained
the concept of employee induction and orientation from a psychological perspective. He says
that as an empty bag cannot stand upright is an old saying, from literal rather than the
figurative point of view, signifies that the bag requires to be filled up adequately to “stand
upright”. The bag, by itself may be very useful in many other ways, but if it has to stand
upright, it has to be packed suitably. A new recruit in a workhouse may, similarly be an
individual having all natural traits, but in order to serve the specific and focussed
requirements of goal-oriented employers, he has to be imbued with the required knowledge,
skills and attitudes in order to match the high expectations of such employers.

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Like the proverbial bag, the employee has to be filled with knowledge, skills and attitudes
which could be imbibed only after a successful and effective initiation into the workplace, so
that he may earn the coveted recognition in the organization. Thus, while conventional
training and developmental programs impart to an employee, the necessary skills and
expertise in his functional responsibilities; induction and orientation programs instil in an
employee, a psychological perspective of the nature and extent of his relationship with his
work environment and the quality of output expected of him. With sharpened and clearer
work objective set before him, the new employee is able to function with greater facility,
resulting in an improved qualitative output. Therefore, induction and orientation of a new
employee is as vital as the formal training and developmental programs for employing
organization.

Building an Onboarding Program

Before we proceed further, it's important to take the goals and objectives of such a program
and create modules of information around each.  This means a good onboarding program
must address:

Company/Departmenta
l Overviews

Administrati-ve
Job Expectati-ons
Housekee-ping Items

Policies and
Procedures

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Company / Departmental Overview

Corporate and departmental overviews generally includes going over items such as the vision
/ mission statement of the company or department along with organization charts and value
statements.  The purpose of these onboarding activities is to give the new hire a feel for the
overall mission of the company and to introduce them to the objectives and goals of their
particular department. This information also helps the employee to better understand how
their department and their role fit in the company's "big picture."

Job Expectations

These are the very specific job expectations of the new employee.  This can include any
training they might have to go through, job descriptions / expectations and the company's
performance management / appraisal process. By clearly explaining to the new employee
exactly what is expected up-front, there will be less confusion later on.  And by introducing
the employee to the new system of performance management, the employee will have a
clearer picture of what it takes to be successful in their new job.

Policies and Procedures

The policies and procedures section can range from items like hostile work environments and
affirmative action policies all the way through employee compensation guidelines.  If the
company has got a fit-for-duty program or a system to resolve complaints, these policies and
procedures should be shared with the employee early on. No doubt this is a lot of information
to go through with the new employee, but that's what onboarding is all about - it's providing
the employee with a foundation of information on which they can build.

Administrative Housekeeping Items

Although these administrative "housekeeping" items might also sound like policies and
procedures, these are generally less formal matters that still need to be reviewed such as
normal work hours, overtime pay, and inclement weather practices.  This section should also
include contact numbers (both at the company) as well as contacts outside the workplace for
the employee.  For example, telephone numbers of relatives in case the employee becomes ill
at work.

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Example of an Induction Checklist

Regardless of whether there is a formal induction programme co-ordinated by HR or a less

formal programme run by managers, it is important to keep a checklist of the areas of
induction training received, ideally countersigned by the individual. This helps to ensure all
employees receive all the information they need. This checklist can be a vital source of
reference later in employment - for example to check an employee has been briefed on
policies, or to produce evidence of training in the event of a health and safety inspection. 

Pre-employment Joining instructions

Proof of the right to work
Conditions of employment
Company literature
Health and safety Emergency exits
First aid facilities
Health and safety policy
Accident reporting
Protective clothing
Specific hazards
Organisation Site map - canteen, first aid post, etc.
Telephone and Computer system
Organisation chart – global and departmental
Company products and services
Security pass
Car park pass
Security procedures
Official Secrets Act
Data Protection Act/ Freedom of Information Act
Terms and Absence/sickness procedure
conditions Working time, including hours, flexi-time, etc
Arrangements for breaks
Holidays/special leave
Probation period
Performance management system

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 Discipline procedure
Grievance procedure
Internet and email policy
Financial Pay - payment date and method
Tax and national insurance
Benefits
Pension/stakeholder pensions
Expenses and expense claims
Training Agree training plan
Training opportunities and in-house courses
Career Management & Personal Development Plan
Culture and values Background
Mission statement
Quality systems and Customer care policy
Employer brand

Objectives of Employee Onboarding

 Helping the employee to identify with their new employer.

 Allowing the employee to understand some of the company's values and priorities.

 Building an optimistic attitude towards the company.

 Avoiding misunderstandings.

 Helping the employee feel valued.

 Encouraging socialization and creating a sense of belonging.

 Setting of performance expectations.

 Reducing new employee anxiety.

 Decreasing the learning curve/minimizing the downtime.

 Removing fears.

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Employee Onboarding Process

Stage 1- The Pre-Offer

Stage 2- Extending the Offer

Stage 3- The First Day

Stage 4- The Orientation Program

Stage 5- Post Orientation

Stage 1- The Pre-Offer:

The pre-offer is the earliest 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 ensures that you are as
informative as possible about every possible aspect of employment - whether it is
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 turning into that
hired 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

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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, the following things need consideration:
 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.

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  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, they 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 2-Extending the Offer:

The next stage is all about 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

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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 3- 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

18
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 4- The 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

19
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.
The organization of Orientation Program- As we 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’s 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.

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Obviously, spending a lot of time on human resources policies and procedures is very
important. 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.
Specific to the Role- We talked about an orientation program and how it is specific to the
role. The actual tour that we are 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.

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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 5-Post Orientation:
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.
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. 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. What better way

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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.

Best Practices in Employee Onboarding

Systems

These best practices have been given by Emerald Software group and these define what an
organization can and should do with an employee onboarding program.

Transactional
Onboarding

Connection Acculturation

Adaptation Ensuring Compliance

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 Transactional Onboarding- Transactional onboarding focuses on automating the
data transactions and processes related to moving the candidate into their new role. 
Data transactions generally include the collection of data from the candidate and the
generation of forms, such as tax and benefits forms, as well as employment policy
acknowledgement forms.  Transactions may also include the data integrations
between other systems, such as talent acquisition and HRMS, or between the
organization and their third party partners such as background testing vendors. 
Basically, transactional onboarding seeks to automate and perfect processes
associated with onboarding, processes that are defined through a combination of the
organization’s business policy, industry best and accepted practices, and by regulatory
bodies.

 Acculturation- Acculturation focuses on making the process of moving the

candidate into their new role as quick and as efficient as possible.  Acculturation is
about making sure the employee understands their new role and organization and
helping them achieve productivity quickly.  Acculturation is about making the
candidate’s transition as smooth and painless as possible.  Acculturating a candidate
(known also as socializing a candidate or more big-brotherly as indoctrinating a
candidate, a term more often heard in Europe) can be achieved in many different
ways.  Some vendors implement acculturation in the form of a new employee portal,
where candidates can access information of interest to newbie’s, though many HR
managers might question the need for another portal in addition to the ESS and
company intranet.  Other vendors implement acculturation through benefits modelling
(helping the candidate wade through their complex benefits package options), and yet
other vendors provide structured training plans (not surprisingly integrated with those
vendor’s learning management systems).

 Ensuring Compliance- It is necessary to ensure compliance of whatever is taught

to employees in the onboarding program. To ensure the compliance, the following
two things should be ensured:
 Completeness of the work done, and
 Accuracy of the work completed.

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 Adaptation- A new employee should be facilitated in adapting to the new working
environment. For this, new employee’s Learning Plan should be developed including
information about Policy Training & Testing; Security Training & Testing like
Physical Security and Network, Internet, & Virtual Security; Job Training; Materials
and Work Items Training; Skills Remediation & Personal Development; Special
Skills Training, such as foreign languages or business protocol.

 Connection- The organization should make the new hire connected with the
organization. For this the following activities can be done:

 Make new employee create personal profile.

 Personal Contact Information

 Education History

 Work History

 Personal Interests & Hobbies

 New employee should encouraged to peruse company personal profiles,

traversing both the official and unofficial company structure, and find
employees of similar background and interests.

 Existing employees should be encouraged to seek out new employees with

matching education and work history and interests.

 Encourage employee to participate in company events.

 Provide message forums and electronic bulletin boards.

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Induction: A lot more than a “Welcome Package”
In normal business operations, induction, as a process of taking new employees into the
organization, assumes great significance both the employee and employer and can be equated
to something where an entity enters into a legal and emotional relationship with some other
entity. The legal aspect of such a relationship between an employee and an employer
generally gets documented and encoded into an employment contract, whereas the
unexplained, largely assumed, emotional and psychological relationship falls under the
purview of a psychological contract. Induction as a process helps the new hires in
understanding and making sense of both, the employment and psychological contract, better.
Everyone knows how vital the employee contract is, to the new hires and to the organization.
The concept of psychological contract deals with the understanding of largely assumed sense
of attitudes, beliefs and expectations of work. Once selected, newcomers actively try to make
evaluative judgments about their employment decision. This could be the make or break
phase for the organization to appeal to their sense of judgment of having made the right
decision in joining the particular organization. The criticality of the induction process lies in
reassuring the new hire about t their decision and creating a bond for a long-lasting
relationship. For many organizations, an induction program generally means an activity, but
induction in true sense should be seen as a journey that begins immediately as soon as a
candidate is selected for a job. In some cases, the journey is not just in terms of half-a-day
induction program, but can even extend upto months during which, the new hires gets to
know and understand the work, in specific and the work environment in general. This
extended induction program, in certain cases, is also referred to as the Socialization Process.
Although some people consider Socialization as a term synonym to Onboarding but there
exists some minor differences in these terms. This has been explained below:

Onboarding Socialization
Formal way of introducing a new employee Informal way of getting to know what needs
to the organization and its way of to be known and how things really work in
functioning. the organization.
Helps organization create a positive Through socialization, the new hire gets to
impression on the new hires and exhibits how know the ‘real’ organization.
the organization would like to be perceived.

Induction and Metaphorical Relationships

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Induction is the first step in building the two-way relationship between an employer and the
employee. Though it is termed as the “honeymoon period” for the new hires, it is actually,
emotionally and psychologically, a difficult period for them as it involves meeting new
colleagues, understanding new processes, being in an unknown environment, and last, but
not the least, learning a new job. On the other hand, if looked at from the organization’s
perspective, it provides the organization with the golden opportunity to create the right
impression in the minds if the new hires which lead to better productivity and ultimately to
better retention ratio. The criticality of this relationship between the employer and the
employee can be explained with the help of metaphorical relationships such as the following:

Mother and Child

Relationship
Head of the Family

Mother and Child Relationship

Human beings need care and attention in their initial days. An employer, like an attentive and
caring mother, should be able to understand and address the apprehensions and anxieties of
the new hires. These apprehensions and the anxieties of being introduced into a new work
environment are similar to the apprehensions and anxieties that a child faces in an unfamiliar
situation or an unfamiliar environment. The ideal response to such situations by the mother is
providing assurance and support. Similarly, the employer should try to create that level of
comfort and provide assurance to the new hires, so that he or she develops self-confidence to
be able to give his or her best in near future, when they start performing. Moreover, it would
also help in creating the emotional bonding researchers and practitioners talk about when
they discuss issues like organizational commitment; concepts that are so vital for the success
of an organization. On the whole, the milieu that is to be created in the initial days should be

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such that the new hires would not regret his or her decision of joining the organization, and
would instead feel proud of the same.

Head of the Family

We always look up to the head of the family with a sense of great respect and pride because
we feel that this person would care for us, protect us in all situations, and would do whatever
is required to safeguard the interest of the family. Similarly, the organization should be able
to portray the same image in the minds of the newcomers, by introducing the head of the
organization as a person who is most competent to lead the organization and cares for the
welfare of the members, during the induction process itself, in order to create a positive
perception about the leading member and also create confidence in his or her ability to take
the organization to greater heights. Such a paternalism projection of the head of the
organization may not be welcomed by many, especially those rooted in the western economic
philosophy and its tenets of individualism.

Effective Induction Strategies

Though organizations can make the best use of the induction process by taking care of some
of the issues discussed above, it would be difficult to suggest a standardized induction
process for all, as the needs and the imperatives of one organization would vary from the
other. Researchers have discussed models of retention in order to help practitioners in their
quest towards making effective use of induction. Some of the models are discussed below:

PO
Buddy
ROPES
ELM
Programs
Fit

PO Fit or Person Organization Fit

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This is one of the critical components which need to be addressed early in the adjustment of
work life of the employees. This means that organization and employees should fit into each
other perfectly. Their interests should be not be colliding with each other. Subsequently,
organizations have started addressing this issue of PO Fit during the selection and induction
phase itself. This has resulted in some visible benefits for many organizations, in terms of
reduced attrition and increased productivity.

ROPES or Realistic Orientation Program

This model highlights the importance of giving information that would create realistic
expectations while also addressing the feelings that a typical newcomer may be having. Since
the new hire has to deal with an unfamiliar environment, coping skills become critical for
successfully handling the few initial days of anxiety and apprehension.

Buddy Programs

To deal with the issues like apprehension and anxiety, many organizations have come up with
‘buddy programs’ where an employee is assigned to the new hire to help him/her cope with
the job and organizational requirements.

ELM or Elaboration Likelihood Model

This model not only focuses on introducing the job to the new hires but also on introducing
their future bosses to them and his/her performance expectations from their current and future
subordinates. Such a directed focus on exposing the new hires to their work and their future
bosses’ performance expectations provide an insight to the new hires about what and what
not to expect at work which helps new hires develop strategies that might prove successful in
managing their work and matching their manager’s expectations well in advance.

Given the variety of induction programs to choose from, there

cannot be “one size fits all” policy for designing and delivering
induction programs. New people are hired at different levels in
different batches and sizes. Induction programs should be able to
work with such organizational realities.

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Streamlining the Onboarding Process:
Improving the Information Flow between
Pre- and Post-hire Systems
Onboarding is undoubtedly a hot topic within the HR industry. Along with the current
emphasis on Onboarding, there is a common language beginning to emerge to describe its
three key components: Forms Management, Tasks Management and Socialization.

Forms management refers to the collection and processing of new employee data. It is often
segmented into several phases such as the completion of common forms prior to start date,
the collection of data based on company-unique requirements, contingency hiring to allow
background checks, and processing post hire data like insurance and benefits requirements.

Task Management is all about getting newly hired employees up to full productivity as
quickly as possible so that they can do the job for which they were hired to do. This includes
setting up computers, phones, email accounts, workstations and coordinating all of these
activities in concert.

Socialization (also known as orientation) has to do with making new employees feel like
they are a part of “the team”. It is about immersion into the corporate culture; learning about
policies and expectations, building relationships and providing feedback to the new employee
on how they are doing.

Accompanying efforts to define and improve “Onboarding” are IT efforts to provide

automated solutions that can better facilitate the multi-faceted processes that surround it.

Automated forms management

A report recently published in ‘Government Executive’ magazine highlights automated forms

management options that are currently available:

 ‘In its simplest form, the agency can provide new employees with links to required
information and forms through the organization’s Web site. Forms can be printed out
and completed before the first day of work.

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  In a more sophisticated model, new employees fill out the forms on the agency’s
intranet and submit them electronically, reducing the need for physical paperwork.
 At the highest level, information provided during the hiring process (name, address,
social security number, etc.) can be pre-populated into these forms, requiring a new
employee to provide only the information not already available’.

A sample of such automated form id given below:

Is online fillable forms ‘best practice’ in forms management?

An implicit assumption that permeates the HR industry is that online fillable forms are ‘best
practice’ in the forms management component of Onboarding. This assumption is evidenced
by three things. First, online fillable forms are currently the tool of choice for organizations
that are automating their forms management tasks. Second, an increasing number of vendors
are offering ‘beginning to end’ Onboarding solutions that include online fillable forms. Third,
the discourse on automated Onboarding is now moving beyond forms management to
‘Socialization’ as if forms management has already been taken care of.

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Looking more closely at the complex issues that surround forms management raises the
following question: Are online fillable forms adequate when it comes to: (i) the new hire’s
initial Onboarding experience, and (ii) the integration of pre-hire and post-hire systems?

Benefits of online fillable forms

Online fillable forms are undoubtedly a positive step in the automation of Onboarding.

 They enhance legibility of information, making it less susceptible to misinterpretation.

 It is often (though not always) more expeditious for a new hire to type the information
than hand write it.
 Accessing and submitting forms electronically is a simpler and more efficient process
than handling paper.
 As stated earlier, more advanced online forms come pre-populated with a new hire’s
basic information so they are not wasting time re-entering the same data over and over
again. Also, a lot of information is available to HR prior to a new hire’s first day of
work.

Challenges of online fillable forms

Online fillable forms are a big step in the right direction for reducing the paperwork burden.
However, there remain a number of issues that hinder their ability to accommodate the
complexities that surround Onboarding and other document-centric processes.
 Whether forms are filled in by hand or online, the degree of difficulty in filling out
these forms and a lack of process integration persist. For example, the W-4 federal
withholding form still requires the new hire to decipher the form's complex and
confusing instructions and necessary calculations.
 Other forms might not provide enough details for the user to successfully complete
the forms.   Many fields are deliberately left blank by a new hire because of difficulty
and confusion in knowing which fields to fill in and how. Subsequently, they need to
contact HR to clarify issues or the forms and/or fields are left blank until their first
day. The inability to address these difficulties often causes forms to be returned after
they've been submitted because of missing, incomplete, or wrong information.
 Once there is a transference of data from a new hire to HR, that data usually has to be
re-keyed into the organization's unique backend systems.

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  Another issue is when a new hire’s online fillable forms are submitted, they are often
printed and then scanned into the organization's repository for storage. This practice is
highly inefficient and expensive. The current backlog of documents to scan is
daunting while millions more are simultaneously being produced.

Although they are certainly an improvement over paper-based forms, online fillable forms
still suffer from mistakes, missing information and inconsistencies which require the same
need for redress as manual paper-based practices. No matter how good pre-hiring and post-
hiring systems are, if the data collection and forms management system is inadequate or
inefficient you will lose the time and cost savings that you hoped to gain.

Since most companies and agencies have a requirement for multiple state, federal, and
company-unique forms to be completed prior to new or transitional employees beginning
work, is there a better approach to document management than is currently practiced? There
absolutely is – by automating the processes that surround the documents, processes that, until
now, have been laborious, error prone, highly inefficient, and costly.

Automating document-based processes (not just forms)

Software development company, HRWorX LLC, has developed a web-based ‘electronic

Process Automation Solution’ (ePAS) that collects and transmits employee information more
efficiently and effectively. Instead of just automating single forms, ePAS supports the
completion of multiple documents and easily integrates with front end systems, such as ATS
(Applicant Tracking Systems) and backend systems like payroll, security and IT. ePAS has
two modules.

The employee module guides employees through the new hire collection process using an
interview wizard that logically collects required information to complete a new hire
document set with its generic and company-unique forms.

Information is collected only once, through the use of simple and easy to understand
interview questions (accompanied by context sensitive help). The session validates for correct
information and proper format; then automatically populates all forms in their original format
prior to submission. If a new hire’s web browser goes down during their interview session,
the information already entered will not be lost and they can easily resume where they left

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off. An employee has the ability to save and print a copy of these documents for their own
file.

The Administrative module of the software is for HR and other staff who are responsible
for setting up employee accounts and sending them email notifications, enabling the
employee to securely access the application. As employees complete the interview session,
the HR/admin dashboard allows authorized personnel to track the completion status of each
account. Automated notifications also remind all associated parties to login and complete
their portion of the process.

Administrators can create unique document sets for each employee and also collect necessary
information to initiate or validate separate processes such as drug testing, credit checks, DHS
status and security checks. Once approved, data can be disseminated electronically to
appropriate corporate systems and persons responsible for the employee. Electronic signature
capability facilitates this process.

The ePAS software not only applies to Onboarding but other processes as well, such as
Offboarding, Telework, and financial and ethics reporting. Indeed, this ‘Business
Intelligence’ software has the potential to apply to just about any document-based process, in
just about any industry that is inundated with forms management tasks, e.g. healthcare,
insurance, legal and retail.

The ePAS software platform, on which industry-specific applications are built, meets the
highest standards for security and has been production tested by thousands of newly hired
employees and administrators since 2004. This software fills a major gap in the market by
providing a truly paperless process from beginning to end, enabling enterprises of all sizes to
achieve higher levels of operational efficiency, cost effectiveness, improved legal compliancy
and enhanced customer service.

To date, online fillable forms, no matter how sophisticated, revolve around

the automation of single forms. They are simple solutions that do not
address the complex and dynamic processes that new hires and HR
personnel have to deal with every day.

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Does Your Onboarding Process Lead to
Employee Engagement or Buyer’s Remorse?
Research by David Lee working at Hewitt Associates revealed that companies, who invested
the most time and resources in onboarding, enjoyed the highest levels of employee
engagement. Both research and common sense tell us it’s wise to invest in preparing
employees to be successful at their jobs. If you want your new hires to become productive as
quickly as possible, why wouldn’t you do what it took to make that happen? If you’re going
to spend all that money on acquiring employees, why wouldn’t you prepare them to succeed?

Despite the obviousness of this, many organizations approach the onboarding process with a
level of professionalism and quality they would never tolerate in their daily operations.

In this research, Lee formed a series of questions that highlight key “differences that make a
difference” in the onboarding process. These key factors are framed as questions rather than
statements, because the goal is for you to look at whether you are doing these things, not
whether you know they’re important.

Borrowing from business sage Jim Rohn:

“It’s not what you know; it’s what you do with what you know that makes a difference.”

Because many of the practices that bring out the best in employees – whether related to
onboarding or other aspects of managing employees – are commonsense, the goal isn’t to
surprise you with their complexity or novelty, but to challenge you to take an honest look at
whether you are actually doing them. Your answers will help illuminate whether your
onboarding process is the kind that leads to high employee engagement or buyer’s remorse.

Do You Make Your New Hires Feel Welcome? – Are your new hires greeted and treated
like they are valued new team members or just a warm body hired to fill a slot? Are they
shuffled through an impersonal process, sometimes falling through the cracks, or are they
graciously shepherded through the onboarding process?

Do You Make It Easy For New Hires to Ask For What They Need? – Does your process
and culture make it uncomfortable for new hires to ask for the information and support they

35
need to navigate this new territory or does it communicate “Whatever you need to know, just
ask”? The more comfortable new employees feel asking questions, the less time and energy
will be siphoned off by wondering and worry. Time spent wondering whether it is OK to ask
a particular question or make a request is time not spent learning their new job. Energy
wasted on worrying about all the things they don’t know and are afraid to ask is energy not
fuelling productivity.

Do You Inspire Pride? – Does the way you run your orientation program and the
onboarding process as a whole warrant pride? The honest answer for many organizations
would be “Not really.”  Which perception do you think your onboarding process creates:
“What a slipshod, messed up place this is…what was I thinking when I took this job?”  or
“This is a place that does things right.” When you explore this question, consider every
aspect of the onboarding process, including the logistical aspects of preparing the new hire,
such as their work area, technology, voice mail, etc. Finding their new workspace covered
with boxes and being without voice mail for a week doesn’t send a very impressive message.

“Just as poor orientation programs can sour a new employee’s view of their new employer,
delays in providing essential work technology can produce the same initial employee
dissatisfaction,” notes Reid Birdsall of One Notion Consulting, a West Hartford, CT-based
firm specializing in the logistical aspects of onboarding.

Do You Help New Hires See the Big Picture and How They Make it Happen? – One of
the most important objectives of your onboarding process is to get new employees engaged –
i.e. to feel part of your company and care about helping your company succeed. Employees
are more likely to feel engaged if they know exactly what they’re engaged in. It’s hard to get
excited about an endeavor one knows virtually nothing about.  When describing your mission
and vision, communicate like a photographer, not an impressionistic painter. Give them a
crystal clear image of your mission and vision – not in BusinsesSpeak -- but in real, everyday
language. Show them now how your company works, how it makes money, and how the
different parts fit together.

Employees also need to know explicitly how their jobs -- and how doing their jobs well -- 
makes the mission and vision possible. Do you do this in more than a cursory manner? Do
you show how their “Little Picture” directly makes the “Big Picture” possible? Do you share
examples of employees making a difference? This is a critical component of your onboarding

36
process because the desire for meaning and purpose, the need to know one’s life matters, is
one of the most powerful human drives. When you show new employees  -- and remind
current employees -- how they matter, you tap into a deep well of passion and productivity.

Do You Share Stories About What Makes Your Company Great? – Stories are among
the most captivating and memorable ways of teaching and influencing. Telling new hires
stories that capture your company’s mission and vision, your culture, and how employees
make it all possible, make your orientation program more engaging and inspirational. Such
stories also help strengthen your culture because they paint a vivid picture of your
organization’s values and norms in action. Are you using inspiring stories in your orientation
program? Do you capture teaching stories as they unfold? Do you ask current employees for
examples of what makes your company great? Does your management team stay alert for
Moments of Truth that can be Teachable Moments for new hires? Are you cataloging these?

Do You Make Your Orientation Program Interactive and Interesting? - Besides helping
employees learn and retain information more effectively, making your orientation program
interactive and interesting also communicates “We do things right here.” High quality
organizations don’t run sloppy, boring orientation programs.

Have You Broken Your Orientation Program Down Into Digestible, Bite Sized Chunks?
– Doing this has the same effect as making your orientation program interactive and
interesting. It makes it far more effective and it communicates that you’re a company that
does things right. Conversely, subjecting new hires to the blatantly ineffective practice of
cramming 20 hours of material into 8 hours of non-stop presentation, communicates a less
than impressive message. At Concord, NH’s Northeast Delta Dental, new hires found the
amount of information covered in their one day orientation program overwhelming, so HR
extended it to a two day format. Feedback on this format revealed it was experienced as just
too long, resulting in the current iteration: four half-day modules. Is your orientation program
broken down into digestible chunks or do you choke new employees on information?

Are You Designing Your Onboarding Process from the Employee’s Perspective? – Do
you consciously think about what each step of the way is like from the new hire’s
perspective? Do you ask them for feedback and input? Doing this is one of the reasons why
Northeast Delta Dental is a perennial member of the “Best Places to Work in NH” list and
was recently ranked as the fourth best small company to work for in America by the Great

37
Place to Work® Institute. They continually ask new hires for feedback about every step of
the orientation and onboarding process. Information gleaned from their surveys and informal
meetings has allowed them to refine their process. By doing so, they not only get employees
up and running more quickly, they communicate “we care about you” and “we’re a company
that cares about excellence” – two critical messages your onboarding process should
communicate to your new employees.

Are You Offloading As Much Information As Possible To Your Intranet? – One of the
hallmarks of intelligent training design is providing information when it’s needed. Rather
than doing a data dump on new employees -- 95% of which they’ll have forgotten when they
stagger out of the conference room – examine how much you can offload to your company’s
intranet, or paper equivalent. The more you can make information self-serve when it’s
needed, the more comfortable and secure employees will feel. They know that they don’t
have to remember everything. Their answer is just a click away.

Do You Have an Effective Mentoring Program? – An effective mentoring program will

not only increase the effectiveness of your onboarding process, it will also provide
recognition and professional development opportunities for current employees. Since
recognition and opportunities for professional development are both key drivers of employee
engagement, an effective mentoring program also helps keep your current employees
motivated and productive. To be effective, your mentoring program cannot be a slapdash on-
the-fly replacement for orientation and training.  Carelessly thrusting a new employee onto
just any old employee – including those with negative attitudes or mediocre work standards –
not only hinders the new hire’s learning process and integration, it also sends a message that
their new employer lacks discernment and high standards. For your mentoring program to be
effective you need to: 1) Make it an honor to be selected as a mentor and 2) Provide mentors
with coaching skills training.

Are You Making It Easy For New Employees to Help You Help Them? – The easier you
make it for your new hires to give you honest feedback, the better job you’ll do retaining
them. In addition to telling new hires explicitly that you want and value their input, you do
this by integrating feedback interviews into your process. At Designer Blinds in Omaha, NE;
HR Manager Deb Franklin discovered a major spike in turnover between months two and six
of a new hires employment.

38
“Rather than wait for the exit interview to find out what went wrong, we decided to conduct
‘Entrance Interviews’,” says Ms. Franklin. Adding the Entrance Interview along with some
other adjustments resulted in a 96% drop in turnover.

When new employees reach the 90-day mark at Northeast Delta Dental, they participate in
what is affectionately known as “20 Questions With Connie.” Connie Roy-Czyzowski, VP of
Human Resources sits down with each new hire to find out how they are doing, ferret out
potential obstacles to be addressed, and surface suggestions they may have to improve the
process. As with some of the other practices discussed, doing this doesn’t just yield important
information. The fact that it is done shows that the company cares about its employees and it
cares about doing things well.

Do You Help Your Supervisors and Managers Do Their Part Well? – As Gallup’s
research has shown so clearly: “People join companies, but they leave managers.” Because
your new employee’s boss can make or break the onboarding process, make sure you help
your supervisors execute their part well. Do you invest in training and development so your
managers know how to engage employees and how to coach? Do you send clear messages
about how important it is for managers to do the “people side” of their jobs? Do you hold
your supervisors and managers accountable? At Designer Blinds, HR Manager Deb Franklin
sites their investment in their supervisors and managers as the most critical factor in reducing
their turnover from 200% to 8%.

If you answered a number of the above questions with less than a confident
“Yes, I highly recommend you work with your managers and your
employees to design a more effective onboarding process. If you do, you
will help your new hires become productive more quickly, you will lay the
foundation for a more engaged, committed workforce, and you will
increase your ability to attract and retain the cream of the crop from the
labor pool.

39
Ciampa & Watkins {1999}, Wells {2005}, Concelman & Burns {2006}1 conducted
researches at different times to know the reasons that derail new leaders. In this research,
Wells said that overconfidence in skills and experience is one of the reasons for this. He said
that organizations typically hire highly self-confident leaders. New leaders invariably arrive
at their new positions as accomplished managers. They often have a “been there, done that”
mentality with respect to leadership transition. One common trap for new managers is to
show up with a single answer – to assume that a universal fix can address complex and varied
organizational problems. He gave another reason for the same that was Negative credibility.
For this he said “Once you start off in a negative vein with stakeholders, it’s very hard to turn
that around”. The new leader cannot hope to see his or her efforts bear fruit without first
building personal credibility and productive working relationships. Key constituencies must
come to believe that the new leader can lead the company to a desirable future before giving
their loyalty. Ciampa & Watkins said that the reason for the same is attempting to do too
much. It was said that the first six months, the new leaders must energize people and focus
them on solving the most important problems of the business. It’s crucial that employees
achieve momentum building during the transition. Seeing tangible improvements in how
work is performed boosts motivation and encourages further experimentation. Early wins call
for identifying substantial problems that can be tackled quickly. Yet many new leaders try too
many things at once. They try to convey that “winners” are active, quick, and able to handle
diverse challenges simultaneously. The trap, however, is that the organization is confused and
overwhelmed. Priorities become unclear, and the leader may appear to have Attention Deficit
Disorder. Reason given by Concelman & Burns for the same was failure to establish key
connections and build strong interpersonal relationships. He said that many new leaders are
selected for their technical expertise rather than their motivation or propensity to lead. They
fail to understand the primary distinction between an individual contributor and a leader. This
requires leaders to maintain effective working relationships with a wide variety of people in
the organization.

1
What derails New Leaders?
By Ciampa & Watkins, Wells, Concelman & Burns in various years.
Source: http://www.kornferryinstitute.com/files/pdf1/Review_OnboardingLiterature.pdf
40
Lee {2006}2 conducted a research in which he gave some common mistakes what organizations
make while onboarding their new hires. These mistakes are (i)overwhelming newcomers,
attempting to “cram 20 hours of information into four mind-numbering hours; (ii)
Onboarding is viewed as a check list instead of an integrated process; (iii) unclear ownership
of onboarding tasks between human resource staff and hiring managers. Best in class
companies will have a manager responsible for the onboarding process; (iv) reactive and
emergency driven with no or little plan. Use of the “no news is good news” and “out of sight,
out of mind” approaches to following-up. Many organizations assume that new managers
have the social skills and understanding to tap the organizational network themselves, so they
invest little time in introducing new managers around. However, without some initial support
and a framework for learning, many managers find it difficult to reach out to new colleagues
themselves; (v) do not see the big picture. Employees want to feel valued and important. One
of the keys to onboarding is creating a clear line of sight that shows how the new employee’s
work contributes to the overall success of the company; (vi) inspire insecurity and create a
defensive stance. “You come in and sit down in monumentally uncomfortable chairs and are
bombarded with papers, rules, policies; you know those ‘this is how you get fired’ sorts of
comments. You sign and sign and sign more papers than if you were buying a house and then
you walk out thinking ‘man, I hope I don’t get fired, but at least I know how to get fired.”
Companies are protecting themselves against their own employees. This creates tension
instead of inspires enthusiasm.
Kelvin Wheeler {2008}3 analysed how the best onboarding programs work. In his analysis, he
said that nowadays oorganizations are devoting more time to the onboarding process and
employing more creative and exciting techniques in an effort to get their newly hired
employees productive sooner and to lay a foundation that will help retain them. Further three

2
Some Common Mistakes Organizations Make when Onboarding
By Lee in 2006

Source: http://www.kornferryinstitute.com/files/pdf1/Review_OnboardingLiterature.pdf

3
How the Best Onboarding Programs Work
By Kevin Wheeler on October 3, 2008 at 5:38 am
Source: http://www.ere.net/2008/10/03/how-the-best-onboarding-programs-work/

41
reasons which are making these orientation or assimilation programs more popular. First
reason is they help new hires feel that they are part of a larger organization and that they are
important. Second, they help convey the culture of the organization so that decisions get
made that are more in line with accepted practices and that help the organization function
more smoothly. And, third, they expedite getting the new hires up to speed and productive.
Then further he gave some characteristics that the best onboarding programs possess. First of
all, they are fun, not overly formal, and engage employees. Second, good onboarding
programs may extend over several months. After an intensive 1 to 2 day session up front to
start things off, subsequent activities may extend over several months at periodic intervals.
The third thing effective onboarding programs are good at is getting the manager to be part of
the onboarding process. Surveys show that the relationship with the manager is one of the
most significant in an employee’s work life. And finally the best programs offer coaching and
mentoring to new employee’s right from the start.

John Edwards {2008}4 analyzed the features of onboarding and gave a checklist that can
help any organization in getting most out of its onboarding program. The components of the
checklist that John Edwards gave are as follows: (1) Be professional, while new employees
are typically concerned with putting their best foot forward, the hiring company also needs to
leave a good first impression which should be kept as professional as possible; (2) Be clear
and precise, he said that onboarding is a particularly terrible time to deliver weak or
inconsistent messages. Miscommunication at the start of a job can lead to disastrous mistakes
down the road as the employee naively performs actions that are contrary to best practices;
(3) Keep it simple and low-key, even if the employee's new job involves complex duties and
responsibilities, the onboarding process should be kept as simple and as low-key as possible;
(4) Keep it interesting, we all know that onboarding, by nature, will always require new
employees to fill out forms, watch orientation videos and perform various other mind-
numbing tasks. But organizations should try to make the process less boring by alternating
rote tasks with more engaging activities, such as touring production facilities, examining new
tools and meeting colleagues; (5) Designate a mentor, the new hire shouldn't feel like a
lonely piece of driftwood bobbing in a vast ocean. Assigning an experienced mentor to the

4
A Checklist for Successful Onboarding
By John Edwards on July 31, 2008
Source: http://www.hrworld.com/features/onboarding-checklist-73108/

42
new hire, preferably someone in the same general business area will give the newcomer a
reliable escort and contact source; (6) Take time to listen, to facilitate the ongoing flow of
information, it is necessary to build time into the onboarding schedule to allow both parties to
sit down and discuss — uninterrupted — whatever happens to be on their minds; (7) Prepare
the workplace, onboarding's primary goal should be to get new hires comfortable with their
jobs and working at near peak efficiency out of the starting gate. So it is important to have a
permanent workspace ready as soon as the new hire arrives for work; (8) Provide follow-up
support, during the onboarding process, employees should be introduced to the company's
full spectrum of career-advancement, wellness, recreation and other programs, as well as
encouraged to seek information and other assistance whenever the need arises.

Aberdeen Group {2008}5 published an Onboarding Benchmark Report for the year 2008 in
which it was said that there exists a significant gap between the length of time that
organizations perceive that employees make a decision to stay with the company & the
duration that organizations extend the onboarding process. Despite the fact that 86% of
organizations agree that employees decide whether to stay with their employer within the first
six month of their employment, 61% of all organizations either don’t offer a formal
onboarding program or end their onboarding program within just one month. Best in class
companies, on the other hand, are 30% more likely to extend their onboarding beyond one-
month for senior-level executives and regular, full time employees. The report also
mentioned that onboarding must not be isolated solely to new hires. An often overlooked
population within companies is made up of new employees that have come into the corporate
fold via merger or acquisition. Another group of employees that can easily be taken for
granted is comprised of current employees that may never have been onboarded in the first
place. Both of these groups can benefit from an Onboarding {or re-Onboarding} program.

In this report a framework was also given effective onboarding which was called Best-in-
class PACE Framework which gave a list of Pressures, Actions, Capabilities and Enablers
for an organization for making its onboarding program effective.

PACE Framework

5
All Aboard: Effective Onboarding Techniques and Strategies; Onboarding
Benchmark Report
By Aberdeen Group in January 2008
43
 from applicant to employee
notices when status changes
trigger email reminders & new hires.
culture. expectations & goals for Tools that automatically
integrated into the company Managers set clear management
Ensure that new hires are Tools that automate forms management
strategy Gain support from top behaviors.
Formalize an onboarding supplies and equipment knowledge, attributes &
employment decision Assessment tools for skills, Pre-assign office space,
New employee productivity reaffirms the new hire’s training program management tools
Provide a formal new hire Provide an experience that New employee retention Employee performance

Pressures Actions Capabilities Enablers

Enwisen {2008} 6 , the leader in on-demand workforce communications, sponsored

Aberdeen Group’s research benchmark entitled “All Aboard: Effective Onboarding
Strategies and Techniques.” In the report, Aberdeen Group, examined three key
performance criteria to distinguish Best-in-Class companies’ use of onboarding.
The research uncovered that, as a result of the strategy, capabilities and
technology utilization related to onboarding, 100% of Best-in-Class organizations
improved year-over-year new hire retention, 60% reduced time-to-productivity for
new hires, and 57% increased completion rate for onboarding tasks and activities.

6
Effective Onboarding Strategies and Techniques
By Aberdeen Group sponsored by Enwisen dated February 9,2010
Source: http://www.1888pressrelease.com/effective-onboarding-strategies-and-techniques-
pr-3u9v434vp.html
44
Shrinking talent pools, coupled with high recruiting costs, have created a critical
need to retain new hires and enable them to perform productively in their new
capacity and environment. Many organizations are looking beyond traditional new
hire orientation programs and towards formalized onboarding strategies. The
Aberdeen report is based upon the compilation of 794 survey responses, primarily
from human resource and line of business managers. Among their findings was
that Best-in-Class organizations are identifying HR and business issues – such as
new hire retention – that can be addressed by onboarding and are implementing
programs and measures to improve these situations.

Nadia Williams {2009}7 studied the survey conducted by Personnel Today which says that
effective staff inductions can boost retention rates and productivity levels among new
recruits. This survey of 158 employers covered a combined workforce of almost 534,000
employees and it was found that they can also determine workers' commitment to the job, and
identify whether they are in tune with the organisation's wider aims. Findings from Personnel
Today's survey found that effective induction programmes can also create an enhanced
'psychological contract', leading to increased employee engagement, and a better corporate
reputation. The most common delivery methods were found to be informal on-the-job
training, workplace tours to meet colleagues, group presentations, and information packs.
However, other methods are becoming increasingly popular. Buddy schemes were used by
45.6% of respondents, compared with 37% in the 2006 survey, and 36.7% made use of
mentoring and coaching, compared with 28% in 2006. In the survey, it was also found that
while employers' approaches varied in terms of length, flexibility, scope and delivery, six
elements were identified as contributing to the success of staff inductions: The human touch,
A clear, flexible approach, Guidance, Linking induction to future learning, Senior leader
involvement, Evaluation.

7
Effective staff inductions lead to broader benefits
By Nadia Williams on April 3, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Source: http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2009/04/03/50160/effective-staff-
inductions-lead-to-broader-benefits.html

45
Human Capital Institute {2010}8 webcasted a study on how an organization can get its new
employees speed up their work in half time. It has been found that getting new employees up
to speed is one of the toughest jobs hiring managers because the failure can lead to unfilled
needs, unhappy recruits, and, ultimately, the failure to meet vital business goals. In this
webcast, top executive transition consultant George Bradt has helped organizations recruit
great employees, orient them to their business culture and goals, and enable them to start
contributing immediately. For this, some key takeaways have also been suggested which
include: the organization should be prepared for its new employee's success before it even
starts to recruit; a powerful slate of potential candidates should be found, the organization
should create a personal onboarding plan with its new employee; new employee should be
made ready, eager, and able to do real work on day one; the development of important
working relationships should be speeded up; the right resources, support, and follow-through
for new employees should be provided.

Taleo9 which provides talent management software to help companies manage their most
strategic asset—people conducted a research on the issue that how onboarding sppeds up the
way to productivity. This research describes the importance of the onboarding process and
how optimized onboarding presents clear and significant benefits. A well-designed and
automated onboarding process reduces costs, hastens time to productivity, and improves
retention. Streamlined onboarding also increases efficiency, reduces process variances,
provides better service levels for hiring managers, and creates more staffing process
consistency. Integrated onboarding presents an easy business process improvement that can
yield great returns. The reasons being (1) although onboarding appears to be purely a
transactional activity, it can be a strategic process that improves your bottom line; (2)
Onboarding is one piece of the cyclical continuum of talent management and not merely a
standalone or linear activity; (3) Optimizing the onboarding process in conjunction with

8
Onboarding: How to Get Your New Employees Up to Speed in Half the Time
By- Human Capital Institute, Webcast aired on February 3, 2010

Source: http://www.hci.org/lib/onboarding-how-get-your-new-employees-speed-half-time-0

9
Onboarding: Speeding the Way to Productivity
By Taleo in Research White Papers
Source: http://www.taleo.com/research/whitepapers/onboarding-speeding-the-way-
productivity-1.html
46
talent management solution is an obvious choice for an expedient, cost-effective project that
delivers a total win.

Kevin Martin, Aberdeen Group {2010}10 conducted research on Onboarding which

uncovered the organizational performance impact of designing and implementing an
Onboarding strategy that starts with engagement and thrives on active collaboration from all
relevant parties in all aspects of the business. Engaging the new hire early on ultimately leads
to shorter time to productivity, better retention, and most importantly, a more engaged
customer. This is enabled by supporting tools that automate basic processes like forms
completion, benefits enrolment, and email reminders, leaving more time to be spent on the
meat of the process - formal development, goals management, and stakeholder reviews. This
research is backed up by research that directly correlates engaging onboarding efforts with
measurable gains in profitability and customer satisfaction.

10
Onboarding: The First Line of Engagement
By Kevin Martin, Research Director, Human Capital Management at Aberdeen Group
on February 28, 2010
Source: http://www.aberdeen.com/Aberdeen-Library/6328/RA-onboarding-employee-
engagement.aspx
47
Case 1-Effective Onboarding ‘Reducing New
Hire Time to Competency’
At Randstad Solution provided by Bersin & Associates

The Business Problem

Like many of its competitors, Randstad’s experiences significant employee turnover. This is
the major problem that this company was facing. The major reason for this problem was
reducing time to competency among new hires. At Randstad, staffing agents’ performance is
judged on a mix of key performance indicators such as revenue, gross margin dollars, number
of positions filled, and displaying the right competencies. Thus, newly hired personnel need
to become productive in a short amount of time.
Apart from this, from a global perspective, Randstad faced issues such as:
 Inconsistent quality of the Onboarding process from manager to manager and country
to country since the whole system of working at Randstad was decentralized.
Different procedures were being followed at Randstad in different countries.

 Lack of a blended learning approach, which could be used to increase efficiencies and
reduce expenses.

 The perception that the learning teams, not managers, were the owners and drivers of
performance. Randstad’s line managers were calling on the training teams to reduce
the time to competency. This is a common scenario for training managers. A problem
is identified, and line managers look to the training team to roll out a new program or
course to “fix it.” Randstad’s Learning & Development organization, however,
believed that line managers needed to own their new hires’ performance, including
the onboarding process, and to be held accountable for it.

The Solution
The Learning & Development organization created a new 16-week onboarding process in the
U.S., aligned with the company’s global onboarding model. The process would be driven and
owned by line managers. This process would then be used as a template for implementation
within Randstad’s European countries.

48
The new onboarding process consisted of a series of learning and on-the-job training
activities delivered over a four month period.

Manager-facilitated Training

Instruction-led Training

Self-study

Job shadowing

Manager Coaching

Manager-facilitated training consisted of two separate two-day courses delivered by the

employee’s district manager. The Learning & Development team created the instructor and
participant guides for the sessions. Topics included Randstad’s culture and values, job
expectations, sales skills development, and performance and bonus plans. Regional field
coordinators scheduled the training in the LMS and mark it complete after the training. New
hires then evaluated their managers on how well the program was facilitated and how much
they believe it will increase their on-the-job effectiveness.

Instructor-led training classes were taught at a central facility by one of the learning team’s
instructors. Classes were focused on operations, systems, and sales training. Participants self-
registered for these courses and the instructors marked them complete in the LMS. As with
the manager-facilitated training, participants evaluated the program’s execution and relevance
to their jobs.

Self study programs included online courses and hard copy manuals on topics such as
Randstad’s database and background checking systems, Randstad’s organizational structure,
and available resources. Some self study modules served as pre-requisites for face-to-face

49
training or as more advanced learning modules. Learners had self-serve access to online
modules through the LMS, which tracked their completion and evaluations.

Job shadowing is an activity where new hires observe veteran employees and managers
doing their jobs. This activity was used which helped new employees learn and practice skills
in the actual context of performing the job. This experiential training also supplemented
classroom training or functions as pre-work to follow-on training. The completion of these
activities was tracked in the LMS.

Manager coaching consisted of formal and informal feedback sessions between the
employee and his or her first-line manager. The manager, aided by a worksheet of
behavioural expectations, provided feedback and guidance based on the employee’s observed
performance on the job and transcript from the employee’s training records. These sessions
also afforded the employee an opportunity to ask questions and request further training.

The activities over the four month Onboarding period break down roughly as follows:

The Results

50
The percentages show the speed of growth in productivity across five measures over an 18-
week period. Among both the control and experimental groups, productivity measures
increased over the period. However, the productivity measures for employees who received
the new training (the experimental group) grew at a much faster rate. For example, the rate of
growth in the number of calls made by employees who received the training was nearly four
times that of employees who did not receive the new training.

Similarly, the number of client visits, prospects in the portfolio, revenues, and gross margin
also increased at a much faster rate among those who received the new onboarding training
versus employees who were hired prior to the training. The analysis factors out variances in
previous skills and experience, as one might expect a new hire with no previous skills to
develop at a much faster rate than someone with prior experience.

Randstad has found that through the new onboarding process, new hires are now able to
achieve a baseline level of competency in just 16 weeks, a shorter time frame than previously
observed.

51
Randstad is understandably delighted with these results and expects even more significant
results from this year’s process improvements. The data shows that the new onboarding
process has been extremely effective in increasing new employees’ rate of productivity. The
ability to obtain this data is a huge leap for the company, where previous manual methods
made gathering and analyzing this type of data impossible. Randstad’s LMS provides the
capability to evaluate the results at multiple levels within the organization so that corrective
procedures can be put in place where necessary to improve the effectiveness of the process.

Case 2 - MWH Case Study

The Business Problem

In 2006, in order to support rapid growth and remove manual processes associated with
onboarding new employees, MWH sort to insure all employee- related logistics were
completed before their start date and also to bring new hires up to speed more quickly in
order to achieve higher levels of productivity in a shorter amount of time. The problem was
that the company’s process to distribute new-hire forms and information, and collect all
relevant that was entirely manual. As a result, the process was slow and needed to be repeated
for every new hire; it was prone to errors and least data, and provided numerous bottleneck
that delayed completion of the entire process. Also, no formal socialization process existed.
Thus, the ability for new workers to navigate the corporate landscape and leverage
established worker for best- practice knowledge was limited.

Additionally, recent graduates from New Zealand traditionally travel for 6 months or more to
explore the world within a couple of years of their hire. This causes a higher turnover among
recently graduated new-hires. This turnover would negate the initial investment companies
would make in these recent graduates and result in lost corporate knowledge.

The Solution

To overcome these challenges MWH pursued an aggressive strategy focused on two

concurrent initiatives:

52
 Standar
disation

Automation

Automation: MWH put in place an onboarding system that would allow the company to
move to a centralized source for all new-hire data versus the current, decentralized manual
approach. As part of this, an employee web-portal was established where all employees could
access and submit forms, and view the career development system.

Standardization of new hire processes: as a global company, MWH faced challenges such
as process and information consistency. By standardizing and automating the processes,
MWH employees benefitted by receiving specific information in a consistent manner. New
hires were presented with key new-hire information immediately upon acceptance of the job.
They had access to information such as “what to expect on day 1” and also had the
opportunity to read about employee benefits and career development plans before they
actually started the job.

To accomplish this, the architect of this plan {Pam McDiarmid} first presented a business
case to a committee that consisted of IT, HR, finance and business unit representatives. With
this committee’s buy in, she was able to elect the support of her IT and HR management to
present the business case on her behalf to seek global management approval to implement
this solution.

The Results

The results that MWH has experienced in the past 18 months have been:

53
 Faster
Throughput
ROI

Improved
Retention

The Results

 Faster Throughput: the entire process to set up and bring a new hire upto speed has
improved substantially as a result of eliminating manual efforts, while also reducing
administrative time and cost. This is especially critical because these new hires
become productive faster.
 Return on Investment {ROI}: the ROI statistics of MWH highlight that savings of
approximately $1,100 per new hire have been achieved through the elimination of
paper based forms, cutting administrative time, combined with the accelerated time-
to-productivity of the new hire.
 Improved new hire retention among recent graduates: these new hires can now
embark on travels outside of New Zealand while they maintain employment within
another division of MWH.

54
Unilever
Company Introduction
Unilever helps people feel good, look good and get more out of life, meeting their everyday
needs for nutrition, hygiene and personal care with brands and services that are good for them
and good for others. The company employs 163,000 people in around 100 countries
worldwide. In 2009, its worldwide turnover was €39.8 billion. The products of this company
are sold in over 170 countries around the world. In many countries, Unilever manufactures
the products it sells, while it also exports products to countries where it does not have
manufacturing operations. The company is the global market leader in all the Food categories
in which it operates: Savoury, Spreads, Dressings, Tea and Ice Cream. It is also global market
leader in Mass Skin Care and Deodorants, and has very strong positions in other Home and
Personal Care categories.

Induction at Unilever

Induction at Unilever is comprised of 6 components which are described as below:

Roals
Getting
Building
Your and started
Goals
Mentor
your Network
Personal
Your
Development
Buddy

55
Getting started

Shortly after joining, the new hires receive a presentation on the company's history, brands
and markets. This includes an overview of organizational structure and strategy, and also
introduces them to culture of the organization and how work is done there.

Building your network

Getting to know people and establishing close working relationships is important to help new
hires settle in. During the first few months, new employees meet colleagues from their
immediate area and from different functions across the business.

Your buddy

An employee’s buddy is a peer working in the same location. Their job is to help the new hire
find his/her feet by showing him/her where everything is around the office and answering any
questions that the new hire may have about working life.

Personal development

Once the new hires are familiar with the company and their role, the next step is to discuss
and agree a personal development plan. This will identify their learning requirements as well
as the support they will need to achieve their aims.

Your mentor

Mentor is a senior manager from another part of the business who will be available to offer
advice and guidance as the new hires move through their career. They'll also help them deal
with any challenges that may arise.

Roles & goals

As part of their development plan, the new hire’s are given personal targets and team goals
and a time-frame within which to achieve them. Over regular meetings with their manager,
the new hires themselves evaluate their progress and address any issues.

56
Infosys
Company Introduction
Infosys Technologies Ltd. was started in 1981 by seven people with US$ 250. Today, the
company is a global leader in the "next generation" of IT and consulting with revenues of
over US$ 4.8 billion (FY 10). Infosys defines, designs and delivers technology-enabled
business solutions that help Global 2000 companies win in a Flat World. Infosys also
provides a complete range of services by leveraging its domain and business expertise and
strategic alliances with leading technology providers. Its offerings span business and
technology consulting, application services, systems integration, product engineering, custom
software development, maintenance, re-engineering, independent testing and validation
services, IT infrastructure services and business process outsourcing. Infosys has a global
footprint with over 50 offices and development centers in India, China, Australia, the Czech
Republic, Poland, the UK, Canada and Japan. Infosys and its subsidiaries have 113,796
employees as on March 31, 2010. Infosys takes pride in building strategic long-term client
relationships. Over 97% of its revenues come from existing customers.

Induction at Infosys
Induction process of Infosys is quite comprehensive and the company has different
formalities that are required to be completed on the first day itself. The induction may be of
one day or of many days. The induction in Infosys BPO was of 3 days.

A batch is made up of approx 100-150 candidates for induction. And at the time of induction,
the process for which the new hire will work is told to them. May it be a voice or non voice;
but the new hires come to know at the first day of induction for which process they will be
working for. Since candidates from other processes are part of induction process, this is a
really good chance to make friends across the processes.

During induction first thing HR does is that they give brief introduction about him/her self
and the new hires should remember that the person talking to them will be their HR wherever
they go in Infosys BPO. Then some speeches are delivered by eminent speakers like BPO
Head, HR Head, Finance Head which will give the new hires an idea about their job and
functioning of their department. These speeches are really useful to start a good career for
those employees. And most importantly these people have plenty of time to answer queries of
these new hires.
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Then later on information is provided to the new hires about ‘PANORAMA’ the intranet of
Infosys BPO. All things that employees want to do in Infosys BPO; they have to do it through
‘panorama’ be it application for leave or issue of any certificates. So a good knowledge of
panorama is must if anyone is working in Infosys BPO. The employees get used to panorama
and its functions as they start using it. A good seminar is delivered on Panorama and about its
usage during the induction process.

During induction days, Food coupons are provided to the new hires from Infosys BPO but as
and when induction is over from the next day they have to purchase their own food, Infosys
BPO do not provide any free meals.

Infosys BPO pays salary to its employees directly into their bank account. They do not give
them any cheque or cash in hand per month as salary. Therefore it is essential to have a salary
account in a bank. This is taken care by Infosys BPO by tie up with ICICI Bank. Every
employee has a Salary account with ICICI Bank. The salary account is created in ICICI Bank
on the first day of induction. This process of creating an account with ICICI Bank takes
merely half an hour. The person from ICICI Bank gives the new hires one kit. This kit
contains the employee’s cheque book; his/her debit card and necessary bank documents.
They need to fill out form which is provided to them by people by ICICI Bank. On
completion of this form it will be verified and collected. Then the employee’s ICICI Bank
salary account is activated in eight days.

Then the employee’s Provident Fund account is created. This is one of the tedious jobs that is
done in induction. The form that is given to the new hires has many pages and most of them
are printed in Kannada and English only. So some of the new hires look at them as strangers.
The HR helps them to fill out these forms. And these forms are required to be filled very
carefully.

So in induction process the formalities which are completed are: Introduction to Infosys BPO,
Important speeches, what will be their job, Creation of Salary account, Creation of PF
account.

With this another seminar is conducted which tells the new hires about salary and how it will
be paid to them. Employees get their salary as a sum of their travel allowance, night shift
allowance, skill allowance and other salary components. So these components are told to the
employees in this seminar. This is also an important part of induction process at Infosys.

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Later on information is given about transport. Information is collected such as which part the
employee stays in, what will be good pick-up point for him/her etc. For the first 3 days, the
employees have to come to Infosys BPO on their own because it takes this much time for the
company to arrange a cab, as the employees are also new to company.

Wipro
Company Introduction

Wipro Technologies is the world's first PCMM Level 5 and SEI CMM Level certified IT
Services Company. It provides comprehensive IT solutions and services, including Systems
Integration, Information Systems Outsourcing, Package Implementation, Software
Application Development & Maintenance, and Research & Development services to
corporations globally.

Within the Indian market, the company is the leader in providing IT solutions and services for
the corporate segment in India. It offers Systems Integration, Network Integration, Software
Solutions and IT services.

Wipro's ADRs are listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and its equity shares are listed in
India on the Stock exchange - Mumbai, and the National Stock Exchange, among others.

Induction at Wipro

The first day induction program is very informal. Incharge of the induction program first of
all introduces himself to the new hires, greets them and then conducts further of the induction
programs at informal places like cafeteria.

59
Then the induction incharge shows the new hires their workplace and asks them about their
first impression of their workplace and the overall campus of Wipro.

60
Then this induction incharge, who is mostly an HR manager, tells them what it really means
to be a WIPROITE. They say that Sensitivity and thoughtfulness reflect HUMAN VALUES
and intelligence leads to newer ways of looking at things, in a free environment. This could
lead to INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS. Being forthright and honest shows INTEGRITY.
Finally, their quiet confidence comes from knowing that they offer very high VALUE FOR
MONEY to their Customers.

IBM
Company Introduction

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) develops and manufactures information

technology (IT) products and services worldwide. Its Global Technology Services segment
offers IT infrastructure and business process services, such as strategic outsourcing,
integrated technology, business transformation outsourcing, and maintenance. The
company’s Global Business Services segment provides professional services and application
outsourcing services, including consulting and systems integration, and application
management. IBM’s Software segment offers middleware and operating systems software
comprising WebSphere software enabling clients to integrate and manage business processes
across their organizations; information management software for database and content
management, information integration, data warehousing, business analytics and intelligence,
performance management, and predictive analytics; Tivoli software for infrastructure
management, including identity, data security, and storage management; Lotus software for
collaboration, messaging, and social networking; rational software, a process automation
tool; and operating systems, which manage the fundamental processes that make computers
run. Its Systems and Technology segment provides computing and storage solutions,
including servers, disk and tape storage systems and software, microelectronics, retail store
solutions, and semiconductor technology, products, packaging solutions. The company’s
Global Financing segment provides lease and loan financing to external and internal clients;
commercial financing to dealers and remarketers of IT products; and sale and lease of used
equipment. It serves financial services, public, industrial, distribution, communications, and

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general business sectors. The company was formerly known as Computing-Tabulating-
Recording Co. and changed its name to International Business Machines Corporation in
1924. IBM was founded in 1910 and is based in Armonk, New York.

Induction at IBM
Computer users have been gathering in 3-D, virtual environments for years as part of game
play. Companies have followed, seeing advertising potential in these environments. And now
they are stepping into these universes themselves by having employees establish their own
characters, called "avatars," in 3-D virtual worlds such as Second Life.

Second Life is a subscription-based program in which users can interact, create goods and
services, and even buy and sell land.

IBM is using it as a meeting place and orientation tool to easily merge and render accessible
its workforce, effortlessly traversing vast geographical and cultural distances in the process.
Chuck Hamilton, director of IBM's Centre for Advanced Learning, is helping the company
goes virtual with thousands of employees. The company is initially applying it to a four pilot
programs.

The first pilot program is the Fresh Blue program. The participants are interns in China.
There are about 300 of them who are coming on this year who don't get an IBM ID, so they're
not quite IBMers yet, but they're in the process of becoming IBMers. They need an external
location where they can meet in the 2-D world, so in a sense, they need to be able to
collaborate in the standard Web environment that the company sees, so it sets up an
environment for that.

The employees can virtually meet in these worlds to do some other things — maybe get to
know one another a little bit better, build some relationships with those people, practice doing
things that they would need to do, so the organization don't have to bring these interns from
all different parts of China to some physical place to have these ad hoc meetings and direct
some of their learning. So, Second Life is playing a role in bridging both the cultural gap and
the geography gap in that case.

The second pilot program is centred on a group in India, actual IBMers who are new to
IBM, so they're part of the onboarding process that IBM has. The concern is that the

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company want to get them into some kind of real live, simulated project action as quickly as
possible. Even though they may not be on a specific project, they want to try out different
scenarios.

With them, IBM was using another virtual world called Plane Shift, but it was found that the
company could do much more in a Second Life environment to do this kind of simulated
work. They could work on teams and work on a project together and understand what it was
like to have certain resources and so on. So, they moved a portion of their training over to
Second Life, and again, they're still going to have some face-to-face meetings and regular
training, but in addition, now they have an opportunity to meet in this way.

The third pilot program is a greater IBM program built around mentorship and leadership,
particularly with its aging workforce. What the company wanted to develop was a bigger
community of employees who had retired from IBM or were former IBMers working as
leaders at another company and were still part of the greater extended community of IBM, as
well as existing IBMers who are in-house and need to share in their wisdom. So, we created a
Second Life community built around that.
The fourth pilot program has not been developed yet. It will be developed this year. It's
something that the company is calling "rehearsal studios". Essentially, as a character in
Second Life, the new hires are the driving force behind their avatar, so in a way, they can be
an actor — HR manager could commission the new hires to be an actor, and what he/she
could say to them is, "What I'd really like you to do today is play the role of the very tough
CIO of such and such a company, and Mr. XYZ's going to come in, and I want you to take
him through this same rigor that you would take any salesperson through." So, the new hires
become an actor in an environment that's simulating the context of what he/she does in
his/her job, and the company can record the whole thing.
IBM's use of Second Life is potentially bridging the gap between new talent and upper-
management. A lot of people are loving meeting this way — it's engaging, they get to know a
lot about the individual with whom they're meeting. So, the company is anticipating because
it is learning this from experience, people tend to represent themselves in the space the way
they want to be viewed, and so they dress in a way that's appropriate to their culture.

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HP
Company Introduction

HP is a technology company that operates in more than 170 countries around the world. HP
explores how technology and services can help people and companies address their problems
and challenges, and realize their possibilities, aspirations and dreams. The company applies
new thinking and ideas to create more simple, valuable and trusted experiences with
technology, continuously improving the way its customers live and work. No other company
offers as complete a technology product portfolio as HP. It provides infrastructure and
business offerings that span from handheld devices to some of the world's most powerful
supercomputer installations. It offers consumers a wide range of products and services from
digital photography to digital entertainment and from computing to home printing. This
comprehensive portfolio helps HP match the right products, services and solutions to its
customers' specific needs.

Induction at HP

The overall induction program at HP is quite comprehensive. This is majorly designed to give
the new hires an overview of the company and making them aware that how work is done at
HP. HP considers coming to a new organization a major change in the life of an employee
and they consider this phase of adapting into the new working environment as the “Transition
Phase” and the company performs all possible efforts to make this transition as smooth and
easy as possible for the new hires. During induction, the new hires are also shown how they
can plan their development within HP.

Induction Programme for Graduates

The induction program for fresh graduates a almost a week long in which the following
activities are performed which are given below:

 They meet other graduates and HP employees and learn the basics of being an HP
employee.

 Those graduates joining the Consulting and Integration team spend 1 whole day
learning about what it is like to be a consultant at HP and some core consulting skills.

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 Workway
Company Introduction

Workway is basically a project which is a joint IBEC and ICTU initiative set up in December

2001 under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness to promote the employment of people
with disabilities in the private sector. Funded by the Department of Enterprise Trade and
Employment in Phase 1 and by FÁS in Phase 2, Workway adopted a partnership approach
steered by a National Committee involving key players in the area of disability and
employment. Workway is the first project in Europe to take a partnership approach to
tackling the high unemployment rates among people with disabilities. Between 2002 and
2005, private sector employers, trade union representatives, disability service providers,
government agencies and people with disabilities themselves, came together to form four
regional Workway networks in Cork, Kerry, Donegal and Galway. Local networks have been
set up in each region, with the membership comprising employers, union representatives,
people with disabilities and relevant service providers. The network members share their
knowledge and perceptions of the employment opportunities of people with disabilities. This
allows solutions to be found at local level to some of the complex and challenging barriers
that exist for people with disabilities in relation to work. Guided by a national steering
committee, the regional networks developed a wide range of practical materials for people
with disabilities, employers and trade union representatives.

Induction at Workway

The purpose of induction at Workway is to gradually introduce a new or existing employee

who has acquired a disability, to their new work environment. Induction involves gaining
insight into:

 the reality of a new job, i.e., the specific aspects of the work (how it is performed), the
expectations of the employer and initial on- the- job training;
 How an organization works i.e. the role of the new employee within the overall work
environment and how that employee interacts with and relates to supervisors, team leaders
and other work colleagues.

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Induction at Workway is considered is a process, which may take place irrespective of
whether or not there is an official probationary period. It is usually led by a supervisor and
involves the collaboration of work colleagues.

For people with disabilities who have successfully come through the interview process,
effective induction is critical. Many leave their new jobs at an early stage due to the lack of or
ineffective induction.

Depending on the nature and severity of the disability, it is at this stage that initial physical,
communication, attitudinal and other barriers manifest themselves, requiring an appropriate
response. It should be remembered that for employers, people with disabilities and co-
workers, the initial response can often be experimental or temporary. So, the induction
process is regarded as the initial phase of an integration programme, which identifies
particular needs and provides appropriate accommodations and ongoing support, as
necessary.

It is equally important to remember that a new employee with a disability got the job on the
basis that they are capable of undertaking the work, with (or often without) some form of
accommodation or assistance. The induction process is about how to do the job and what
forms of assistance are required to realize that capacity, not whether or not the job can be
done. The induction period, depending on the complexity of the work environment or tasks
involved, is usually quite short, but more time may be necessary when the new employee has
a disability, depending on the nature and severity of that disability.

For employer, co- workers and people with disabilities, the induction process is, to varying
degrees, both a stressful and apprehensive time. The management of the work environment,
appropriate assistance, education and training, collaboration of management, work colleagues
and people with disabilities require sensitive consideration and appropriate action. If relevant
and appropriate a job coach will work with the employer and new employee during the
induction process. As the process continues, where barriers are addressed effectively, it can
be a confidence- building time, where an employee with a disability can enjoy the benefits of
working life and the workforce and employer can benefit from their contribution.

Example: An employee with a learning disability is undergoing induction and on- the- job
training at a company. He has been hired to deliver messages. It is noticed during his training

66
that he often mixes up messages for ‘R. Naughton’ and ‘T. Naughton’. The supervisor knows
about his disability, suspects that the performance problem is linked to it, and knows that this
particular employee may be unable to ask for a reasonable accommodation because of his
disability. The supervisor asks the trainee about mixing up the two names and asks if it would
be helpful to spell the first name of each person. When the trainee says that would be easier,
the supervisor instructs the receptionist to write the full first name when messages are left for
one of the Naughtons.

Standard Chartered Bank

Company Introduction
Standard Chartered was formed in 1969 through a merger of two banks: The Standard Bank
of British South Africa, founded in 1863, and the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and
China, founded in 1853. Both companies were keen to capitalise on the huge expansion of
trade and to earn the handsome profits to be made from financing the movement of goods
between Europe, Asia and Africa. Standard Chartered PLC, listed on both the London Stock
Exchange and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, ranks among the top 20 companies in the
FTSE-100 by market capitalisation. The London-headquartered Group has operated for over
150 years in some of the world's most dynamic markets, leading the way in Asia, Africa and
the Middle East. Its income and profits have more than doubled over the last few years
primarily as a result of organic growth, supplemented by acquisitions. Leading by example to
be the right partner for its stakeholders, the Group is committed to building a sustainable
business over the long term that is trusted worldwide for upholding high standards of
corporate governance, social responsibility, environmental protection and employee diversity.
It employs over 75,000 people, nearly half of whom are women; The Group's employees are
of 125 nationalities, of which about 70 are represented among senior management.

Induction at Standard Chartered Bank

67
The company has framed a particular programme for onboarding its new hires especially
focussed on fresh graduates. The programme is called International Graduate Programme
{IGP}. Further information about IGP and company’s onboarding process is described
below:

Introduction to IGP

Standard Chartered Bank is looking for the best and the brightest talent in the market to join
one of its business functions as part of its two-year International Graduate Programme
(IGP).
Once on this programme, the graduates are developed into talented managers, who can help
the company achieve its aim of becoming the world's number one international bank.
Company currently have 73,000 employees of 115 nationalities and a global network of
over 1,700 outlets in over 70 countries.
What is taught at IGP

Among the many things what the employees learn on the programme is how to think and
communicate effectively.
Because this is an international bank, the new hires are taught about cultural awareness and
sensitivity - After all, how an organization does business with people from one country is
often totally different from another.
International travel

Whilst being an international graduate doesn't mean the new hires will be jumping on planes
and being relocated in multiple countries - there may be some travel. Opportunities to work
abroad are far more likely to happen after they have developed an expertise in their initial
location.
Learning to think in a global context

At Standard Chartered, the employees will never have to leave their desk to be exposed to
other cultures, customers and ways of doing business. Being internationally aware is a
behaviour which needs to be prevalent in the graduates from day one if they are willing to
work for this company.
The company has included a number of opportunities to help develop the new hires’
knowledge and help them think internationally:

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 The Induction Programme - In the first week, graduates will unite with a diverse
range of like-minded graduates from all over the world in one location, currently Malaysia.
 Business leaders – The new hires hear from guest presenters from different
geographies, industries and specialisms to help them understand what the company does in a
global, regional and local context
 Case studies  – Graduates also have the opportunity to work on diverse projects that
involve working in teams. These test their ability to work together as small groups with
people from different backgrounds
 Daily contact - As they help clients and colleagues with their needs, the new hires
build a strong understanding of international markets and all relevant issues
Developing an international network

The new hires are given excellent opportunities to build relationships with their peers. As
they develop within the bank, they meet more and more people from various countries and
cultures. Most of these have a wealth of experiences the new hires are able to draw upon
throughout the programme and beyond.
If they are working on a deal or responding to customer needs being able to pick up the phone
or contact somebody they know in another country can be a great way to enhance customer
service.
 Sharing best practice- Regular communications with their international network will
help them identify new ideas and new ways of working, to innovate and improve processes
and managing costs.
 Learning languages- The graduates have the opportunity of taking e-learning
modules. After all, even basic use of another language could help them relate to clients and
colleagues more effectively in the future.
 Working in multinational teams- Wherever the employees are based, their team most
probably comprise of different nationalities, potentially exposing them to different ways of
working. They may also be asked to work on a product (or project) which involves them
reaching out to colleagues in other countries.
Action Learning Programme

To help the new hires gain some experience of operating in such working teams, the company
has developed an Action Learning Programme. The graduates become part of a small virtual
team and have the opportunity to work on a live project, being mentored by senior managers

69
from different parts of the business. To spice things up, there is usually an element of
competition amongst the different graduate teams; with a focus, not only on the outcome, but
on how they operate as a team.

Working in high growth markets

Standard Chartered has graduate positions in a number of high growth markets in Asia,
Africa and the Middle East. These are some of the most exciting markets in the world, and
their strategic focus is to pursue growth opportunities in these markets.
Excellent international career opportunities

The company’s unique programme enables the new hires to gain experience and develop
knowledge that other companies can't necessarily offer. Once they have developed the right
mindset, a strong network and an impressive track record, they are more than likely to be
offered a variety of international roles within Standard Chartered.
Rotations
Each programme includes a series of rotations, with the aim to help the new hires learn the
ropes of each division within the function of their choice.
The International Induction Programme (IIP)
This residential, which takes place at the start of the programme, gives the new hires an
overview of the way the work is done at Standard Chartered and the core-personal skills they
need in their first few months.
As well as supporting their accelerated career development, the new hires can expect
interactive sessions, presentations and case studies, learning new skills, developing
knowledge and making new contacts. Moreover, they have an opportunity to chat to senior
managers and current graduates. By the end of week, the new hires have a strong network of
contacts to support them, as well as a better understanding of what is needed to be successful
over the next two years.

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In recent days various softwares have come up in the market to perform various HR
functions. There are two such softwares being used these days by companies for Onboarding
task. These have been discussed briefly further.

Efficient Hire:
Some significant features of this solution are:

 Efficient Hire's web-based on-boarding solution saves staffing firms countless hours and
thousands of dollars leaving no redundant forms and no paperwork; whole work from
helping employees with paperwork to answering questions to managing compliance
requirements and updates is done by efficient hire in which staffing firms waste
thousands of man-hours every year.
 With Efficient Hire, the entire process of paperwork completion, maintenance, and
storage and reporting can be seamlessly automated. Efficient Hire automates employee
enrolment, so you can take care of your clients.
 Efficient Hire is a complete, easy-to-use solution for complex on-boarding needs. Much
like automated tax preparation software, Efficient Hire’s intuitive and customizable
online interview module asks employees a few simple questions to determine form
requirements. Efficient Hire goes a step beyond and hand-holds and guides new hires
through the entire process, step-by-step.
 Efficient Hire takes care of it all:
 New employee enrolment
 Background and credit checks
 E-verify
 Open enrolment
 Uniform size and orders
 Cafeteria plans
 Direct deposit information
 Efficient Hire improves employee productivity and morale; during their first few weeks,
employees waste precious acclimation time in filling out excessive paperwork, debating

71
 over tax and benefit questions, and chasing staffing and HR managers to get clarifications
and suggestions. Efficient Hire’s Web-based, highly-evolved solution guides employees
throughout the on-boarding process, saves time, and fosters productivity and morale.

Cornerstone Onboarding
Cornerstone Onboarding provides an organization with a reliable and rapid response to the
troublesome issue of effective onboarding. Employees are given the tools and knowledge
they need to succeed in their roles benefitting both the employee and the future of your
organization. With Cornerstone Onboarding, organizations are able to accelerate the time to
performance of new employees by weaving them into their new environments more quickly
and thoroughly.

With the Cornerstone Onboarding program, an organization can:

 Automate routing of information and reduce paper handling

 Pre-populate forms with relevant new hire information

 Automate assignment of new hire curricula
 Place employees on forward-looking development plans
 Effectively communicate expectations and goals
 Track the employees in the onboarding process

 Key Features

 Dynamic Curricula and Orientation

Cornerstone Onboarding provides learning management tools to meet complex needs around
new hire processing, tracking, development, and orientation. It also ensures that the new hires
are automatically enrolled in appropriate development and orientation programs based on hire
date. It automatically assigns new hires to orientation curricula as they are hired using HRIS
and web services integrations.

 Forms Management

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Cornerstone Onboarding allows the organization to replace paper-based, manual, and time-
consuming processes with fully automated forms management to get new hires up and
running quickly.

 Self-Service Onboarding Portal

Cornerstone Onboarding gives each employee access to personalized learning portal for
completion of critical documentation and access to new hire development and orientation
curricula. New employees have immediate access to single location for key orientation
documentation and employees complete forms and access training and development online, at
any time.

 Development Planning & Goal Alignment

Cornerstone Onboarding gets new employees into the right development path and increase
communication about expectations and roles. Cornerstone lets organizations link the initial
onboarding process with long-range development planning and strategic goal management
processes. It enables placement of new hires on long-range development tracks that are
administered in collaboration with managers. It also links daily activities with organizational
and departmental goals to provide a clearer understanding of roles and expectations

 Reporting and Analytics

Administrators and authorized managers have immediate, web-based access to very specific
reporting and data analysis which enables identification of process bottlenecks by generating
reports to view the new hire process at any stage and generate compliance reports in the face
of audits or for ongoing risk management.

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Research means a search for knowledge or gain some new knowledge and methodology can
properly refer to the theoretical analysis of the methods appropriate to a field of study or to
the body of methods and principles particular to a branch of knowledge. A Research
Methodology has a specified framework for collecting the data in an effective manner.
Research Methodology means a process of “defining a problem, defining the research
objectives, developing the research plan, collecting the information, analyzing the
information and presentation of findings.” Such a framework is called “Research design”.

The research design contains various components like defining research, data design, nature
of data , type of research, sampling design including universe, sample unit, sample size and
sample method.

Since this curriculum of seminar did not require us to go out in the world and collect
information so whole data used doing this research work is secondary data. Various research
papers have been studied in order to make this report. All possible sources of secondary data
were contacted in order to get as realistic and practical life data as possible. And then I used
my mental skills to analyse the data available and present it in a concise manner that is easily
understandable for the readers.

Various sources of secondary data used for making this project complete are as follows:

 Text Books
 Internet Sites
 Newspaper Articles
 Brochures

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Before giving my recommendations for improving the onboarding process in an organization,
I would like to tell what are the most common mistakes or pitfalls that companies have in
their onboarding programs.

Common Pitfalls
In designing an effective program for incoming executives, it is helpful to identify typical
factors that contribute to a new manager’s failure. Many of these failures may be traced back
to the recruiting process and are best avoided there. Others may be directly related to a lack
of proper orientation from the company and, in some cases, attributable to the
mismanagement of the new hire’s expectations or insufficient preparation for the new
position. The best onboarding programs will consider all aspects that contribute to the
integration process and help redress shortcoming or oversights in this earliest phase of the
new hire’s employment.

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 Lack of credibility
Lack of feedback
in new role

Failure to think
Resentment from strategically about
Colleagues onboarding
experience

Poor Cultural Fit Dropping the ball

on short term
deliverables

Common Pitfalls in
designing an
Mismanagement Induction Program Failure to learn
of expectations the unwritten
during recruiting rules
process

 Mismanagement of expectations during recruiting processes

An effective onboarding program starts during the recruitment process and becomes
formal when an offer is accepted. A good external research partner or internal recruiter
will accurately shape the candidates expectations from the first conversation about the
opportunity. Miscommunications during the recruitment process will strain the
relationship between the few months. Key factors, such as reporting structure, future
opportunities for promotion and pay increases, and resources to be made available to the
new executive should all be covered. If using an external search firm, communication
between the client and the search firm must be constant. No promises to the candidate
should be made unless they can be delivered.
 Poor cultural fit
When recruiting, it is often easier to find a candidate with the right experience than one
who will be a good cultural fir. Reflecting on the difference between his last job and his
new job, a senior executive state the real difference was lots of cultural things that the
employees learn only by bumping into things. People can’t articulate their culture, as they
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 just assume that this is the reality at every company. There always more differences than
anticipated. Companies should not be satisfied to watch qualified employees leave after
12 months unless they have done everything that can upfront to educate the new manager
about the culture.
 Resentment from colleagues
Succeeding in a new position is difficult enough to swim upstream against resistant or
resentful colleagues. Too few companies have conversations with internal candidates who
were passed up for the role before the new executive starts. A full conversation clearly
addressing why the external candidate was chosen and what opportunities for
development remain for the internal candidate will go a long way toward creating an
opportunity for a good relationship between the external hire and the internal candidate.
 Lack of Feedback
Here we face two conflicting truisms: first impressions are important and real-time
performance feedback is rarely given. Too often, there is too little open discussion about
performance and work style between the new managers and their colleagues. A new
executive may think that things are going well, but his/her new colleagues may be
thinking that there are lots of problems with how the new executive is going about things.
Without proper feedback loops, this can go on long enough to solidify first impressions
and to failure inevitable. New hires often assume that if they are doing a bad job or failing
to integrate, someone will let them know. This is not the case in many companies and is
not within the purview of most orientation programs.
 Lack of credibility in new role
Regardless of the scale and scope of the new employee’s previous responsibility, there is
no guarantee regarding one’s credibility in the new role. Never assume that what worked
in an old job will work in the new. Old roads maps can help provide a sense of direction,
but the new position means new territory to navigate.
 Failure to think strategically about onboarding experience
Newly arrived managers often underestimate the importance of those first few months on
the job. Planning to simply do one’s job is, unfortunately, not enough. New managers
need to be proactive in facilitating their integration into the organization.
 Dropping the ball on Short-term deliverables
Managers often overestimate the time they may have to prove themselves. Typical
company orientation programs do not include sessions aimed at defining short, medium,
and long term objectives for the new hires.

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 Failure to learn the unwritten rules
New hires are often expected to learn or discuss a number of operating and work-style
nuances that are not written or discussed in the orientation. A new manager who was
accustomed to making decision through e-mail or brief conversations in the hall or over
the phone may run into trouble at a new company, where decisions are made by building
consensus at formal meetings.

So, every organization should try its level best to avoid occurrence of these pitfalls in its
onboarding process. An employee's first day on the job can be a bit scary, to say the least.
The moment he or she walks through the door, there's not only an entirely new environment
to adjust to, but also new names to learn and new locations to remember. Then there's
constant pressure of making a good first impression. And all of this comes before the
employee even begins to tackle his or her new workload. But with a few simple steps,
companies can make this transition as smooth and comfortable as possible. To help his/her
business out, here is a list of the seven things one should do on an employee's first day.
Follow these guidelines, and the organization is sure to win over its new employee, starting
him or her off on the right foot and building a foundation for a successful, productive career.

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 Greet your Prepare a
Get other Teach the Join the
new comfortabl Establish Get
employees employee employee
employee e contacts feedback
involved the basics for lunch
at the door workspace

7 Things to do on an Employee’s First day

 Greet your new employee at the door. Sitting, waiting, and worrying. Don't keep the
new worker idling awkwardly in the waiting room. Make sure someone knows when the
employee is arriving and have someone there to act as the welcoming committee if
manager can't make it in person. This small step can set the stage for the employee's first
day and potentially the rest of his or her time at the company.
 Prepare a comfortable workspace. Have a work area set up for the employee before he
or she arrives. Make the employee feel like there is already a place for him or her at the
company, not like they're an add-on or an inconvenience.
 Get other employees involved. Don't let the new employee be a surprise, something
unimportant and unnoticed. Make sure that the current workers are prepared, and
encourage them to introduce themselves to the new employee. If they're being shy,
initiate the introductions, especially with important co-workers. There's nothing worse
than feeling alienated from the people one works with.
 Teach the employee the basics. Think about what one would want to know on his/her
first day on a job. Don't make the new employee ask all the questions and end up feeling

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 like a nuisance. Start with the work environment: Point out the bathroom, the kitchen, the
printer and the supply closet — anything that will be important for his day. And then
focus on the work. Go over the employee's role in the company, but stick to the basics;
one does not want the new employee to feel overwhelmed. The worker is a smart person
— that's why the organization hired him or her. The employee will learn the details later
on. Today's goal is just making him or her feel like they are part of the company.
 Establish contacts. Make sure the new employee has a full email directory, company
phone list and so on and is directed to those persons who will be most helpful, such as a
supervisor. Also, the new employee may feel like he or she will be a burden to co-
workers by asking questions, so set him or her up with a co-worker with similar job
responsibilities to help earn the ropes. If the new employee knows that this co-worker is
there to help him or her throughout the day, he or she will feel more comfortable asking
questions.
 Join the employee for lunch. Do not let the employee eat lunch alone. Sit with him or
her or make sure others are sitting with the new worker. There may be nothing more
damaging on a first day for a new employee than to be sitting alone at a completely empty
table in a room full people he or she will have to see every day .
 Get feedback. Check in on the employee throughout the day. Ask questions, make sure
everything is going well and that he or she has everything they needs. This is the type of
relationship one wants to start with the employee from day one — open, comfortable and
constructive.

With these tips, one can turn an employee's awkward, nerve-wracking first day
into a pleasant experience that will get him or her excited about the new job. A
comfortable employee is a productive employee, and nothing drives a company
more than the hard work of those committed to it.

Now at last as a part of my recommendations, I have given the following suggestions that are
very much applicable in practical corporate world.

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Practical Suggestions
• Onboarding/Orientation starts well before the first day. Ensure communication when
the offer is in hand.
• Do not cram it all into one day by inundating you ‘newbie’ won‘t allow for a warm
welcome.
• Get the applicable managers in front of the newbie for the first 20-30 minutes and get
the introductions done.
• Take him or/her out for lunch to create a warm welcome. Do not over do it by
creating false impressions.
• Do not design the onboarding sessions to be long rambling lectures. Ensure
interactive learning modules.
• Most managers complain of no time to train. Establish a “buddy program” to provide
an extension of the manager to get this done.
• Solicit feedback from new hires and their managers to evaluate the onboarding
program.
• Design the onboarding program of the organization with line management team. It is
their program after all!

Journals

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 HRM Review, July 2009 Issue; Article- Employee Induction and Orientation,
Psychological Perspective written by K. Mallikarjunan, Retd. Deputy General Manager,
UCO Bank, Hyderabad.

 HRM Review, July 2009; Article- Induction: A Lot More Than a Welcome Package
written by Vivekanand, Faculty Member, IBS, Bengaluru.

 The Human Factor, Nov-Dec 2009 Issue; Cover Story- Around the World in 16 years
written by Ciaron Murphy, Head HR, Global Services, Nokia Siemens Networks.

Text Books
 HRM Text & Cases by VSP Rao; 2nd Edition

 HRM by Dipak Kumar Bhattacharyya; 2nd Edition

 Human Resource Management by John. M Ivancevich, Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi,
2008

 Human Resource Management by Gary Dessler, Pearson Education, New Delhi

 Human Resource Management Text & Cases by K. Ashwathappa, 2008

Web Links
 http://www.unilever.com/aboutus/introductiontounilever/unileverataglance/?
WT.LHNAV=Unilever_at_a_glance
 http://www.infosys.com/about/what-we-do/Pages/index.aspx
 http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=ibm
 http://www.workway.ie/useful_info/about_workway.508.html
 http://www.standardchartered.com/careers/graduates/international/functions.html
 http://www.standardchartered.com/about-us/en/index.html
 http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/
 http://www.taleo.com/research/whitepapers/onboarding-speeding-the-way-productivity-
1.html

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 http://www.efficienthire.com/employee-on-boarding-software-efficient-hire/on-boarding-
software-efficient-hire.html
 http://www.cornerstoneondemand.com/onboarding-new-employee-orientation
 http://www.heidrick.com/NR/rdonlyres/DA7EC785-C15D-47FA-A6E0-
DD60F9294056/0/HS_OnBoarding.pdf
 http://humanresources.about.com/od/orientation/a/onboarding.htm
 http://www.cornerstoneondemand.com/onboarding-new-employee-orientation
 http://s3.amazonaws.com/ppt-download/onboarding31109-090311151950-phpapp02.pdf?
Signature=fgvGvHToui7S5U8tw4IQkwk6rDg
%3D&Expires=1265538262&AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJLJT267DEGKZDHEQ
 http://www.humannatureatwork.com/SuccessfulOnboarding.pdf
 http://www.hr.com/SITEFORUM?
&t=/Default/gateway&i=1116423256281&application=story&active=no&ParentID=1119
278002800&StoryID=1141612059559&xref=http%3A//www.google.co.in/url%3Fsa
%3Dt%26source%3Dweb%26ct%3Dres%26cd%3D1%26ved%3D0CAYQFjAA%26url
%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fhr.com%252Fhr%252Fcommunities
%252Fbest_practices_in_onboarding_and_employee_orientation_eng.html%26rct%3Dj
%26q%3Donboarding+best+practices%26ei%3DXcaLS5jcFoH-7APxnrSzDQ%26usg
%3DAFQjCNFJA7leC7KoyHyPIR2L_SXKMebjAg
 http://humanresources.about.com/od/orientation/a/onboarding.htm?rd=1
 http://www.hrworld.com/features/onboarding-checklist-73108/
 http://unilever.com/careers/whyjoinus/experiencedprofessionals/inductionprocess/?
WT.LHNAV=Induction_process
 http://www.bersinassociates.com/free_research/randstad_case_study_2.02.pdf
 http://www.articlesbase.com/human-resources-articles/employee-onboarding-an-hr-
technology-seeking-a-definition-501760.html
 http://lifebpo.blogspot.com/2008/06/induction-in-infosys-bpo-i_29.html
 http://www.lifebpo.blogspot.com/2008/06/induction-in-infosys-bpo-i.html
 http://h10055.www1.hp.com/jobsathp/content/student/faq.asp?Lang=ENen&area=NZ
 http://www8.hp.com/ie/en/jobsathp/working-at-hp/learning-development.html
 http://www.wiprocorporate.com/values/values-index.asp
 http://www.talentmgt.com/departments/insight/2007/April/296/index.php?
pt=a&aid=296&start=3395&page=2
 http://www.brainyquote.com/words/in/induction178037.html

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 http://www.4syndication.com/reallife_services_-
_outstanding_outsourcing_options/onboarding_the_definition/7177/v.do
 https://www.hrtools.com/staffing/what_is_the_difference_between_onboarding_and_orie
ntation.aspx
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onboarding
 http://www.money-zine.com/Career-Development/Finding-a-Job/Employee-Onboarding/
 http://www.humannatureatwork.com/articles/employee_retention/all_aboard.htm
 http://www.hrmreport.com/article/Streamlining-the-Onboarding-Process-Improving-the-
Information-Flow-between-Pre--and-Post-hire-Systems/
 http://www.hrworld.com/features/7-things-first-day/

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