Onboarding: Getting New Hires off to a Flying Start

Here at Mind Tools, we wholeheartedly agree that onboarding should be taken seriously. We even developed our own tool to help organizations get it right. Our STEPS model is based on Settling, Testing and Evaluating people, and helping them to Progress and Succeed. And the book we're looking at today backs up every part of that process, while adding persuasive evidence from research, and providing detailed, practical advice.

"Onboarding" is mainly aimed at managers and human resource teams. It shows them how to design a complete onboarding process. But there are also pointers for senior leaders, who need to play their part in making it a success. And there's advice for anyone being onboarded, too. It outlines the support you should be getting – and some steps to take if you're not!

So, keep listening to find out why companies need to get onboarding right, how any organization can find ways to support its new recruits, and what to do when the new member of the team is you!

There's an impressive set of writers behind "Onboarding." Lead author Christian Harpelund has an MSc in Organizational Psychology, and is the co-founder of Onboarding Group, which designs structured onboarding schemes. His two co-writers work there, too, as well as being experts in their own right. Morten Højberg is the founder of recruiting company Moment. And Kasper Ulf Nielsen helped start the Reputation Institute, a global leader in reputation measurement and management. Together they make a formidable team.

"Onboarding" is a stylish-looking hardback, with cartoons and diagrams to break up the text. That said, it does demand close reading, and you'll need a fair amount of commitment to work through all the evidence, insights and advice. But the authors' positive tone is energizing from the start – reflected by their subtitle, "Getting New Hires off to a Flying Start."

And, like any airplane flight, settling someone into a new role needs to be controlled from start to finish. There are practical things to attend to, such as making sure people know their working hours, and giving them a desk to sit at. But onboarding has to go much deeper than that if they're going to succeed in their new role – and want to stay there. The authors lay out their case in the short introduction.

By the start of Part 1, titled "Takeoff," they've prepared us for a significant journey. And it's one that needs to be taken seriously. At the moment, they say, there's just too little investment in onboarding. In the U.S., for example, only 13 percent of companies put aside any money for it, despite evidence that proper funding would bring dividends.

Budget or no budget, how do you make sure your new hires have a successful takeoff? According to this book, everything you do needs to be geared to developing an "onboarding mindset." And that comes from understanding what people really need when they start – which is much more than an entry pass, directions to the cafeteria, or even the company handbook.

In short, people need to feel ready to start. So put time and effort into communicating with new recruits before their first day. Don't give them any reason to doubt your commitment to them. Instead, show them that everything is organized ready for their arrival, and support them to do any preparatory training or research.

And then, when they start for real, get them contributing as soon as possible. At one Silicon Valley company, for example, all newly hired programmers are expected to produce new code that they can share by the end of day one. An immediate target like this is a great way to make people feel valuable. It reassures them that they're up to the job. It also builds relationships and generates momentum for the rest of the onboarding process.

In fact, the authors of "Onboarding" are big fans of targets all around. Early on, targets reveal a company's expectations, and highlight the ambitions it has for its new hires. And in the longer term, targets help recruits understand the transition process they're undergoing, and let them know when it's finished.

After all, it's no good being "half onboarded." The process needs a clear schedule, with specific ways that new people can show others – and themselves – that they've integrated into the team. It's only by going through the whole chrysalis stage that caterpillars can emerge as butterflies.

So how do you create an environment where that sort of staged transformation can happen? Part 2 outlines the authors' approach in practice.

Onboarding, they say, means welcoming people into an organizational culture. But that can only happen if the organization knows what its culture is. So, there's a tool here to explore the culture where you work. You choose where your organization sits on various sliding scales – between "disciplined" and "flow based," for example, or between "compliant" and "learning."

Being clear about these and other aspects of your culture should help you communicate them to new hires, and that's crucial for successful onboarding. It's only when people understand what really matters to an organization that all the "rules" make sense. The sooner new recruits tune into the core values and aims of a business, the sooner they'll see where they fit in – and how they can flourish.

There's a lot to learn in any new job. With that in mind, the authors advocate what they call "need-to-know teaching." That means resisting the urge to tell new hires everything at once. Instead, the best onboarding happens in the present, not by trying to explain every possible eventuality. So, you should link information to what someone is actually doing, which will make them more inclined to understand its importance – and to remember it in the long run.

Of course, some types of information are easier to communicate than others. Formal rules, such as parking arrangements, working hours, and security protocols, tend to be fairly straightforward. Pass them on clearly and succinctly, and they should help people feel secure.

But every organization also has its informal rules. Unwritten dress codes, for example, behavior at meetings, and styles of communication. New people will likely feel unsure until they've got these nailed, too.

And the best way to help with that? Allocate a workplace buddy. If you choose this person with care, they'll go a long way to helping a new hire feel fully informed – especially about some of those subtle aspects of company life that are never actually spelled out.

And if possible, arrange for your recruits to meet top leaders early on. This should give them a clearer picture of the company's overall aims, and a close-up view of the people who have most influence over its culture. We also loved the suggestion about introducing new people to the oldest members of an organization – maybe even people who've retired, but who still have valuable wisdom to share.

All these strategies should help new people connect with all the different networks operating in the organization. In any workplace, there are at least four different ones to join. First, there's the organizational network, the way the whole business is organized. Giving someone a stakeholder map will help them understand where they fit in.

Then there's the work network, based on a person's day-to-day role. Being buddied with someone on the same team will likely benefit here.

The knowledge-based network is about knowing how to access and share information. To make good connections here, the authors suggest using the "trialogue" approach. That's when your buddy or mentor introduces you to key people in the wider organization.

Finally, there's the social network. Companies should provide a range of ways for people to socialize, which will help new hires relax, connect with their colleagues, and have fun! The sooner people feel comfortable to use the pronoun "we" at work, the sooner they'll feel connected to the organization, and committed to their new role.

It's hard to argue with any of these aims, or with the authors' ideas for achieving them. But this book doesn't make light of the problems that many people still go through, particularly when the welcome events and orientation meetings are over.

As the reality of a new job hits home, new recruits may well find themselves under considerable pressure. One U.S. study showed that so many new hires are overwhelmed by stress every year, it costs their companies a combined $300 billion.

So, it's clear that the support on offer needs to continue long after week one. The authors of "Onboarding" say that, in the long run, the best way to support people is to empower them. Make it OK for them to take notes, for example. Encourage them to record factual information, but also to log some of the more subtle things they notice – particularly any questions that arise. By doing so, you'll get them to take increasing control of their own learning process.

We like this bold approach. Encouraging people to play a leading role in their own onboarding, and expecting them to contribute from the start, seems like a great way to counter Impostor Syndrome. And you'll keep their enthusiasm strong if you pitch work within their Zone of Proximal Development.

The authors borrow this term from the field of psychology, and it refers to the gap between a learner needing help with a task and not needing that help. That's where things are challenging, but still feel achievable. Learning by doing will always be better than sitting on the sidelines reading the company handbook.

In Part 3, the authors look at how to turn all these principles into a practical plan. Their Onboarding Model is a tool to help you analyze what you're doing now, and see which elements need to be improved. It pulls up all the key aspects of onboarding, and lets you check that every onboarding activity you do supports at least one of them. It also ensures that your overall approach to onboarding covers everything it should.

There are some handy templates here to record and measure onboarding as it unfolds. These should also highlight all the key points in the process, from the moment someone's appointed, to the day when they're a fully fledged member of the team.

So, what's our verdict on "Onboarding" as a whole? Well, we're confident to recommend it, especially to managers and people working in human resources. It's a well-researched and carefully referenced book, with persuasive evidence that its key ideas are worth putting into practice.

The text is fairly tightly packed on each page, and some turns of phrase are a little academic. But that's balanced by its overwhelmingly positive and practical tone, and by the inclusion of some very useful tools.

Some complex issues are dealt with a little too quickly, such as how to handle different personality types, and how to onboard people into managerial roles. We also think the book would have benefited from having downloadable resources, rather than just showing pictures of the key tables and tools.

That said, the authors present an extremely comprehensive guide to onboarding, and demonstrate that it's something every organization should take seriously. That makes it an ideal book for people who manage onboarding in practice, or those who can influence their organization at a strategic level. It also includes enough down-to-earth tips to make it a useful read for anyone in a line-management role.

And, if you're about to take on a new position yourself, this book will reveal if you're not being given all the things you need to succeed, so you can do everything you can to get them!

But it's not just about your rights. "Onboarding" also explains your responsibilities – because it's only by collaborating with your new organization, throughout the onboarding process, that you'll come through it successfully.

In the words of an Indian consultancy firm mentioned in the book, you'll move from "I begin" to "I belong."

"Onboarding: Getting New Hires off to a Flying Start," by Christian Harpelund, with Morten Højberg and Kasper Ulf Nielsen, is published by Emerald Publishing.

That's the end of this episode of Mind Tools Book Insights, from Emerald Works. Thanks for listening.

Buy your own copy of "Onboarding" from the Mind Tools store.

Note: Mind Tools is a product of Emerald Works, which is part of the Emerald Group along with Emerald Publishing, but we only choose books to feature in Book Insights that we think are suitable and worthwhile for our audience, irrespective of publisher.