One reason why On-boarding may not have been previously given priority in many organisations stems from a lack of clarity over who has responsibility for owning and managing the process. Historically, HR organised orientation days, ensuring that new employees were fully versed in company policies and procedures.
However, as businesses now move to a more transparent, agile and technology-focused operating style, we have seen the On-boarding process embrace more areas, specifically around culture, values and social fit. It is also becoming increasingly critical to embed On-boarding in day-to-day operations, to ensure it is effective and can create a supporting infrastructure that enables continuous learning.
A more integrated and extended On-boarding process needs input and part ownership from different areas of the organisation. HR will still lead and own the overall On-boarding experience and concept, and will also evaluate its effectiveness. Senior and line management is increasingly involved for sponsoring and contributing to a blended programme of learning and acclimatisation. This programme spans multiple offices, functions and individuals.
Involvement with senior management and peers is slowly but surely on the agenda for businesses. For 95% of participants in our research, new employees have a meeting with their managers regarding their role early in the On-boarding process, and for 55% there is a meeting with either the CEO or a member of the executive management team. As we have seen, within 66% of organisations in our research, a buddy is assigned to the new hire, whilst almost half allocate a mentor. We would expect the importance of mentors to be recognised more in the near future.
As shown in the table above, Executive Management is becoming more involved with the On-boarding process: 86% promote the importance of well-organised programmes to the wider business, with 92% holding business leaders to account over the success of these programmes. A large proportion of senior managers 81% introduce new employees to the business. In our case study featuring Old Mutual (see page 11) it is the involvement of leaders and senior executives from the outset that helps to inspire new hires from their first day.
Five key trends
'More active involvement of senior management' is one of the five key trends we have identified in the On-boarding report. These five key practices should be included in today’s On-boarding processes.
Download the full On-boarding report to learn all about the current trends in On-boarding and how organisations deal with these trends in their business processes.
