Onboarding Recent College Grads

College graduates are a unique workforce demographic with their own special onboarding needs in a corporate office setting. They generally come in three basic varieties:

• Those who have never held a job before
  
• Those who worked their way through college by taking jobs in the service sector (retail, restaurants, etc)
  
• Those who have worked as interns in a "white collar" industry
  

Former interns usually have a realistic idea of how the corporate world works and won't have much trouble adjusting to office life. However, the culture shock for new hires in groups 1 and 2 can be pretty extreme. They may pick up on social cues to figure out how to act by trial and error. However, the number of times HR or management has to pull one of these "newbies" aside to give them advice on "how things work around here" can be minimized with a good acculturation onboarding process.

First Time Job Holders

New hires fresh from college have a pretty good handle on socializing and will probably take to your corporate networking platform like a fish to water. However, they have spent the last 4 years (or more) surrounded by people who are roughly the same age they are. Learning to communicate with coworkers who represent a much larger age range may be a challenge. A strong mentoring program can help these young people adjust to working well with older, more experienced peers.

Rules about appropriate dress, punctuality, and other behaviors that impact how professionally the workplace operates should be addressed both in policies and in training/orientation. This can be done in a fun way so that grads see it as a way to fit in and be accepted as part of the team instead of a way their employer is trying to stifle their individuality.

Former Service/Retail Industry Workers

Not being under constant supervision can be a real change for workers who haven't held a regular office job before. They may perceive a lack of direction as a sign that they aren't valued (or that it's OK to spend time goofing off). Assigning multiple online acculturation onboarding tasks and following up via email can give these new hires a sense of purpose and direction. As they are recognized and rewarded for taking initiative and accessing various self-teaching modules, they will come to appreciate the greater autonomy provided by their new job.

The AllegroHR Acculturation Portal is a perfect match for recent college grads - many of whom have done at least some of their coursework online. Whether it is used for delivering information, providing opportunities for socialization, or presenting training/development materials, new hires can intuitively navigate the system easily on their first day of work.