Who Should Be On Your Acculturation Team?

Workforce.com has an article up this week that is very relevant to acculturation onboarding. Author Kris Dunn (from the HRCapitalist website) has figured out the number one question to ask on employee engagement surveys to improve your corporate culture. It cuts through all the obfuscation and gets right to the heart of the matter. That $100,000 question is basically:


“Other than your current manager, if you could pick any manager in any department in the company to work for, which one would it be and why?”

Dunn speculates that the information you collect from this survey question would be a real eye opener. Coworkers talk amongst themselves and they all know who has the reputation as being the best boss to work for. However, what they value in a manager may be totally different from what business owners think of as most important. Getting a solid read on what rank and file workers want to see as far as management style and behaviors go offers insight into how to train current and future leaders for your company.

Developing Effective Onboarding

The “popular” managers are also the ones you want working with HR to develop your acculturation onboarding program. These talented and skilled individuals have created loyalty among their direct reports and gained the admiration and respect of employees who don’t even work for them. That’s the spirit you want new hires to get a sense of even before starting their first day on the job. The people your employees identify as top managers can be involved in everything from designing welcome materials to suggesting improvements to the mentoring program. Take a look at the features available in our Acculturation Portal to start brainstorming ways for your team of top managers to get involved with this onboarding creation process.

It Doesn’t Stop with Onboarding

Kris makes an excellent point that once you hand a new employee over to his/her manager you lose control over the acculturation process. You can do your very best to make the experience in HR wonderful, but it’s no good if the freshly hired employees get a rude awakening when they reach their department. So, once you have figured out what your best-liked leaders are doing right, it’s time to develop your other managers to meet this higher standard. If you want to turn great onboarding into great long term retention, that’s an essential part of the picture.