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.

Day One Provisioning and Acculturation Onboarding

Employee satisfaction is a vital aspect of acculturation onboarding. Here at Emerald Software, we believe a user-friendly system that makes it easy to fill out all the required forms can deliver that first spark of happiness. Zipping through the transactional process at record speed also leaves the new hire with plenty of time to start becoming socialized on the first day. Making introductions is an important step, but the rubber really meets the road when your new hire sits down at his/her workstation for the first time.

Giving New Hires What They Need

You only get one opportunity to wow employees with your organization's ability to plan/provide effectively for their first day of work. Every time new hires have to sit and wait while you scramble to locate or set up something that should have been ready and waiting, they become more anxious. Here are some of the thoughts that may be running through their heads:

• I really want to get to work and start making a good impression on my new boss. Will I be able to do anything productive or is this day a total waste?
  
• Gee, I'm putting this person to a lot of trouble and inconvenience - was there something I should have done to prepare better?
  
• These guys don't seem very organized - is every day going to be this hectic? I hope not.
  
• They can't even find a trash can for me - and IT said they can't set up my phone until Wednesday. Did I make a mistake in taking this job?
  
• Why don't they have safety equipment in stock for all their new employees? Does this company just not care?
  

Mistakes happen and sometimes people drop the ball. However, if there is a pattern of unpreparedness this is something that has to be addressed on a structural level. You need an actual business process in place for provisioning new hires. Do you have requisitioning software that makes it easy to plan ahead and hold each department accountable for doing their part?

The AllegroHR Staff Service Request (SSR) system does just that. It's not limited to tangible items - managers can requisition anything and everything a new hire might possibly need. You can even add fun stuff that's designed to acculturate employees and make them feel at home. Do you have water bottles or ball caps with your company logo? Make sure these items are included in your standard SSR for every new hire to welcome them to your team.