When Does Onboarding End?

With every employee, there comes a point when they are no longer a "new hire". For some organizations, this transition is perceived as happening once the worker has completed a standard probationary period. However, simply retaining an employee past that 30, 60, or 90 day milestone doesn't mean the integration process has necessarily been successfully completed. How can HR and management determine that onboarding is really finished and the new hire has become a full fledged employee?

The Big Picture

To figure out where onboarding ends, it's helpful to start by looking at where the process begins. Ideally, acculturation onboarding will begin when a job candidate first contacts the company. The recruitment process should be branded in a manner that is consistent with HR and the organization as a whole. This helps ensure that individuals who accept a job offer have a basic grasp of what type of corporate culture they are entering. For example, the level of formality in dress and conversation recruiters display in a typical interview should reflect the general atmosphere of the workplace.

Transactional Onboarding

A new hire's first day of work is typically when the bulk of transactional onboarding occurs. This includes filling out forms, reading and signing policies, and providing documentation of work authorization status. Depending on the nature of the job and an organization's preferred timeline, drug testing, background checks, security clearances, provisioning, and other tasks may take a few more days after hiring to finish. However, transactional onboarding functions are typically completed quickly (assuming an effective software application such as Universal Onboarding is used to automate this process). HR can mark this part of the job as done when they have:

• Gathered all necessary information from the new hire
• Checked for completeness and compliance
• Distributed data to back end systems as needed (Payroll, state new hire reporting center, etc)
• Ensured the new hire has all tangible and intangible items required for work

Acculturation Onboarding

The process of acculturating a new hire is one that will take some time regardless of the level of efficiency in HR. This is an area where many organizations may think they have brought an employee fully on board but have actually failed to do so. That's a common error when the acculturation process objectives and metrics have not been fully defined. A comprehensive acculturation strategy includes:

Training & Skills

• Evaluation of new hire's competence to perform assigned duties.
• Provision of remedial, advanced, or specialized skills training based on initial evaluation and job requirements. This may include online, on-site, or off-site classes and/or coworker mentoring.
• Confirmation that adequate level of skill/ability has been attained after training.
• Verification of new hire's attendance at anti-harassment, workplace safety, and other classes that are mandated by law and/or company policy.
• Evaluation of new hire's comprehension of policies and company objectives (this may be done using questionnaires or tutorials).

Socialization

• Orientation (online and/or in person) to supply the new hire with context regarding the organization's history, objectives, values, mission statement, etc.
• Socialization including face time with department manager and coworkers to make introductions and begin establishing positive work relationships. Company tour should also be provided as soon as possible.
• Assistance for new hires to help them participate in organization's communication platform and professional/social networking. May include assignment of specific online socialization tasks such as posting a profile on the organization's intranet site. New hire's participation in online socialization should be tracked to see if further encouragement is needed in any area.

Satisfaction

• Assignment of a mentor (formal or casual) to help new hire adjust to the organization's culture and to answer questions as needed.
• Provision of all tools/equipment required for new hire to perform assigned tasks. Assessment of workstation or work area to ensure it is ergonomic and accessible.
• Collection of survey information after transactional onboarding and orientation to assess new hire's satisfaction level. Follow up surveys may be performed at the 30 day mark and on completion of the probation period. Coworkers should also be asked to provide their perspective on how well the new hire is assimilating.

Obviously, the type of in-depth analysis required to measure the success of these acculturation objectives is another area where appropriate technology can save time and increase efficiency/accuracy. Emerald Software's Acculturation Portal is designed to provide a foundation for promoting best practices in new hire evaluation, orientation, training, socialization, and assessments. It can be used as a standalone module or interfaced with other applications such as Microsoft SharePoint to enhance a new hire's acculturation experience. Most importantly, the Portal can assist HR in collecting and analyzing data to define objectively when full onboard status has been achieved for each new hire.