My On-boarding Experience

On-boarding is an important process that helps integrate a new employee into the company. Successful on-boarding processes have many different aspects and activities that engage new employees. Bromford, a social enterprise in England, has a comprehensive on-boarding website which includes 12 steps to help acclimate their new employees. The steps are: 1) a welcome message from the CEO; 2) access to online profiles to learn about co-workers and managers; 3) a history of the business; 4) an explanation of the working environment; 5) an introduction to all communication channels used by the company; 6) a detailed explanation of what to expect in the first six months; 7) an explanation of the company's strategy; 8) an overview of the company's operations; 9) an explanation of employee benefits; 10) a detailed handbook of all HR policies and procedures; 11) training and information on safety and well-being; 12) a list of commonly asked questions (Dinnen & Alder, 2017, pp. 105-108). While all of these steps are important to the company's on-boarding process, a few of these steps are critical. First, new employees need to know who they are working with and for. Steps two and four provide this information as well as how to communicate with them. This will drastically improve team dynamics and overall company performance. Additionally, steps six and ten are critical for managing the expectations of new employees.
One on-boarding experience that I had was when I was first hired as a car sales professional at a dealership. This was my first time in this type of job and was a completely new experience for me. During my interview, the hiring manager offer me a position and told me to report to him the following Monday morning. The dealership had just changed ownership and management. When I arrived on Monday, there were several other new hires and we all met with the hiring manager. We immediately began training with the manager and were also provided access to online training. The whole first week consisted of the manager training us on the sales process, and completing the online training program from the auto manufacturer. That Saturday was the first time that we were allowed to interact with customers, and at this point, we were expected to hit the ground running. We had covered just enough training that I was able to close my first sale that day, however there was a lot left to learn. Unfortunately, the dealership's on-boarding process did not continue much more than that. Looking back on this experience, I see now the importance of an extensive on-boarding process. The dealership did not introduce us to key players in other departments, did not provide adequate on-going training, nor did it help shape expectations. This forced a very steep learning curve for new employees and probably contributed to a higher turnover rate. In over five years at that dealership, I worked with over 75 different sales professionals, and that was just the turnover in the sales department. Unfortunately, this is quite common in the automotive industry. As a future manager, I hope to take my experience at the dealership and the knowledge I have gained from this course to implement effective on-boarding practices with new employees.

References

Dinnen, M., & Alder, M. (2017) Exceptional talent: How to attract, acquire and retain the very best employees. New York, NY: Kogan Page Limited.