The most successful leaders and teams recognize that onboarding isn’t purely a one-day orientation. The best cultures understand that onboarding is an intentional longer-term strategy that engages, develops, and empowers collective ownership of the culture.
SHOW NOTES
Jason introduces Season 6 episode 18 of the podcast, Onboarding Is Not An Orientation. Welcome back to the podcast on corporate culture and leadership and thank you for listening. We engage thought leaders like CEOs, CFOs, managers, VPs, directors, and more for this podcast. We wish to create content that engages your mind and heart and allows you to step back and think and add some positivity to your life. We deep dive into today’s topic.
We can’t control everything but what we can control is our response. Still a lot of work to do but wanted to remind the audience what is within our control is the temperature we create in the organizations and teams we work with. If you have a suggestion, please send it to info@jasonvbarger.com
Please leave a review for the podcast It really helps the podcast to spread these messages out into the world. Please share this podcast with your organization, on your team, or in your life to help spread these messages. Thank you!
“Gallup reports, Employees who are engaged are between 2-5x more likely to hit targets.”
4:25 – Jason introduces today’s topic. All the research points to people looking for more meaningful work cultures. People want to belong at their place of work. If people feel that way it leads to 3x times likely that they will reach their full potential. It’s no secret that The Great Resignation has been happening where over 30 million people have resigned from their jobs. We cover this in greater detail in our multi-part series on the Great Resignation. Gallup reports, Employees who are engaged are between 2-5x more likely to hit targets. Today Jason shares lessons learned. Jason talks about onboarding and why so many leaders are missing the mark when it comes to adding new people to the company culture. Why is it that so many team leaders arent very good at onboarding humans effectively into their culture? We dive in today to cover this on the podcast.
9:11 – Listen to Tamara Myles and Wesley Adams podcast on the 10 principles of meaningful cultures here. On today’s podcast, Jason talks about 2 key principles of making a meaningful work culture. The first is, “Making a strong first impression”. The second is, “encourage collective ownership of the culture.” Research shows that making a strong first impression is critical. Many companies think, “well we onboarded them, so what’s the problem here?”. What is needed is bringing in the employee into the work culture on a deeper level. Jason goes into this here.
12:57 – Jason talks about longer onboarding strategies for work culture. Invite them and show them and participate in a collective ownership of the culture. Here are some tips.
- The first impression begins well before the first day. – The reality, your first impression starts well before and this includes your digital footprint, the online rumors about the company, your LinkedIn, your videos, your interviews are all connected to what is known about the company. How are you handling them in the interviews? How are you treated as well? The presence that the employee senses around you is important as well. The entire hiring process is the first impression.
- Culture fit is a two-way street. – First impressions happen in the midst of that process. If your interview process is purely aimed at direct questions to the employee and not reciprocating back that can put you in a negative light. If employees don’t like what they are seeing in your culture, they will go somewhere else, especially in today’s competitive world. In many ways, the interview process is a culture fit for them too and in some ways they should be interviewing you as well.
- Orientation should be a kickoff to an onboarding path of development. – Orientation is NOT onboarding. It is not a one-and-done kind of experience. This is not just a time to talk AT people. Often it just becomes a firehouse of information in a one-way experience that does not help them participate. Allow space for questions that allow them to participate in the work culture and really understand what this all means for them in their new role with the company or organization.
- Culture should be embedded into day 1. – It is an experiential experience along the way with INTERACTIVE dialogue with them around the values of the company. It is important to not just share the posters on the wall but what do these values look like in action and behavior?
- Onboarding strategy should have guideposts – Add places where you will support the new team member along the way and be intentional of this. The orientation on day 1 is one of them but also have touch bases on week 1 and day 30, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, etc etc. After week one, schedule a check-in to what the experience has been so far and how they are doing.
- Onboarding is the responsibility of all. – It’s not just the employee, the manager, the HR team, the best teams, and organizations have a mindset that onboarding is the responsibility of all. We all have collective ownership of the culture. Help support them, walk with them, bring them up to speed together.
The first impression begins well before the first day.
Questions to Ponder
- Have you strategically mapped out your onboarding experience? What is the experience you want them to have that first year and beyond? Have you mapped out those guideposts for that onboarding experience?
- How are you embedding your cultural values and vision for where the company is going into the experience?
- What guideposts have you established for week 1, day 30, day 365 etc? How are you going to deepen the conversation and development at those guideposts moving forward?
Onboarding is not a one-day orientation it’s apart of an onboarding ongoing strategy to bring that team member into that collective ownership of the culture.
Please leave a review for the podcast It really helps the podcast to spread these messages out into the world. Please share this podcast with your organization, on your team, or in your life to help spread these messages. Thank you!
Remember, the best leaders, teams, & cultures stimulate progress by recalibrating their thermostat together.
If you like the podcast, have a question, or just want to share your thoughts about daring to begin please leave a comment below or please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts.
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ABOUT THE THERMOSTAT
Conversations and micro-thoughts to engage your mind and heart.
A thermostat is proactive. It sets the temperature in a room. Controls the temperature. Regulates the temperature. But in today’s distracted, fast-paced and digital world, it’s easy for individuals and organizations to act more like thermometers, slipping into reactionary thinking, becoming scattered and inconsistent. The most compelling leaders, teams, organizations, families, or collection of humans of any kind operate in thermostat mode. They calibrate their mind and heart to set the temperature for the vision and culture they want to create. Jason Barger, globally celebrated author, keynote speaker, and founder of Step Back Leadership Consulting, is the host of The Thermostat, a podcast journey to discover authentic leadership, create compelling cultures and find clarity of mission, vision, and values.