4 Strategically Integrating New Employees

National Science Foundation Center for Veterinary Medicine

What do you remember about your first day on the job? You likely had a lot of questions about your role and responsibilities in your new organization: What should I be doing today? My first month? By the end of my first six months? You probably also had questions about office logistics and operations: How do I log into my email? Where’s the printer? Other questions are more informal in nature, and perhaps you didn’t feel there was anybody you could ask directly: Where and when should I eat lunch? Can I drop by someone’s office if I have a question or should I send a meeting request? What does the office dress code really mean?

Walking into your first day on the job can be an intimidating experience. First impressions are important—for both the new employee and the organization. All too often, employees arrive on their first day to find an empty desk or an improperly functioning computer, a manager who is unaware of their start date, or simply a big pile of intimidating paperwork. How an organization handles this first experience sets the tone for the relationship, can leave a lasting impression on the employee’s productivity and satisfaction, and often has an impact on whether the employee decides to stay with the organization.

Onboarding refers to the process of strategically integrating new employees into the organization’s culture and their specific position. An effective onboarding process provides new employees with a range of tools, resources, and connections they need to succeed on the job. All organizations have a basic orientation process, most likely involving the completion of HR forms and ensuring that employees have basic resources (e.g., desk, computer) to perform their job. Many organizations go a step further by providing a handbook or orientation session that covers topics related to company history, culture, policies, and procedures. The most strategic organizations take a more comprehensive approach to acclimating employees by implementing an onboarding process that begins as soon as an employment offer is accepted and extends throughout the first year of employment (Table 4-1).

Table 4-1. Orientation vs. Onboarding

But at a time when many organizations are facing reduced training and travel budgets, does it make sense to invest those precious resources in onboarding? Consider these numbers: Each year, about 25 percent of the working population in the United States experience a career transition.¹ Over 85 percent of new employees decide whether to stay with the organization within their first six months on the job.² Approximately 50 percent of externally hired senior employees fail within the first 18 months in the new job.³ Transitions like these are not cheap: In 2011, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) reported the average cost-per-hire at $5,054.⁴ Executives hired through external search firms are no exception to this high cost and in fact can cost considerably more than the average cost-per-hire.

While the costs of hiring and the loss of productivity are easy to calculate, the more intangible impacts of a new hire’s time to productivity or turnover (particularly for a leadership position) can have a rippling effect on the organization in terms of workload, employee morale, and leadership vision. With so many individuals entering new positions—and many of them quickly failing or choosing to leave—it simply makes sense to invest in onboarding new hires through a thoughtful and strategic process. Organizations that choose to invest in comprehensive onboarding processes are rewarded with a range of positive outcomes, including improved performance, increased engagement, and decreased turnover.

While onboarding processes vary greatly depending on the position, organization, and available resources, a comprehensive onboarding program integrates the “4 Cs”: compliance, clarification, culture, and connection:⁵

• Compliance refers to teaching new employees about the basic rules and regulations that govern the work environment, such as applicable laws, personnel regulations, and organizational rules.

• Clarification involves assimilating new employees into their specific positions, including roles, responsibilities, and associated expectations.

• Culture refers to orienting new employees not only to formal processes but also to informal organizational norms, values, and cultural aspects that have an impact on “how we get things done around here.”

• Connection refers to facilitating interpersonal relationships that will help employees perform.

What form the “4 Cs” take in an organization’s onboarding process—and which elements are stressed—will depend on the specific needs of the population. For example, demonstrating and reinforcing the organizational culture may be particularly important for geographically dispersed organizations where a new employee may become more familiar with the local subculture than with overarching organizational values. Similarly, strong networks are particularly important for individuals in leadership-level positions; accordingly, an onboarding program aimed at this population should provide ample opportunity and resources for connection.

The Case of the National Science Foundation

At one point or another, turnover is a fact of life for every organization. But imagine the challenges that arise when turnover is ingrained in your business model. Such is the case with the National Science Foundation (NSF), where approximately 15 percent of the workforce are in short-term “rotator” positions. Many of these individuals are top researchers from academic institutions who come to NSF for a brief period (one to four years) to apply their knowledge related to a particular scientific field. While this model brings the latest scientific knowledge and a wealth of innovative ideas to NSF—which is critical to the progress of science and engineering fields—it requires the continual onboarding of new employees. Moreover, because most rotating personnel come to NSF from an academic environment with culture and processes that differ dramatically from those of a federal agency, the need to orient new employees to the work environment and federal frameworks within which NSF operates becomes even more pressing.

Recognizing these needs as a business imperative, NSF undertook a series of efforts to revamp its process for onboarding its general workforce and to develop a robust onboarding program specifically targeted at its executive workforce. NSF’s eventual success in onboarding its workforce came largely from its emphasis on making new employee assimilation an integrated, ongoing process rather than a single event. At its core, NSF’s onboarding programs address the wide array of new employee needs—from knowing what to expect before their first day, to understanding the specific culture and work practices of their individual division and job function, to transferring critical knowledge from a departing executive to an incoming leader.

Through the implementation of blended, phased activities starting before day one and continuing through year one, NSF arms new hires with an array of resources that enable them to take an active role in their own onboarding. At the same time, NSF focuses on providing guidance and tools to supervisors, administrative staff, HR professionals, and other participants involved in supporting new employee assimilation—in effect making new employee onboarding central to everyone’s job.

Compliance

In accord with federal legal and organizational security requirements, a new employee’s first experience includes a slew of paperwork and numerous compliance-driven activities. Is there any good way to communicate the laundry list of rules, regulations, and responsibilities the typical employee must understand and accept within the first eight hours on the job? With a little foresight and the help of technology, organizations can make even the most paperwork-intensive requirements seem painless.

One objective of NSF’s New Employee Welcome (NEW) program is to do just that. Starting with an individual’s acceptance of a job, the Division of Human Resources (HRM) sends the new employee a comprehensive package of materials, including an invitation to visit the NEW website, where he or she can access information about NSF’s mission, history, and organizational structure as well as learn about benefits and career-life programs (Figure 4-1). This self-service portal helps employees come prepared for their first day knowing both what to expect and what to bring. All new employees are provided contact information for an HRM representative, who contacts them directly prior to their arrival to welcome them to NSF and answer any questions they may have about their first day (e.g., logistics, transportation).

FIGURE 4-1 New Employee Welcome System

Employees then begin their first day in NSF’s New Employee Orientation (NEO) program. Depending on an employee’s specific job and employment arrangement, he or she may attend one or two days of orientation addressing topics ranging from conflicts of interest to available learning and development opportunities. Scheduling is flexible and is tailored by employment type. All employees view a video about NSF’s mission, including perspectives from current staff about what it is like to work at NSF, which provides a consistent preview to all new hires.

To address organization-specific onboarding requirements, NSF maintains a comprehensive resource for welcoming new employees on its internal website. Since supervisors and staff don’t always know the best way to become involved in onboarding and supporting new employees, the website provides an overview of the welcome process and detailed guidance for supervisors, administrative staff, and liaisons (“buddies”). Program guides, checklists of activities, sample communications and talking points, and frequently asked questions make it easy for a range of players to support the onboarding process.

In addition to the NEW program, which is geared to the needs of the general workforce, NSF designed and implemented an onboarding program tailored specifically to new executives. The new executive transition (NExT) program supports transitions into NSF executive positions from within NSF, other federal agencies, and outside the government. The program aims to support executives in reaching full performance as quickly as possible by developing knowledge about NSF’s mission, culture, organization, people, and business processes. To do so, NSF implemented a range of innovative tools and support systems that cover, and even go beyond, the “4 Cs” (Figure 4-2).

FIGURE 4-2 NExT Program Components

Clarification

One of the major challenges individuals face when joining NSF’s executive corps is the increase in management responsibilities compared to their jobs in academia. While new executives may have some experience managing research programs and graduate students at their university, they typically do not have experience managing the large staffs, budgets, structured performance requirements, and federal and international partnerships that contribute to NSF’s mission. To help executives understand their management responsibilities, NSF developed a website that delivers critical information related to each of these areas. The Executive Resources website provides information on management topics ranging from managing people (e.g., how to develop performance plans, give feedback, and provide recognition) to managing scientific and administrative programs, understanding the federal budget process, and interacting with the media and international partners. Each section of the site explains an executive’s role in these processes and includes tailored content and guidance specific to that role.

Recognizing that new executives tend to have little time to devote to reading lengthy guides, NSF crafted the website content to be concise, focusing on the main points of the topic and the executive’s role, and providing links to more in-depth information (Figure 4-3). Each section includes a “key points” box at the top of the page, which highlights the three to five most important messages or potential landmines related to that topic and provides a point of contact for questions and additional information.

New executives also need to be oriented to the information and processes of their individual organization, such as their division’s budget, personnel, and scientific programs. The tenures of the departing and the incoming executives often do not overlap, contributing to the high potential for critical knowledge to be lost with each successive rotation. To help mitigate this issue, NSF developed and pilot-tested an automated knowledge management portal to transition key information from the departing executive to the incoming executive. The tool provides much of the same information as the website—key contacts, projects and collaborations, budget, personnel, program management—but offers an insider’s perspective on these processes by allowing the departing executive to leave notes and key files for the new executive. Similar to the traditional letter an outgoing president leaves for his successor, this tool facilitates a transition “brain dump.”

FIGURE 4-3 Executive Resources Home Page

Culture

Individuals joining NSF from an academic institution are typically entering an organizational culture that is quite different for them. To help acclimate executives to its unique culture, NSF holds a semiannual three-day executive leadership retreat. The discussion-based agenda focuses heavily on NSF culture, using both small and large group discussions to facilitate understanding the challenges and opportunities of working effectively within NSF’s organizational culture.

During the retreat, experienced NSF executives (called retreat “resource advisors”) lead discussions, ask direct questions, and share lessons learned. The participants also gain insight into important organizational dynamics, such as interacting with external stakeholders and effectively leading other scientists. Finally, several self-assessments are conducted, including a 360-degree feedback tool, to build self-awareness and enable leaders to reflect on opportunities to develop their weaknesses and leverage their strengths within the NSF environment.

Connection

Networking—and having the right connections—is an essential component of being an effective leader. Several components of the NExT program facilitate critical contacts and relationships. For example, networking is a core focus of the executive leadership retreat, which facilitates connection through small group discussions as well as more formal “speed networking” activities. Retreat participants consistently report that making connections is one of the most useful aspects of the retreat.

In addition, NSF designed and implemented leadership networking events that are conducted twice a year, on alternate quarters from the leadership retreat. This ensures that all executives have an opportunity to meet and connect with their colleagues within three months of joining the organization. Because the entire tenure of a rotating executive is only two years, facilitating connections quickly is important for success.

Additional Support for Executives

In addition to components targeting the “4 Cs,” NSF recognized the importance of providing resources to address the specific challenges that many executives face. NSF implemented an executive coaching program in which a qualified, external coach is paired with a new or seasoned executive to equip the executive with the tools, knowledge, and opportunities needed for self-development, personal growth, and enhanced work effectiveness. The coach helps the executive talk through specific challenges he or she is facing and develop and practice skills to help him or her face those challenges and generally be more effective. The learning that takes place in individual coaching sessions is reinforced through structured coaching program activities, including a monthly article that focuses on a common challenge and bimonthly brown bags that provide executives an opportunity to share lessons learned with their colleagues. The articles and brown bags have covered topics such as dealing with uncertainty (specifically in the current federal climate), delegation, and emotional intelligence. These activities help expand the reach and impact of individual coaching engagements to groups of executives who are likely facing similar challenges.

The Importance of Evaluation

Results are useful only if they can be measured and assessed through an evaluation process. Ultimately, an onboarding program should have a measurable impact on both individual and organizational performance. To that end, the evaluation of a program should be focused not only on general employee feedback, effectiveness, and efficiency, but also on the organizational need it was designed to address (e.g., retention, engagement, time to productivity).

NSF continually conducts evaluation activities for each of the NExT components, providing input on how to adapt components to meet shifting needs and demonstrating the program’s impact on leadership effectiveness. For example, evaluation statistics indicate that 100 percent of coaching participants (1) learned skills they can use on the job, (2) believe the coaching program made them more effective as an NSF executive, and (3) would recommend the program to other executives. Similarly, approximately 90 percent of leadership retreat participants expect to use what they learned from the retreat and will recommend the retreat to others. Statistics such as these, along with anecdotal evidence from participants, help demonstrate NSF’s return on its investment in onboarding new employees.

Measuring Success at the Center for Veterinary Medicine

Constant evaluation is a crucial aspect of maintaining an onboarding program that is both effective and engaging for new employees. The Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), currently 500 employees strong, is in charge of regulating the manufacturing and distribution of food additives and drugs for animals. Given the highly specialized nature of the scientific positions at CVM, it is essential to familiarize new employees with their roles as quickly as possible. To meet this need, CVM has developed a comprehensive onboarding program that begins weeks before the new hire starts work and continues through his or her first year.

CVM’s human capital management staff realize that the program will remain effective only as long as new employees stay engaged throughout the process. To this end, CVM continually evaluates the program through a series of surveys and focus groups. Engagement and effectiveness are measured using a trio of surveys taken at different phases throughout a new employee’s first year. Each survey measures a specific aspect of the onboarding program:

• Entrance survey. The CVM entrance survey which is given to new employees a month after hire, focuses on the hiring process, welcome packet, and their first four weeks.

• Integration survey. The CVM integration survey, which is given to new employees as well as their hosts (i.e., “buddies”) 90 days after hire, examines the CVM’s buddy program as well as both parties’ general feelings about the onboarding process and activities.

• Overall onboarding evaluation survey. The CVM overall onboarding evaluation survey is given to new employees on their one-year anniversary. This survey addresses the employee’s current level of engagement, evaluates the effectiveness of work processes, and allows the employee to rate his or her interest in continuing employment with CVM.

Surveys are an essential part of CVM’s evaluation process, providing employees an anonymous way to critique the program as well as a formalized means to request program additions or changes. New employee survey feedback has already spurred the creation of a streamlined orientation session. Survey data showed that new employees were overwhelmed by the six-hour orientation sessions, so CVM reduced the sessions to two hours, focusing on the key question, “How do I fit into this organization?” New employees gain a firm understanding of why they were hired and how they will contribute to CVM’s mission.

CVM also balances the quantitative data provided by surveys with focus groups for new employees and other staff members involved in the onboarding process. These focus groups help create the lively dialogue that surveys simply cannot, and have resulted in a number of improvements to the onboarding program. For example, a common theme throughout many onboarding focus groups was that new employees would benefit from more interaction with each other throughout their first year. CVM was able to meet this request by facilitating onboarding roundtable discussions. These discussions, which now take place twice a year, allow new employees to discuss their experiences with other recent hires.

CVM’s human capital management staff also takes an active role in bolstering the onboarding program by keeping new employee resources up-to-date and ensuring that public and private best practices are considered when revising the program. The new employee welcome packet and webpage are updated every three months, with an eye to what other government agencies and private sector organizations are doing.

By combining a variety of evaluation strategies, CVM is able to lead the way in onboarding and remains a best practice program within both its parent department and government as a whole.

The Bottom Line

Over 85 percent of new employees decide whether to stay with an organization within their first six months on the job;⁶ on average, it takes new executives a minimum of six months to become fully productive in their role.⁷ Strategically implementing an onboarding program that engages employees early and speeds time to productivity just makes sense; it is one of the most basic and cost-effective means to maximize employee productivity and retention. The onboarding programs at NSF and CVM have had measurable positive impacts; they provide a blueprint for other organizations to model in developing, implementing, and evaluating general and targeted onboarding programs.

NOTES

1  K. Rollag, S. Parise, and R. Cross (2005), “Getting New Hires Up to Speed Quickly.” MIT Sloan Management Review 46, 35–41.

2  All Aboard: Effective Onboarding Techniques and Strategies (2008). Aberdeen Group, Boston, MA.

3  B. Smart (1999), Topgrading: How Leading Companies Win by Hiring, Coaching, and Keeping the Best People. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

4  2011 Recruiting Benchmarks Survey (2011). National Association of Colleges and Employers, Bethlehem, PA.

5  T.N. Bauer (2010), Onboarding New Employees: Maximizing Success. SHRM Foundation, Alexandria, VA.

6  All Aboard: Effective Onboarding Techniques and Strategies (2008). Aberdeen Group, Boston, MA.

7  M. Moore (2008). Spotlight on Executive Onboarding. American Society for Public Administration, p. 5.