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I met Hannah Marks through a consulting network, and was impressed by her thoughts on leveraging onboarding as a tool to improve organizational culture. Hannah is an entrepreneurial People Operations leader with 15 years of experience focused on startups and scaleups. She has an MBA in Strategic Design, and is passionate about employee engagement, talent development and supporting a mindful and strategic company culture. Hannah currently provides fractional People Operations support for growing businesses through her consulting firm, Culture Marks.
What is “onboarding”?
There are a variety of definitions. When I think about onboarding I think about these questions: How do we make new employees feel welcome? How do we communicate our values? Connect them with the organizational mission and team?
There are a few stages to onboarding. “Preboarding” is the things that happen between signing the offer and the first day on the job. Then there is the first day, the first week, the first 30 days, and the first 3-6 months.
What should organizations do during “preboarding”?
Organizations often think carefully about the recruiting process, which is the first time a potential employee has an experience with the company. They tend to use a lot of resources around the interview process, and how to hire well, but then the resources drop off until their first day.
Preboarding is the time between when employees sign an offer letter and the time they start the job. There’s a lot you can do in those two to three weeks to have someone show up feeling excited instead of anxious. I recommend integrating a few touch points that will help new employees feel welcome and connected. For example:
- Have the employee’s new team send them an email. This might be something like, “We heard you have accepted the role and will be starting with our team in two weeks. We can’t wait to meet you!” You can make this extra special by including a picture of the team!
- A week before their start date, people are starting to think about questions like: Where do I have to go? What do I have to bring? What should I wear? Anything you can do to pre-answer these questions will help employees feel like they are being thought about, and that this is a great place to work.
- The day before they start, send an email reiterating this same information – where to be when, what to bring, what to expect, here’s your schedule. Make sure that the tone is one of excitement, and “we can’t wait to see you.”
These are simple things that can really change an employee’s experience and first impressions. You don’t need a big budget to send a welcoming email, but it can really make a difference on Day One.
During this time between hiring and start date, managers should also develop a “30/60/90 Plan.” (You can see some examples and resources for this here.) This is a great tool to help new employees get up to speed about what’s expected of them in their role generally and during this time specifically. It might be a document, slides, a video – any format can work. This is something that will be shared during the first week, and which sets both the new employee and the manager up for success through clear expectations.
This document should include what the new hire is expected to accomplish at different milestones (usually 30 days, 60 days, and either 90 days or 6 months). The overall goal of this plan is that the employee has a strong understanding of their role and of the learning curve.
For example, within the first 30 days, perhaps the new employee should familiarize themselves with the organization’s mission, vision, and values; meet their teammates and key internal partners (specify who these are); meet with their manager and review job responsibilities.
By 60 days, maybe there’s a project you want them to shadow. You might specify something like: Spend time with this person and learn about this challenge we are facing. Balance giving new employees small wins (things they can do and check off), and engaging them in bigger issues with realistic expectations. What can someone really accomplish in 60 days?
For the 90-day mark – or, if you prefer, the 6-month mark – you can dive even deeper. Maybe this person will lead a team meeting. Think back to why you hired this person, and set goals for diving into larger challenges.
It’s important to note that this tool can also be useful if any issues or challenges are starting to arise. While this document is not intended as a disciplinary tool, if things start veering off course this document serves as an important touchstone for what’s expected, and can help reset expectations if things are not going well, identify and explain if this is not a great fit.
Ok, let’s imagine we’ve done that. What should organizations do or prepare for the employee’s first day of work?
Think about your overall goal: How do you want people to feel after their first week? Most people answer that they want new employees to be excited to be there, feel welcome, and understand the company’s mission or audience/customers.
Filling out paperwork on day one doesn’t hit any of those goals. The metaphor I like is that of a dinner party. You are walking into a space (real or virtual) for the first time. What would you do? Typically, at a dinner party, someone might welcome you at the door, tell you where to put your jacket and where to pick up a drink. We can think the same way about how to make someone feel welcome at work.
Have a friendly face meet the new employee at the door or on zoom. Maybe someone they interviewed with.
Think about those unwritten rules, like when people take lunch and where. Do people have headphones in while they work? What are these rules that people pick up in an office? Write these things down and share them.
A great new trend is to assign an onboarding buddy. An onboarding buddy is not the new employee’s manager, and it doesn’t need to be someone on their team. It goes back to that friendly face – someone who shows up through the employee’s onboarding experience. Maybe they have breakfast or lunch with the employee on their first day, or give them a tour of the space. Then they check back in with them at the end of the week, and a few weeks after that. This is a great tool to offer early support.
Managers often offer a space to answer questions, but 99% of the time people say, “I’m sure I’ll have questions, but not yet.” Onboarding buddies get more questions than the manager because the new employee feels safe around this person.
You’ve spoken about the 30, 60, and 90-say marks – are there other milestones?
The end of the first week is an important milestone. How do you want new employees to feel at the end of this week? What do you want them to accomplish? Often things that go unspoken or unshared are key bits of information like: What does this organization do? Who do we serve? Why are we here? We forget to step back and share this foundational information that will build a better understanding and engagement.
Employers should share the 30/60/90 plan with their new employee during the first week.
And don’t forget check-ins with new hire. Ask, “how are things going?” During their first week, and for a while after that, new employees should check in with their manager or team lead at a pretty regular cadence. This might look different for different people / different teams – it could be weekly, bi-weekly, monthly. Along with these regular check-ins, new employees should also have a 30-day check in and a 3-month check in specifically to discuss the onboarding experience (rather than day to day things). These are moments to step back and ask: “How are you doing? Are you accomplishing your goals? Is there anything I can do to support you? Is there any information or tools or resources that you are missing?”
Museums employ a lot of hourly, front-line staff. Is there anything different that they should think about in terms of onboarding these new employees?
The same tools still apply. I recommend operationalizing onboarding – meaning, while things look slightly different for different roles, it should have a similar cadence and schedule regardless of a new employee’s role or team.
The 30/60/90 day plan doesn’t need to be customized for front line staff, but there are things that makes a difference between an “ok” visitor encounter and an amazing one. A 30-day goal doesn’t need to be about accomplishing a new initiative – it might be, “Make someone’s day.” You’re building the culture that you want to instill. Other 30-day goals might be to have lunch with other team members and talk about what the new employee has found works well.
This all goes back to challenges of connection and engagement. What builds connection? Talking to different people, learning from different people, and connecting with people, including the audience or customer.
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