Employees are Everything: Onboarding
Once you have the candidate chosen and signed on for the job, the next important task is onboarding—and we mean even onboarding before their start date. Learn from Traci and Rob how to create an organized and repeatable onboarding process and something to consider throughout your new hire’s first journey with your company.
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Rob:
So we've spent the last several weeks talking about everything that happens before somebody starts working at our companies. We've talked about getting ready to hire, the recruitment process, interviewing, and we even did a special part about cleaning up some other interviewing stuff, and we've gotten to this point and we've found the perfect candidate. We have extended an offer, and they have accepted, and we've agreed on the start date. So the work here's done, right? I don't think so. I think that's a little too fast.
I think we're ignoring what actually is one of the most important parts of this entire process, and that's onboarding. We have spent usually weeks, if not, months, setting expectations with this person that we've hired. Now it comes to their first day, or even before their first day. We have to make sure that the expectations that we set are met, that reality matches those expectations, otherwise, we set them up for a giant, giant misalignment with that—and actually, they'll become pretty disappointed and pretty disenchanted even before they really get started.
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Traci:
That's right.
Rob:
Good morning, Traci. How are you?
Traci:
Good morning. Yeah. I'm excited to talk about onboarding because I do...to your point, this can be a step that a lot of companies miss. They're so excited to get the warm body, they're so excited about the candidate that they found and that accepted the offer, and really, everybody is just probably so eager for that person to start because there's been a gap and people have been covering for that gap, and they're really excited to get somebody on the ground and running, and in that position, and all that excitement is great, but if you don't have an onboarding process, that person can become quickly disenchanted.
We're not talking about a complicated, heavy onboarding process, we're talking about a light, organized, clean, repeatable onboarding process that several people, not just one person, but several people are involved in.
And we know that your efforts in this area will pay off, that statistics say, Harvard Business Review says that a standardized onboarding process will yield 62% greater, new, higher productivity. Great onboarding can improve employee retention by 82%, which is amazing to think about, because what's the whole interviewing process for if your new employee starts, hates it, and leaves. Right?
And we know that the cost for replacing an employee, I mean SHRM says it's between 100 and 300% of an individual's salary, and that's just financial, not to say what it does to our team's morale when somebody starts, and then turns around and leaves.
So we just want to make sure that we're not just hiring great employees, but we're creating a great experience for them, where they feel really comfortable, they're productive, they're part of the team, part of the culture, and they are producing well because they feel comfortable, well-trained, they understand what the expectations are and the boundaries are, and all that good stuff.
So let's talk about what that all means. How do you create this sort of organized and repeatable onboarding process?
Rob:
Yeah, and I think it's pretty difficult too, because I don't think we realize how fast or how many things that somebody has to come up to speed with. The way that I kind of envision this is your company, your culture, all the things that are happening are moving and clipping along on a train, moving at a pretty good speed, right? When you onboard somebody, you're actually having to bring them up to speed and get them without that jarring, whiplash-y experience. And I think that's how we need to visualize this, is sometimes there's even a little bit of a slowdown of that train, depending on what that role is to get that person fully up to speed.
Traci:
Right.
Rob:
I think that gets to one of the single most important things that the hiring person, business owner, whatever, we can do is set our expectations for how long this is going to take, right?
Traci:
Yeah.
Rob:
Like if we've had a need and we've just filled it, it is so easy to look at it and say, "Well, I've got the person. They're going to start on Tuesday, and guess what? On Wednesday, we're rocking and rolling."
Traci:
Yeah.
Rob:
That is just wrong. It is going to take time, is going to take money, is going to take investment, take all those things to even get the person to where they feel like they know what's going on.
Traci:
Yeah, exactly. And the whole team has to be ready for this. The whole team has to be a part of this. And I mean, talking about being overly human, we need to put ourselves in that employee's shoes. We need to know they're nervous, they've taken a risk, whether they've switched companies, or are taking a position that's going to be just a bit of a challenge for them. We have to make sure that day one with our company doesn't seem like a really bad first date. We want to make sure that we've set ourselves up for a long-term relationship.
Rob:
Yeah, and that so much of that is making sure that we're meeting those expectations. We're following through with the things that we said.
Traci:
Right.
Rob:
They have told themself a story during the interview process, during the recruitment process about what it's going to be like on their first day and what it's going to be like to come work at your company.
Traci:
Yeah.
Rob:
If the story in their head is wildly different from reality, then it better be on the better side, because if it's on the worse side, we're in deep doo-doo already.
Traci:
Right. One of the easiest ways to make sure that your new employee feels like is off to a great start with onboarding is that you are overcommunicating with them before they even start. I find that companies that do that, when we talk to employees, they're like, "Oh my gosh, from the day I accepted the offer, I couldn't believe how safe and connected I felt," versus that some employees—and this does happen more often than we realize—get the offer, sign the offer letter, and then have a start date, and they maybe hear from somebody in HR once before they start. And then they're overwhelmed, overloaded, bombarded on day one, and that is not the best way to start with a new employee.
Rob:
No. Not at all. I mean, it's…I think one of the things that I'm really happy about the way that we do is we actually get in front of that. We give them a schedule and be like, "Hey, here's the schedule for the first day. Here's exactly what time we need you to be online, because now we're in a distributed environment and everybody's remote, but here is your schedule, here is your calendar. You don't have access to any of the systems yet, but here's the things that will meet your expectations even for your first week so that you can mentally plan and be ready for what that looks like."
Traci:
Right. And I know that a lot of companies have culture manuals or things that they can share with the new employee that has mission, vision, values, what the definition is, how we live those things out, what are some typical cultural activities that we have every year, what are our days off, how does PTO work, all those things—which, of course, you'll walk them through when they start as well, but there's something.
They've got this time and they're super curious, and so some employees want to read something. They want to know something, even accountability charts and understanding how the company is organized. If they can read about that, know about that before they even start, they feel so much more solid going into day one, so those kind of easy things to sort of toss their way and help them to familiarize on their own time prior to starting is just a great idea.
Rob:
Yeah, and giving them an opportunity—especially if you're a distributed place—to get their workspace set up.
Traci:
Yup.
Rob:
One of the things that we started doing once we switched from, back pre-pandemic when we had the office, we had everybody start their first week in the office, so it was really easy to have a controlled environment. They would travel into Dayton and go through the onboarding in person. Well, we had to make couple changes when we started doing that, obviously, to send people their equipment, to let people know what their budget is to get started and so they could build out their office, so when they started that first day, they were actually ready.
We came up with a kind of designed box. We call it our welcome box, that has like some of the things you're talking about, like the handbook and days off and instructions and the schedule. There's, I think a coffee cup and a T-shirt and some other Sparkbox branded paraphernalia, but here's something to get excited about. This is what you're going to need, in addition to shipping them a laptop and some of the core equipment that we provide.
Traci:
Yeah. I just think that is the best route to go, when somebody can put on a T-shirt or a baseball cap or something and put the mug on their desk and feel like, "Okay, I'm part of this company," because that feeling of walking into an office on the first day and seeing where your desk is, and meeting the people sitting around you, and going into the break room or whatever, those experiences for some companies and many companies today, that doesn't exist right now, or won't in the foreseeable future. This is a new way of working.
For some companies, they're back in the office and they still have the in-office experience, but which I have to say, we still have to double down on that. There's nothing worse than walking into an office and nobody's saying hello to you, and everybody looking like they've got a million things to do and not enough time to engage—which does happen and can make you feel very lonely very quickly.
But from a remote perspective, it's those extra added touches that are going to make somebody feel part of something, and that's the hurdle when you're a remote team. How do you feel part of the bigger team?
Rob:
I think it takes a little bit longer, even if you do it well.
Traci:
Right.
Rob:
Like there is some things that is a benefit to being at the same location at the same time in real-time, right? There is a benefit to that. It's easier to feel connected.
Traci:
Oh, yeah.
Rob:
It takes a little bit more effort and a little bit more time, and I think we need to make sure our expectations line up with that, because the experience that if you joined your company when it was in person, and now you're onboarding people who are remote, those are different things. You can't compare the two.
Traci:
Right. Yeah, and you have to create those experiences, because I know every time we had a new hire, it was we all went out to lunch. The whole team went out to lunch, and we really looked forward to those times when somebody started, and then we all had questions to ask that new person, and we’d go around and say a little something about ourselves. I mean, it was just instant connection.
So how can you create that in a remote environment? instead of everybody going out to lunch, do you have everybody brings lunch to the Zoom meeting? We play the get-to-know-you game or whatever it is, where we ask them three super funny questions, and then we go around and say something.
But if that's not happening, if there's no sort of celebration in those first few weeks of that person's arrival and this intentional time to not just get to know them, but for them to get a glimpse of who these people are and how they interact with each other: Do they laugh together? Are they curious? Are they empathetic? Do they know…Does somebody bring up somebody's dog? Do they know each other?
Rob:
Yeah.
Traci:
Is it a real team? And so if you can do that in the first few weeks that somebody is there, I mean, wow, that goes so far. And it does not have to be in person, but it does have to happen.
Rob:
Yeah.
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Rob:
All right. We've talked a little bit about a lot of the things that happened before that first day, so let's fast-forward. We've done all that, we've set expectations well, we've welcomed them, they have what they need, it's that first day now. What happens on that day? What is the right order of things?
There's always some HR and some payroll kinds of things you want to get right, or in citizenship, I-9's, verification, whatever that looks like, there's always that stuff, but what else is going on? There's other things that should happen that first day, right?
Traci:
Yeah. And I think the biggest question that most employees have when they start is, "What is expected of me? What are the expectations? What are my responsibilities? How can I not just meet expectations, but exceed, and what does success look like?," and so oftentimes, we'll skip the step.
We focus on the HR stuff or we focus on the pure training of the skills and the execution and the processes of our company, and that's all very important. That's part of what needs to happen as well, and I'd love to hear how you guys do it, but somebody, and usually, it's the person that they report to, will say to them, "This is what success looks like in this role. This is what I'd like to see from you. This is how I need you to show up."
That can feel awkward for some people, but for the person sitting in the seat receiving it, it is a gift because they're like, "Okay. Now, I know. I don't have to guess. I know what is expected of me and how to show up and what success looks like."
Rob:
Yeah. That stuff is ... We talked a little bit about this, I think the last episode, maybe the episode before, about our career framework, and so everybody knows when they come in what level they're coming in at, and everybody has access to the career framework, and that does a pretty good job of objectively showing what expectations are at that level and what the expectations are to make it to the next level and the levels beyond that, so that becomes the baseline for that, but that is definitely something that is walked through with everybody who joins the team, as well as all of the normal cadence kind of stuff, right?
Traci:
Yeah.
Rob:
If you ... You know this about me, and I'm sure most of our listeners do at this point too. I'm very process-oriented. There's things that run on a schedule, right? We do time sheets.
Time sheets are due by 9:00 on Monday morning. Our sprints usually last one to two weeks. They have a defined end date, a start date, all that fun stuff. There's all these different cadences that run throughout the company, as well as demos every two weeks. We have our monthly staff meeting where everybody gets together, and we get to share what's going on.
We do retreats, and all this stuff runs on a train schedule, and making sure that our new hires during onboarding understand this is how the company runs, this is how the company thinks about itself, this is the different things that are going to happen along the way. I think that takes a lot of that mysticism out of it like, "Oh, this is going to happen on a regular basis. This happens like this." In addition to that, one of the things that is really interesting is like, "When is onboarding over?" Right?
Traci:
Right, yeah.
Rob:
We talk about this upfront. We do both a 90 and 180-day review for new employees as they come onboard. So it's like, "Hey, you're going to have a chance at 90 days to get feedback from peers and your director. And 180 days, we're going to do a formal review of you, so you'll know exactly where you stand in addition to where our normal reviews sit inside the calendar."
I think those are all really important pieces to set expectations, as well as how many hours per week, what projects you'll be working on. Our Director of Delivery actually sits down with every new employee and gives them the, we call it The History of Sparkbox Talk, where they actually put a timeline up and talk about, "Okay, here's when the company started. Here's when we changed names and direction. Here's the different people and how long they've been here," and just give somebody a sense of what they're joining upfront.
Traci:
Yeah. And I think that's so important. Research shows those first 45 days are when a new employee kind of decides if they're in or out, and so we want to make sure that we have several touch points in those first 45 days, that there's not just one person training, and you're kind of hinting at this too, is that there is their person they're directly reporting to, but then there's team members, and then there's people who explain process.
The rule of thumb is to always have a different person talking to the employee about each of these different things as opposed to just one person doing all the training or all the onboarding because then, if you have seven different people meeting with the new employee, they have seven new people they know well, they've had a conversation with. And so you want to make sure that you're setting that up and people know what the role is and what the information. And they don't have to be long conversations, but they need to have a purpose and they need to connect, and they need to have some time to get to know each other.
Then, you should always have one fun buddy that they get connected to. Like this is the person that they can ask non-technical questions or company questions, just somebody that's going to periodically check in with them, send them nice, encouraging notes, make sure they're doing okay, but somebody that they can ask kind of the silly questions that they might feel are awkward, so everybody should have that person like, "Oh, I'm going to call her and ask her, 'How does this work?,'" and so we want to make sure that there are people they know are fully available, are expecting simple questions, and they've heard it all before, so don't feel shy and don't be sitting alone, wondering.
Rob:
Yeah, that's right, and that should be a formal person, somebody who is like, "This is the person that's been assigned ..." Not assigned to you, but, "We're pairing you together so that-"
Traci:
Yeah, they're your buddy.
Rob:
Yeah. All those things can happen.
Traci:
Yeah, and it's funny because my kid's school actually does that. When you're new, you get a buddy that's a student, and that student and the parents also become buddies. I know this is a different environment, but I can't tell you how comforting that was as a new family in the school. And I think that same idea within a company, that you have a buddy, like this is the person that they know you're going to call and they want you to call and they expect you to call, and if you don't, they're going to call you.
Rob:
That's right.
Traci:
They're going to check on you, and they're going to say, "Hey, I know you have questions. I know you're wondering about X, Y, or Z. Lay it on me. I want to talk about it." That is yet another way of creating a safe environment for a new employee, especially in a remote environment, where they're sitting alone some of the time and between these meetings.
Rob:
Yeah. I mean, I know that one of the most...having been remote, onboarded to a job many, many years ago, that was one of the scariest things, is I'm not fully up-to-date on projects, I don't have a ton to do, I'm waiting for my next meeting to start so that I can meet people and feel productive. And that was—by the way, I do not think that was a great onboarding experience, what I went through. And that was even before we had access to video chatting and some of those things, so not a great experience. It was all dial-in phone conversations and meetings, which are a big [negative sound] in my book.
Traci:
Yeah.
Rob:
But I think that we've got to…like putting yourself in the shoes of somebody who doesn't know anybody yet, doesn't know exactly what's going on, you know has questions, and they want to be successful. So what tools can we give them to help them do that?
Traci:
Yeah.
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Traci:
I think it's just really important that you're sketching this all out, and maybe it's the person in charge of kind of your humans area or it's the operations person, but there's something on a piece of paper, a sketched out process for pre-onboarding, as we just talked about, so before the first day.
So from offer acceptance to first day, this is what takes place. From first day for the first 30 days or whatever, this is what takes place. Who are the people involved? We have a mentor, we have the direct report, we have a buddy, we have all these people outlined clearly in what their jobs are, the process person, the HR person. Then we have kind of like what are the activities that happen? The team celebration, the lunch, the meetups, the individual one-on-ones, whatever it is that that's all sketched out as well, and then that there's a budget behind it.
Rob:
Yeah.
Traci:
People often forget to budget for onboarding, but just as you have the welcome box, there's a budget for that, and so we want to make sure that we're setting aside money to budget for these new employee gifts or the lunch expense. If people are in the same city and the buddy or the mentor wants to take the person out to lunch, that should be acceptable and encouraged and budgeted.
So again, once you have this sort of clean process on a piece of paper, it's very repeatable. It happens. There's checkpoints. And whoever's in charge of operations, our humans can go through the list and make sure it's all happened and it happened well. Are there any hiccups?
Then whatever that point is—45 days, 90 days—that you do not forget to ask the employee how their experience was. "How was the onboarding experience? We know you've had other jobs. We know we're not perfect." "We want to know, was something missing for you? Did something not go well?" “What was surprising to you that you were like, ‘Oh my gosh, that was so great they did that?”
We want to hear feedback while it's still fresh in their mind, and that is gold, so if you are not asking your new employees once they're a month or two in how it's going and how the process has been for them, you're missing out on some really, really valuable information for your onboarding process.
Rob:
Yeah. One piece of advice that I think that we've stumbled over, been a little bit ago, but is make sure that if you have things coming up in your calendar that are major things, that the whole team knows about, that you catch that person up, right?
Traci:
Yeah.
Rob:
If you've got a retreat upcoming, important dates are really, really important to get on people's calendar and on their mind. Just because you've said them over and over and over again in your last several monthly updates...that person wasn't there.
Traci:
Yeah. Exactly.
Rob:
So make sure you catch them back up about, "Oh, by the way, we're doing a retreat here, and this is all that stuff that goes with that, and travel looks like this, or here's the expectations.” It happens with any of that stuff. They don't have any of that context. You have a moment to bring them up to speed and making them not have to hear a comment and ask like, "Oh, are we doing something?" or just be careful with those things.
Traci:
Yeah, and because people have lives outside of work, and some people have kids, and some people have commitments and aging parents, and so you want to make sure before they even start, that they know what the key meeting times are, that they know what upcoming retreats and upcoming events, and what's mandatory, and all of those things so that they can make sure that their schedule aligns and that they don't have doctor's appointments, or drop-offs, or pick-ups. All of those things happen
And also, to give them a space when they're starting—because I know this can be very nerve-wracking for some employees who are like, "Oh my gosh, I set up that doctor's appointment literally a year ago, and it took me forever to get in, and ah, and I can't move it”—that you provide a space that says, "Okay, here are all the dates and times and all the things that we have coming up that we really want you to be available. Before you even start, is there anything I need to know? Is there anything that's going to be difficult for you or that you've set up because you didn't know this far enough in advance? Let's just get that out on the open right now."
That's super helpful for the employee as well because you're the one asking them. They're not having to come to you and say, "Oh my gosh, I bought tickets already," or, "I did this already," and at least we get that out of the way starting, and then they know moving forward that these are places and times and things that they need to be present for, so yeah, I think that's great.
Rob:
Any parting thoughts, Traci?
Traci:
Well, that this isn't hard stuff, you know? This isn't rocket science, but it does take thought, and it does take intention, like we're talking about every part of this process. And don't shortchange your company by not having a process on paper, and really optimizing your onboarding process is going, in the long run, it's going to increase your retention, it's going to save you money, it's going to increase your productivity. I mean, there's nothing negative about doing this, but man, if you don't do it, oof, it can be a huge problem for your company.
Rob:
Yeah, lots and lots of hidden, unintended costs here by not doing this well.
Traci:
Right.
Rob:
We've talked about this a bunch of times before, but if we're going to spend 60% of our revenue on the humans, then let's make sure when we bring new humans in, we're spending some of that money well.
Traci:
Yeah. Absolutely. Good. This is a great conversation.
Rob:
Yeah. All right. Thanks, Traci.
Traci:
Thanks.
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The Overly Human Podcast is brought to you by Navigate the Journey and Sparkbox. For more information on this podcast, or to get in touch with Traci or Rob, go to overlyhuman.com. If you like what you've heard, subscribe and tell your friends to listen. Thanks.
