One of the often overlooked points to remember about the onboarding process is that the informal connections are often some of the most crucial. Folding an employee into the team in a real way, where they have people they understand and on whom they can rely, can make all the difference in a new hire's success.
Don't overlook the importance of relationship building in this early and critical stage. It's every bit as important for a new hire to focus on building trust as it is for companies seeking to form new relationships with global partners. The relationships form the basis for all future interactions.
For example, newly recruited or promoted leaders in new positions often fail for a few common reasons: due to unclear or outsized expectations, a failure to build partnerships with key stakeholders, a failure to learn the company, industry or the job itself fast enough, a failure to determine the process for gaining commitments from direct reports and a failure to recognize and manage the impact of change on people.
Onboarding coaching of the newly recruited or promoted executive can turnaround this high rate of failure. An onboarding coach helps the executive more quickly adapt to the employer's culture, create rapport with his or her immediate team and find productive ways to achieve necessary goals.
Despite years of experience making complicated, far-reaching decisions, top-level managers can use some guidance when they find themselves in new situations where little, if anything, is familiar. Because as many as 40 percent of new leaders fail in their new roles to meet an organization's expectations, purchasing executive insurance in the form of "onboarding" or assimilation coaching helps a company ensure that an important investment pays off. Onboarding involves an intense, protracted period of coaching that's designed to help a new employee--often a senior-level executive or manager--not only adjust to a new environment, but establish a set of priorities.
Giving each one of your employees a fair chance to succeed and give his best can be directly enhanced by taking a more strategic approach to welcoming your new hires. The companies that do it right employ a set process that spans a few months with regular check-ins after the initial period is over. The process should connect an employee with your team, introduce her to the company culture, and give her the key to the unwritten rules of your organization. You should provide clear performance expectations of your new hires and work with them to create a career development plan to achieve it.
Source: Jane Hyun: Flex: The New Playbook for Managing Across Differences