Onboarding: How to Get Your New Employees Up to Speed in Half the Time

CHAPTER 2

Clarify Your Destination and Messages to the Candidate and the Organization

Prepare

Don’t begin to recruit anyone until you understand how their role is going to help deliver results that move the organization forward in line with its purpose and priorities.

Now What?

He had been a standout star in everything he’d done from high school through college through his early jobs. Every single person HR and the hiring manager talked to during reference and background checks had nothing but positive things to say about him. They were all thrilled to have been able to convince him to join the firm.

Now what?

No one had fully expected him to say yes.

No one was exactly sure what his responsibilities should really be.

Now it was time to figure that out.

Now was way too late.¹

Start by Stopping

Onboarding begins with your business objectives. Start by stopping to figure out what you want to accomplish and how you expect your future new employee to deliver or contribute to target results. Think business strategy. You risk leaving a lot on the table if you treat hiring as a transactional event as opposed to a strategic opportunity:

• “Just fill the position.” Hang on. Will the position as defined deliver the results you need? If not, this is a great time to recraft the job to further your business strategy.

• “Find me the best candidate.” The best at what, precisely? Do you need ...