Just more than three-quarters (76 percent) of new employees, meanwhile, want to learn more about mental and physical health resources during onboarding. If there are any silver linings of the pandemic, one is that employee experience has come to the forefront, becoming the norm rather than the exception. Employees now want to know that they can be open about their well-being and can count on their employer to provide self-care resources. “For employers, this is a signal to think about employee experience strategies more broadly than they have in the past and to communicate them early and often,” advised the report. “Supporting employee well-being is the right thing to do as it can prevent employee burnout and improve productivity, connection and engagement. It can also result in significant positive bottom-line results for companies.” Making Connections New hires also express interest in developing personal connections and understanding the corporate culture, which tend to go handin-hand. A full three-quarters of respondents said they want more opportunity to connect with people on their team, and 69 percent are interested in starting to build relationships outside their team during onboarding. A clear majority (70 percent) want more information about the core values of the organization. “The challenge for employers is that relationship-building and cultural immersion is much harder in a virtual or hybrid work environment,” Eagle Hill executives advised. “There is no natural tail of in-person events – informal meet-and-greets or watercooler talks – following traditional onboarding activities. So, they need different ways to help new hires feel, see and experience the culture of the organization.” In most cases, the responsibilities of onboarding largely fall on the human resources department, yet new hires said they are interested in getting help, training and guidance from a broader group of people, including their supervisor (63 percent) and teammates (46 percent). That compares to the 30 percent of respondents who said they are looking for more from human resources during onboarding. “This suggests that employees want to feel immersed in the organization as part of onboarding so that they understand how their role and team fit into the larger picture,” said Eagle Hill researchers. Considering all that must go into an effective and fulfilling onboarding process – from responsibilities to culture – having onboarding led by a single group is less than ideal, particularly as employees settle into their day-to-day routines and get busy. “Assigning responsibilities and providing tools to other groups creates a more distributed onboarding process that engages the rest of the organization where it makes sense,” concluded the study. J Top 3 Things Employees Say They Want in First Month on Job Source: Eagle Hill Consulting; Ipsos Knowledge of how performance is measured Information about mental and physical health resources Opportunities to make personal connections with team members Tips from Eagle Hill on How to Improve Virtual and Hybrid Onboarding Go beyond paperwork. Rethink onboarding to create a sense of belonging for people. Hold virtual events to bring the company culture to life through activities that reflect the core values. Plan to have new joiners work on real activities with teams either in-person or using collaboration tools. Organize virtual team lunches to create informal relationship-building opportunities. Make it personal and meaningful. Help new employees not only see how their role supports the organization’s purpose but how the organization is dedicated to their well-being and success. Highlight the unique value proposition for employees and how you help build careers, provide development opportunities and maintain a focus on people’s mental and physical wellness. Build a longer tail to onboarding. Extend onboarding beyond a single event and create a series of events and experiences that employees need to have to feel connected to the organization. Consider what onboarding should look like for the whole first year and regularly offer experiences that continue to build employees’ affinity for the organization. Pinpoint the right people. Create repeatable processes and frameworks to engage managers, supervisors and team members in onboarding new employees. This ensures that people know what their role is and can clearly show employees how their day-to-day work and team connects to the larger business. Thread both in-person and virtual connection points into the framework. Employees’ needs and expectations will evolve, so organizations should take the pulse of their needs. Periodically mapping the onboarding process from start to finish, identifying the moments that matter, and collecting data and adjusting processes is important to ensure onboarding is effective as possible. 31 REMOTE WORK SOLUTIONS rwsmagazine.com
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