Sara Orellana
By Sara Orellana
How strong is your onboarding experience? Do you have one? Save these answers for just a minute. Think back to one of your first jobs. Maybe it was waiting tables in college or working as a pharmacy technician. How strong was the onboarding experience? After the first week, did you feel as though you had enough knowledge to do your job well, where to find information, and who to ask questions?
If you answered yes, it is safe to assume that you enjoyed the work and had a positive experience. If you said no, I bet you struggled a lot, were often frustrated, and may not have lasted long. That is true for me. I am a quick learner and can pick things up on the job, but if expectations aren’t clear, I am not successful.
Let’s circle back to your current onboarding system. If you, freshly graduated from college, were to go through your program, how successful would you be? What questions would you have? Would you know what was expected of you?
I have led many organizations, and in my experience, when there is not a clearly defined onboarding process, no one is successful. For four summers, I ran a very large summer day camp. The first summer, the onboarding program left over from the previous administration was vague, did not offer any training on how to work with children, and did not outline expectations. Let’s just say it was a painful summer.
Not wanting to repeat the horrific experience, I spent the school year designing a detailed weeklong onboarding process, and the second summer was amazing. I made a few tweaks, and the third summer was even better. The fourth summer was the best ever. And my employee retention rate was almost 90%.
With a strong onboarding program, my employees were set up for success. They knew what was expected of them, what their responsibilities were, and had several opportunities to ask questions. Overall, everyone’s satisfaction rates rose, even the parents. The next leadership position I was in had no onboarding program, and I struggled to understand my role. The biggest challenge was that my senior leadership team had been in their jobs for more than 20 years, and failed to see why a strong onboarding program was needed. I felt like I was continuously walking uphill pulling a 50 pound weight. There was no retention, and everyone was unhappy.
Spend the next few weeks reviewing your onboarding process. Ask yourself what is missing. Ask staff what they wish had been available to them. Be honest. Roll up your sleeves and redesign the entire process to ensure all employees are set up for success from day one.
Sara Orellana is an independent entrepreneur who specializes in strategic planning, leadership, and grant writing. She can be reached at sara@3raptorconsulting.com.