Where am "I" in the "I"nduction..??
Organisations today are making efforts to improvise their Induction process ...still there is an important element missing...
Some meaningful stats before we start "Some meaningful stats 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experienced great onboarding. Up to 20% of employee turnover happens in the first 45 days." Well let's see..
Day 1 of a new job is always exciting. I sleep with that tingle in the stomach and aspirations in my eyes. Early morning, I wake up before the alarm in anxiety and anticipation. I dress up in my best attire..I'll prefer going by a taxi today.. (crease of my blazer should be intact :))...I reach at the reception of my new mecca and wait for the HR representative to fetch me into the new world where everything seems so ideal. So here I am, sitting in this empty training room where everything is spick and span. White board, markers, projector...all set.
Google open source
Enters my charioteer who takes the lead and starts sharing different things with me... At first, I listen quite actively, try and ask questions as well. Sloooowly I start hallucinating and tumble down the listening ladder from active listening to pretending to listen...How is this humanly possible to consume so much of content in a go? Well what else am I expected to do? Every speaker, every trainer coming down are allllllllll busy talking about the company, foundation, history, evolution etc etc etc. I notice that every speaker who comes and talks to me just wants to pass his/her share of information and storm out of the room. I see that sense of empathy on everyone's face towards me. It's like "we all have gone through this.. please endure, this too shall pass 😊
My basic question here is why..? Why do I have to go through all of this? I mean, isn't this the inception of a relationship between the organisation and me? Why is nobody talking about me?
One may say that a candidate lands up in the organisation post rigorous rounds of interview and it was the candidate who did the maximum talking then. We know you now, it's time you know us, the culture, values, systems, processes , procedures etc. Well I realize this information is important but just don't give me so much of general "gyan"... Where do I fit in the entire equation? When will I be using this process? How will I contribute to the overall value chain? Where am I in the organisation? How am I impacting the overall business? What are my qualities that fit the job role? What are the areas I have to work upon? What is the career progression of my role?What learning opportunities I will get along my stint? I mean just think about it..Is the purpose of an Induction all about "shifting the burden?" We agree that it's a new relationship right? So it needs to be handled that way...
Organisations today are investing a lot in the feel good factor of the orientation programs, the first day chauffeur pick ups to assigning a buddy .... Well these interventions may be successful but only as a volatile feel good factor.. Either it is through an instructor or an E-learning platform it boils down to information and the new hire buried under it. HR Analytics the new buzzword..what are we doing with it?What are we doing with capturing so much of data? Why aren't we putting it to the right use? If the qualities,competencies, personality type, likes, dislikes of a candidate are captured well at the time of interviews that information can be of great value to customize the Induction for the new hire.
Don't you like if someone remembers something good about you? When you get complimented you feel special, more that that you feel happy that the other person remembered it.Well customization can happen at various levels. It is up to the organisation to start with the basic and then penetrate deeper. Customization can happen right from presenting the favorite flowers to taking the new hire out to his/her favorite lunch place. It can as be as deep as discussing the positive impact and value add the new hire will bring to the team considering different personality types s/he will be operating with.
Human mind is designed to choose the easy things..etch your thoughts a bit and workout a nifty personalized Induction plan...Think about it, if you are making so much of an effort in finding the right candidate take an extra leap in making them feel special...
Don't just generalize...spend some time and customize........
Hey there thanks for reading the article. Share, like, follow, write your comments. My favorite job :) "creative thinking"... which pours down in my writing and Personal Consulting with organisations...You can also catch-up on more readings a https://medium.com/@beotra.nehaa and https://www.linkedin.com/in/nehaabeotra/ .
