Getting onboard: integrating and engaging new employees.

• Author: Lavigna, Bob
• Position: Management & Careers

Two dollars and 85 cents. That's how much change a brand-new government employee found in his desk on his first day on the job. How do we know this? Because this civil servant didn't have a computer at his desk and had nothing better to do than count loose change. Maybe the $2.85 was a hiring bonus.

While he may have been lonely that morning, he is unfortunately not alone. Too often, new employees have bad experiences when they start their jobs. The new hire is ready for the job, but the job isn't ready for the new hire. Here's what two other new government hires had to say:

"My first week was terrible. I didn't have any equipment, I wasn't given any assignments, there was nothing on my desk, and my supervisor did not even come see me for the first three days."

"I was sent to a conference room where someone from HR helped me complete a bunch of forms. I was not introduced to anyone, and no one had set up my computer access so I sat there and stared at the wall. By the end of the day I felt like I had made a terrible mistake in leaving my old job."

While many government agencies understand that a good first impression is important in recruiting, this image is often not reinforced during a new hire's first year on the job. That's where onboarding--integrating new employees into an organization and equipping them to succeed--comes in. The private sector uses onboarding to engage new employees, accelerate their path to productivity, and retain them. Government needs to share this focus.

Right now, interest in government jobs is high, in large part because of the economic crisis. And governments across the country are hiring talent in financial management and many other areas. Effective onboarding is critical to help new hires become productive and make long-term contributions. The hiring surge, plus the looming retirement wave, offers a rare opportunity for government to invest in comprehensive onboarding programs to engage this large new cohort. To determine how agencies onboard new employees and to identify best practices, the nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service teamed with a consulting firm on research that produced Getting on Board: A Model for Integrating and Engaging New Employees, which includes a comprehensive and strategic onboarding model. (The report can be downloaded at www.ourpublicservice.org.)

ONBOARDING AND ITS IMPORTANCE

Many organizations focus on orientation during the new employee's first day or two. In contrast, high-performing organizations, particularly in the private sector, use the more comprehensive and strategic onboarding approach -the process of integrating new employees into the organization and providing them with the tools, resources, and knowledge they need to become successful and productive. Exhibit 1 shows key ways in which onboarding differs from orientation.

Research shows that effective onboarding makes a difference. It is important for a number of reasons.

Improved Performance. Good onboarding can improve employee performance by up to 11.3 percent by clearly communicating performance expectations, providing feedback, involving co-workers and peers and providing training. (1) Onboarding also helps assess a new hire's strengths and weaknesses, and whether he or she is the right person for the job.

Enhances Employee Engagement. Companies that invested in onboarding enjoyed the highest levels of employee engagement, according to one study. (2)

Increases Retention. Another study found that 90 percent of employees decide whether to stay with the organization during their first six months. (3) Other research shows that effective onboarding programs can improve employee retention by 25 percent. (4) This can reduce the cost of turnover, which ranges from 50 percent of the annual salary of entry-level employees to 400 percent for specialized, high-level employees. And when a new employee quits, the time it takes recruit and train a replacement can create productivity and morale problems.

Improves Time-to-Productivity Ratio. New employees who go through comprehensive, structured onboarding become productive faster. One study found that a...