What does onboarding look like in your organization? Is it an ongoing process that integrates new employees, or does it start and end with a new hire orientation?
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) describes onboarding as “a process designed to welcome and educate new employees to an organization.” This definition allows for a high degree of interpretation, but is most often played out as “New Hire Orientation.” In reality, onboarding represents a crucial entry period that has great potential and impact on an employee’s ongoing success in performing their role.
On-boarding shapes how a new employee interprets organizational culture, objectives, and resource alignment with their role in the organization. It begins before orientation, specifically, the moment they accept the position. It is important to establish a relationship between the acceptance period and their first day, to address any concerns and clarify the role. A recent study shows that 40% of new executives fail in their first 18 months, so it is important that onboarding begins early and is targeted to specific populations such as:
Senior Leaders – A new leader requires an onboarding plan that caters to their situation and acquiring the leadership skills needed for their role. The framework should include a socialization component that provides teambuilding, networking, and mentoring to highlight what success looks like in the organization. Managers – Similar to senior leader, but with a customized plan that focuses on tools and resources that can be applied in different ways to develop their team and drive profitability. Remote Employees – This population creates a mutually beneficial relationship of bringing in talent that is not limited by traditional geographic boundaries, while providing flexible work options in return. Connect them with video conferencing and learning management system (LMS) tools to engage with personal interaction and involvement in the workplace experience. Use scaffolding in the learning process to teach the material in steps. It is important to build a relationship that emphasizes their individual strengths, as well as value to their team. Seasonal - The same attention to onboading as year-round employees should be given to the seasonal population. After all, a customer is most likely not to know the difference in their dealings with your company. With a short time frame to work with, it is essential begin as early as possible to provide training on the technical skills needed to quickly become part of the team and acclimate to the organization’s culture.
Many organizations have successfully created onboarding processes that provide tailored toolkits and support structures that keep employees engaged and reduces new-hire turnover. At the Visiting Nurse Service on New York (VNSNY) for example, they customize their toolkits to reflect the unique differences in environment between their office-based and field-based staff. An added dimension to their year-long onboarding is incorporating three stakeholders, the new hire, their manager, and an onboarding buddy. The addition of an onboarding buddy creates a peer mentor dynamic that has correlated to a 55% reduction in first year attrition at VNSNY.
The return on investment for onboarding clear and its appearance in organizations is gaining momentum. The design it is implemented under makes all the difference. At Apricot, successful client onboarding looks like a full cycle role-targeted initiative that begins when the job is accepted, establishes milestones, and includes a feedback aspect that surveys employees on their experience after closeout. Taking conscious steps to establish and refine the onboarding process will encourage real engagement.
When you think of Delta’s red logo, what comes to mind? A great flight experience or that obnoxious flight attendant and a lost bag? For service-oriented companies like Delta, the intangible products of service and experience drive profitability. With Delta’s acquisition of Northwest Airlines in 2008, they are now the world’s largest commercial airline carrier. Their standing in the industry gives them the positioning to provide a new standard in service.
It has been three years since the merger, and many of their policies and procedures have discrepancies both for employees and customer service. In 2010, Delta had the highest rate of customer complaints including issues of canceled flights and baggage mishandling. The likely causes of these customer service problems stem from employee dissatisfaction and a post-merger culture ignored the importance of service-orientation.
Delta invested $2 billion to support initiatives that improve the customer experience. One significant stride has revolved around the revitalization of their Red Coat program. Red Coat employees are responsible for “on the ground” customer service representation equipped with technology to instantly print boarding passes or other vouchers. For employees, this program creates new positions and authorization to improve customer satisfaction with tangible measurements.
These investments are starting to pay off, as Delta’s overall airline quality rating score has improved since 2010. Customer satisfaction scores for 2011 place Delta around the industry average, which is an improvement for the airline post-merger but a far cry from their golden days of customer excellence. Creating a service-orientation image that differentiates Delta from the market competition will be integral in re-building their brand.
Delta’s senior vice president of customer service, Gil West, says “we realize we’ve got to invest in the human element as well. … One of our key objectives is to continue to improve our customer service. The bringing back of the Red Coats for Delta is very symbolic of that.” Initiatives like the Red Coat program sit at the forefront of entwining customer service to the employee representatives they interact with, thereby, establishing a Delta brand that will inspire loyalty and recognition the next time you see their red logo (or coats).
At Apricot, we believe that real service extends beyond the customers online for a flight, but to the employees and to the community at large. According to CSR wire, Delta’s last published CSR report was in 2007. Can they work to serve all three? Time will tell.
“What does it mean to be happy in a digital world? Our lives are increasingly mediated – but are we happier?” asks NYU professor and entrepreneur Anna Akbari, PhD at the recent TEDx Silicon Alley event.
The talk, organized by Chris Grayson at Humble Media, was intended to spark thought around the ways that technology affects our lives and the tremendous opportunity it delivers to inspire change and progress. Grayson curated a diverse (and gender-balanced) group of speakers to explore the creative use of technology and its unexpected outcomes.
Akbari suggests that technology has transformed our lives for the better. Most notably, it helps us to identify networks, relationships, wants and needs and then to connect with others based on our desired alliances and relationships. She points to a 2005 study by happiness researchers at University of California, Riverside; University of Missouri, Columbia; and University of Texas, Austin that studied the correlation between happiness and genetics (explaining 50 percent of a person’s long-term happiness), circumstances (10 percent), and activities and practices (40 percent). Noting that “the 40 percent includes our habits and rituals around technology,” Akbari’s framework is a fitting introduction to the ways that technology has transformed our lives to be more productive, meaningful, and ultimately, happier.
The Occupy Wall Street movement has officially become a national, if not an international, phenomenon. It has been successful in bringing together thousands of frustrated people, shedding light on the growing number of unhappy Americans who want corporations to exhibit greater responsibility and accountability in their dealings. One of the major criticisms of the protests has been the lack of a concrete list of demands. The protestors have countered that the goal of the protest is simply to warn corporations, and indeed the government, that a large portion – “99 percent” – of the population is disgruntled with the status quo.
Although corporations have little incentive to initiate major reform at this stage, they should not ignore the protests. Consistent with current trends, there will likely be an increase in various Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives by a number of larger companies, including those criticized by the movement. However, the effectiveness of CSR campaigns – especially without meaningful substance – in appeasing the growing masses of angry people remains to be seen.
Short-sighted philanthropic or cause-marketing based initiatives that simply throw money at issues are unlikely to change the minds of Occupy Wall Street sympathizers. While many companies currently engage in CSR programs that aim to create change at a deeper structural level, PR oriented CSR work continues to abound.
If there is one learning to take away from the Occupy Wall Street movement, it is that these kinds of empty CSR gestures will no longer suffice. People are demanding more out of their government and out of their companies, and with social media and increased transparency, they will be able to judge the true sincerity of many of these programs. While a large portion of protesters are demanding widespread structural change to our current system, it is probable that they will at least look favorably upon more companies increasing their CSR initiatives in a sincere fashion.
Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz isn’t afraid to describe the “crisis of leadership” he sees in Washington. In August, Shultz controversially urged fellow CEOs to boycott campaign contributions and instead focus on creating jobs. “We need to literally put our feet in the shoes of the American people. They’re not worried about ideology,” he explained in a recent interview with CBS news anchor Scott Pelley. “They’re worried about schools for their kids, jobs, housing. This is a problem that is not based on partisanship. This is based on citizenship.”
Schultz’s point of view resonates at a time when the nationalunemployment rate is at 9.1%, and the underemployment rate, at 16.2%. Americans are facing tough times and a frustrating dearth of leadership in Washington.
Shultz is a CEO who has embraced corporate responsibility as his company has grown. More than ten years ago, Starbucks entered a partnership with TransFair USA, where the coffee giant agreed to market Fair Trade Certified coffee in more than 2,000 retail locations across the United States. In 2009, Starbucks agreed to double its purchases to 40 million pounds, making it the largest purchaser of fair trade coffee in the world. More recently, Schultz refused to cut health benefits for his employees, even as the company restructured.
Hershey’s Chocolate is one of America’s most iconic brands. The company currently controls around 42.5 percent of the nation’s chocolate market as well as a chocolate theme park in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
This month marks the 10-year anniversary of the signing of the Harkin-Engel Protocol, an agreement made by the country’s largest chocolate companies, including Hershey, to put an end to forced child labor in chocolate. Unfortunately, Hershey’s has lagged behind in this initiative to some of its main competitors such as Nestlé. Many of its problems with child labor persist, and advocacy groups like Global Exchange and the International Labor Right Federation are urging the manufacturer to take steps to take to become a more socially responsible and ethical business.
Investor Halla Tomasdottir described the benefit of women investors in her 2010 TEDWomen talk in terms of diversifying interests and decision making: “The whole thing about the female trend is not about women being better than men. It is actually about women being different from men—bringing different values and different ways to the table. So what do you get? You get better decision-making and you get less herd behavior and both of those things hit your bottom line with very positive results.”
Other thought-leaders like the Kauffman Foundation describe the dearth of women investors in terms of lost human and economic potential: “The untapped human potential [of women owned enterprises] in total, is surely vast. It is just starting to be recognized as a long-term competitiveness issue for this country and others. More angel investing is not the only answer, but it is an essential element, and women must be part of it.”
Ari Zolonz, of Patagonia, spent the month of October working with the Native Fish Society
What does a small amount of paid time off to do volunteer work mean for an employee?
Apparently a lot more than you think.
Last year, Hewitt Associates partnered with Canadian Business for Social Responsibility to understand the correlation between employee engagement and a company’s CSR efforts. After gathering opinions from over 100,000 employees and 2,000 leaders at more than 230 workplaces, the research team concluded:
“The findings demonstrate that organizations with high employee engagement have a higher degree of readiness to focus on CSR as a strategy to improve overall organizational performance and better meet the needs of employees and external stakeholders.”
Eighty-six per cent of employees at organizations with high engagement agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that they worked for an employer that was socially and environmentally responsible. That figure was 71 per cent at employers with moderate engagement and only 60 per cent at those with low engagement.
These findings can be interpreted in several different ways. For one, at my consultancy, we have found that organizations that function well internally – those that value leadership, staff dialogue and participation – often are highly engaged with external communities. We have discovered the inverse true as well – dysfunctional organizations rarely have stellar CSR programs, probably because they lack the culture and mechanisms for employee engagement and participation inside of the organization – never mind in the outside world.
The Little League World Series was first held in 1947 and throughout this 64 year history there has never been in African team in the competition. Chinese Taipei/Taiwan has the most wins, proof that international representation is not missing, but Africa’s lack of infrastructure and general inexperience with baseball has prevented it from participating in the one of highest honors for a young athlete.
This year, however, a team that had been on the rise for the past few years was finally on its way to America. Uganda beat Saudi Arabia on July 16th to qualify for the trip to Williamsport, but shortly after returning home, they were informed that their visas to America were denied. The issue was largely because of the inconsistencies in birth dates with many of players, something very common in Uganda. Though their journey may end this year with some disappointment, it is an inspiring one that can set the stage for other similar initiatives throughout the developing world.
The story begins eight years ago when Richard Stanley, part owner of the New York Yankees’ AA affiliate Trenton Thunder, introduced baseball to Uganda. Baseball was quick to catch on, but communities lacked many of the facilities and equipment necessary to take the sport seriously.
