8 April, 2008
The First Six Months – A New On-Boarding Paradigm
Author: Maksim Ovsyannikov

I love data – not because I like numbers, but more because I enjoy the observation of “shift” – changing landscapes as new facts contrast the old norms and turn our attention to original approaches to business. Our business – that of human capital management – is not particularly in need of data, we have plenty of it. Recent Aberdeen report on on-boarding, for example, notes a significant shift in on-boarding strategies in best-in-class organizations. Kevin Martin boldly concludes that instead of caring more about converting new hires to productive hires (a number one on-boarding strategy in 2006), companies now care more about simple retention, and only then about productivity. According to “All Aboard: Effective Onboarding Strategies and Techniques” by Aberdeen, the number one reason companies adapt onboarding programs is because of improved new hire retention rate, with the second reason being shortened time to productivity.

Let’s take a step back and think about it. In the midst of HR struggling to build a business case for talent management, should we first care about retention, or should we find the kind of retention that actually translates to productivity? Aberdeen reports seems to separate the two. I, on the other hand, propose that the two come hand-in-hand. To simplify - we should only focus on retaining those new hires that will be significant contributors to overall organizational productivity. Therefore, your #1 onboarding task should not be to retain new hires. Instead it should be to find the right new hires to retain and only then retain them.

Simple? Not really… Report also finds that it takes about 6 months for a typical employee, since the hire date, to determine if they want to stick with the organization whose offer they accepted and that mentoring is quickly becoming a popular part of the formal onboarding process. My view is again more results oriented – let’s find the group we want to keep; then lets mentor them and I guarantee that they will choose to stay – and they will make their minds up in 6 weeks, not in 6 months! Six months of uncertainty is something that truly best-in-class companies should aim at eliminating.

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Comment from Judy Pearson on April 27, 2008
An opinion from the other side of your fence... Why is it the higher a person gets, the less they actually see the advantage of being that best in class we could be. Sounds good till they actually have to care about the folks doing the job. numbers, percents, acceptable, eyc...

Reply from Maksim Ovsyannikov

Judy, I think the best managers and executives are the ones who don't let their position in the organization cloud their commitment to good people management. That said, there are of course examples of the opposite, but those are the very examples that won't last long - understanding that your team enables everything you do is simply required to survive as an executive today. Those who don't recognize that, especially if they get high up in the hierarchy, will inevitably fall down and guess what - the higher the altitude the more painful the fall :)