The Importance of OnBoarding

Having recruited, interviewed, and on boarded employees for eight years I felt like I knew a thing about the importance of how new hires feel in their first 30 days on the job. It turns out I have so much more to learn.

When I took on a Management role with Marcus Evans, I realised straight away that the New Hire OnBoarding & Training process needed to be massively revamped. Over my Christmas break, I took it upon myself to update all of the training materials, the quality of the content, and increase the robustness of the overall course. It had an amazing effect. The average amount of business written by our Sales Executives nearly doubled. This was 5 years ago. The effects have worn off. 

Since that time, I've read blogs, sales books, and listened in on countless webinars to see what else we could do. I implemented other small changes like lunch with the management team and anonymous evaluation forms. I deeply believe in continuous improvement, but the effects were marginal.

Here's what I was missing....When I first took over the OnBoarding process I put a premium on making sure that the training elements (print outs, power points, appearance of trainers) matched the quality of the content. As time went on, we lost access to a colour printer (tell me about it) and I think the trainers stopped viewing the opportunity to impart this knowledge as a privilege and starting viewing it as a chore. The quality of the content was there, but it was delivered without any passion. I was trying to effect massive changes. It was actual the small details that create brand continuity that I was missing. 

Now I know I could have done so much more. I should have demanded that our internal brand matched the premiumization of our external brand. I should have not taken no for an answer when the trainers didn't want to bring their A game. I should have ensured we gave it our all, every time. 

Point being, having been onboarded to a new company (www.phmg.com) over the past few weeks it made me realise how much every little detail means. 

The care put into the all materials and every presentations. They are aware of the importance of each little comment and interaction between the current employees. They are in love with PHMG and it shows in the culture. The onboarding process that I just underwent made me not just want this job, but it made me want to work for these company and work with these people. That is what it should always feel like to be onboarded. Thank you PHMG for making me feel like I have landed at a home not just a place to work.