White Paper How to launch new employees to success - …€¦ · A substantial study conducted by...

Table of Contents

1 Executive summary

2 The employee timeline

3 The transition between selection

and development

5 Practical applications of behavioral

onboarding

8 Summary

Executive summary “Launch or no launch” is the most important decision a hiring manager

can make when looking for an employee. Should you hire a seemingly

promising candidate today, or continue with your search? Most

organizations spend thousands of dollars per candidate in their

selection process to ensure that the person selected is the right one

for the company’s mission.

Naturally, expending resources to carefully select the right candidate

makes good business sense. However, many organizations forget

about the resources necessary to ensure that the launch will be

successful once the new employee joins the organization. The first

90 days of employment can make or break the success of a new hire.

Without a good onboarding program, new employees may embark on

their first missions with a trajectory of failure and an early washout

instead of success and long-term retention. Onboarding should

encompass more than having the employee sign a few forms, taking

the tour of the break room, and getting a crash course on the tricks of

the coffee machine. A strong onboarding plan prepares employees to

succeed by transporting them from an alien environment to a target

destination in your organization. This journey is much simpler when

you consider their natural behavioral tendencies.

How important is it to speak the new hire’s behavioral language from

day one? Workforce Management magazine published the following

views pertaining to the importance of the onboarding period:

A substantial study conducted by the partnership of Booz Allen

Hamilton in 2008 found that successfully onboarding employees

during their first year of service increases engagement, raises

retention by as much as 25 percent, improves performance, and

accelerates the time to full productivity. With salary budgets under

pressure from all sides, building a better onboarding process may

be the most cost-effective approach to boosting engagement

and first year retention rates. For employees, the sense of

newness and the accompanying learning curve continue beyond

the first 90 days, but few organizations extend onboarding

beyond that point.1

White Paper

How to launch new employees to successwith behavioral onboarding techniques

1. Onboarding for Greater Engagement, Fay Hansen, Workforce Management Magazine, Oct. 2008.

2

Infor is in no way committing to the development or delivery of any specified enhancement, upgrade, product or functionality. See “disclaimer” paragraph contained herein.

Infor PeopleAnswers Talent Science

Successful onboarding is more likely to lead to highly engaged employees, longer tenures,

better on-the-job success, and a shorter countdown to full productivity—the type of results

that impact your company’s bottom line in a big way! Put your behavioral insight to work

immediately by integrating it into the new employee’s onboarding program to maximize

productivity, engagement, and retention.

This white paper introduces three basic stages of the employee timeline and the need to

utilize behavioral onboarding to transition behavioral information from selection to talent

development. Additionally, we present five practical applications of behavioral onboarding:

• Training Keys

• Task Management

• Time Management

• Team Orientation

• Supervisory Relations

Using this style of behavioral onboarding, companies can quickly launch a new hire’s career

on its most productive path.

The employee timeline Each employee goes through a natural timeline with an employer. The timeline represents the

typical phases of employment within an organization. Each time an employee leaves one

employer and is hired by another, the employee timeline starts over. To fully understand the

value of behavioral onboarding, we will discuss three stages in an employee’s timeline:

selection, onboarding, and development.

Selection process

Prior to being hired, all candidates go through some type of selection process. Companies

have different philosophies on hiring processes. Many companies go to great lengths to

source, assess, interview, and eventually choose the best fit to a job. Over the last decade,

leveraging behavioral data obtained from an assessment has become a standard part of the

selection process for most companies. For many companies, the amount of information

collected during the selection process is impressively large and fully leveraged to select the

right fit to the job.

Onboarding process

Once a candidate has been selected for a position, the onboarding process begins.

Generally speaking, an onboarding process consists of anything related to the early days of

employment in an organization. Items traditionally included are payroll documentation,

governmental forms, assignment of company-issued passwords, review of employee

manuals, systems training, etc. Additionally, organizations may spend the first portion of a new

employee’s tenure in orientation meetings, training sessions, and other activities that assist

the new employee in getting up to speed in their new role. The traditional focus of

onboarding is on forms, skills, and basic proficiencies.

3



Development process

The employee development process typically comes later in the employment timeline.

Many employers will systematically implement programs to assist employees in the

improvement of their job-related duties. Often, employee development consists of training

programs, job evaluation discussions, mentoring programs, and/or feedback sessions.

These programs are intended to develop employees’ work processes, job behaviors, and to

fine-tune various job skills. The more knowledge, skills, and abilities an employee develops,

the better the performance that may be expected. Coaching sessions begin to dig deeper

into the employee’s thought processes and the supporting reasons for certain decisions they

make. Over time, the employee may be considered for promotions or for different positions

within the organization. A job change would restart the employee timeline, but ongoing

development efforts always point toward the expectations and duties of the current role as

well as the next.

The three stages of the employee timeline are all important—but unique—phases that

contribute to an employee’s tenure and productivity within an organization. Unfortunately,

organizations often miss the opportunity to transition valuable behavioral information from

one stage to the next.

The transition between selection and development Infor® PeopleAnswers Talent ScienceTM surveyed (n = 997) human resource professionals to

evaluate the current usage of behavioral data and information during the employee timeline.

The focus of the research was to determine if the behavioral information collected and used

in selection was being fully leveraged in the later stages of the employee timeline (specifically

development).

• The results indicated that 75% (42% + 33%) of those surveyed actively use behavioral information collected through assessment “very frequently” or “often” in selection. An additional 17% use the behavioral information occasionally.

• Additionally, the results indicated that 42% (14% + 28%) of those surveyed actively use some form of behavioral information collected through assessment “very frequently” or “often” in the development process. An additional 35% use the behavioral information occasionally.

4



Finding #1:

According to the survey data collected, behavioral information is very frequently an integral

part of selection (42%). That same high rate of usage does not appear to transfer to the

development phase. In fact, only 14% very frequently utilize behavioral information in

development.

Finding #2:

The survey results indicated that 23% of those surveyed never use behavioral information

during development. Conversely, only 8% of those surveyed never use behavioral information

in selection. This large difference further identifies the loss of behavioral information between

the selection and development phases of the employee timeline.

Solution:

In order to reduce the loss of valuable behavioral information, the onboarding process can be

used as a smooth transition from selection to development. Using onboarding to transition

behavioral information from selection will provide many benefits, such as:

• The employee will be better understood and integrate more easily into the work environment.

• Using the behavioral information from Day 1 will set a positive tone between manager and employee that fosters a theme of continual improvement. This is especially important if the manager responsible for development was not involved in the selection process.

• Early use of behavioral information will increase the likelihood of usage during the development phase (providing an important source of great training content).

• The behavioral information is also an important consideration if/when the new hire becomes interested in being promoted within the organization.

Naturally, because onboarding is the bridge between selection and development, it will make

a perfect transition point to leverage the behavioral information immediately. The following

section lists some practical applications of the behavioral information in the onboarding

process.

Frequency of behavioral information usage

Often Occasionally Never

Selection

42%

33%

14%

17%

8%

28%

35%

23%

Development

Very Frequently

5



Practical applications of behavioral onboarding

Training

From a behavioral perspective, everyone has different preferences when it comes to training

methods or learning new material. Ask any seasoned trainer or educator; inevitably, you will

find that the key to successful training is understanding the perspective of the student and

delivering the material in a way that can be digested. This is often accomplished by

understanding a person’s learning style and customizing information to fit that style.

Behavioral data collected during the selection process can provide the new manager with

deep insight into the new employee’s learning style.

Training example

Consider a situation in which a new hire on your team is highly assertive (not low or medium,

but an “8” or higher on a scale of 1 to 10). During training sessions, a highly assertive person

will be quick to speak out. This type of person typically engages with and fully participates in

all exercises and training sessions. From a positive standpoint, this type of new hire will

openly and aggressively share struggles and concerns throughout the training process.

However, more assertiveness is not necessarily better.

The supervisor needs to understand that the new employee’s assertiveness may limit the

opportunities for other employees to voice their ideas. In many cases, a highly assertive

person may offend or upset those around them, including his or her new manager, without

even being aware of it. Early stress in relationships could lead to slower assimilation of the

new hire into the culture, or, worst-case scenario, it could serve as the catalyst for an early

separation. By utilizing the behavioral information captured during the selection process,

the supervisor will be alert to the potential impact of the behavior and effects associated with

the onboarding experience. Additionally, the supervisor will be advised on simple ways to

anticipate and address potential issues.

Tasks

When it comes to tasks, everyone has their own methods of progressing from start to

completion. Some use checklists; some rely on technology; others are most comfortable

processing tasks sequentially. Regardless of the specific method chosen, it is important to

learn a new hire’s tendencies early during the onboarding experience. After all, task

completion often equates to a healthy sense of success and accomplishment. A sense of

success is important to build the new hire’s confidence, as well as building the supervisor’s

confidence in the employee’s abilities. To assist employees to achieve early success in task

completion, the supervisor needs to be equipped with behavioral data that defines and

explains the new hire’s preferred way to approach tasks. As the new employee tries to get

comfortable in the role, those behavioral work preferences will help keep the learning

process smooth while reducing the stress of the supervisor. It is a tremendous value to both

the hiring manager and employee when confidence to handle tasks is high.

6



Task example

Imagine a situation where a new hire has a low level of confidence. Typically, this person will

need additional positive reinforcement or affirmation to build confidence in his/her ability to

work through new assignments. The supervisor should be made aware that this type of new

hire will often place high expectations on his/her own performance. In many cases, high

expectations become internal motivators as well as a possible indicator of high quality work.

On the flip side, without the behavioral information collected from a selection process, the

supervisor would not know that high expectations might cause the new hire to be overly

critical of his/her own work. Being overly critical creates a self-perception of failure even if

performance is well within the acceptable range. Self-criticism, left unchecked by the

supervisor, will cause undue stress to the new employee through symptoms such as

withdrawing from the group, decreasing effort, or early resignation. Knowing this important

behavioral information gives the supervisor the ability to provide the new hire with the proper

perspective and affirmation when he/she completes a task.

Time management

All employees need a strategy for time management, but new employees especially require

additional support as they start a new job. Being new to an environment with unknown

processes, procedures, and people can be overwhelming. Early in a new employee’s life

cycle, tasks will take much longer to complete than they would in the hands of an

experienced employee, due mainly to the learning curve required to master the necessary

procedures of the new role. A supervisor should strongly emphasize time management and

the affect of the employee’s behavioral preferences in this area. By using behavioral

information, the supervisor will gain insight into the employee’s time management habits and

provide guidance, realistic expectations, and attainable goals that will prepare the employee

for early success.

Time management example

Take a moment to think about a new employee who is highly flexible in their approach to time

management. Practically, the supervisor would view this new employee as being able to

easily adjust to uncertainty in their schedule. The new employee would come across as very

fluid and able to “go with the flow” when it comes to deadlines, schedules, and meetings.

There would be little anxiety when meetings were moved or canceled. However, the

supervisor might sense frustration from the new employee when strict schedules and

mandatory meetings are forced onto him or her, with little flexibility in the timing. Having

knowledge of a person’s time management behavioral preferences would help the

supervisor work with the new employee and reduce frustration.

Teams

Some jobs may be classified as individual contributor roles while others require more team

participation. Understanding the new hire’s behavioral preference as it relates to team

dynamics can be very helpful. Even if a new hire will be entering into an individual contributor

role, there will be many opportunities for the new hire to interact with others and participate in

team activities during the onboarding process. Often new hires are asked to shadow current

employees or employee groups, participate in group meetings, work on shared projects, and

even work with fellow new employees to familiarize themselves with the culture and job

duties. Companies often leverage group strategies to improve the efficiency and

effectiveness of the onboarding process. Specifically, it is important to understand a new

employee’s behaviors as it relates to teams to maximize the onboarding experience and

ensure that the new employee is smoothly integrated into the company culture.

7



Team example

Attention to detail is a behavioral trait that becomes very visible in team interactions. On one

hand, a new hire who has a low attention to detail will see no reason for small details to derail

the team’s progress. In fact, in many cases the new hire would request that a team move

forward and not get bogged down in specifics. However, this approach may influence the

team to overlook important details that need to be addressed before moving forward.

The project would suffer if the team relied on this new employee to handle all the specific

details of a task, especially those seemingly small issues necessary for success. Without this

level of information, the supervisor would be unaware of the new hire’s potential training

opportunity and its potential to cause friction within the team.

Supervisory regulations

One of the highest value areas of using behavioral onboarding is gaining insight into the

kinds of interactions that can be expected between a new employee and supervisor. One of

the most common causes of early resignations is failed interactions between the new

employee and the supervisor. These failed interactions may be due to faulty expectations,

poor communication, or a lack of understanding of the other’s perspective. In any case,

behavioral information regarding managerial relationships provides the supervisor with a

valuable resource to help understand the new employee’s motivations. When equipped with

this information, the supervisor will be better able to address issues and respond

appropriately. Behavioral insights that frame an employee’s perspective will help ensure that

early interactions between a new employee and a supervisor start in a positive direction.

Supervisory example

At times, the onboarding process can be stressful for a new hire. Life transitions, such as a

new job, often bring on unhealthy stress. Understanding a new hire’s stress tolerance can

really help a supervisor build rapport and foster initial growth in a new role. Consider a new

hire with a very high tolerance for stress. Without behavioral data, the supervisor may be

surprised when a new hire responds effectively in stressful situations, seemingly with ease.

The supervisor should also be made aware that this new hire will not understand why others

cannot respond as well to the stress of a situation as he/she does. Due to a higher comfort

level with stress, this person may actually encourage or create unnecessary pressure for

others because of the relative ease with which he/she personally handles stress. With this

information on hand during onboarding, the supervisor will be more aware of situations that

may influence the employee’s work relationships with supervisors and peers.

If an organization can take advantage of behavioral onboarding in the areas of Training,

Task Management, Time Management, Team Orientation, and Supervisory Relations, every

career launch will be much more likely to produce longer tenures, better performance, and a

shorter ramp-up period.

About Infor

Infor is fundamentally changing the way information is published and consumed in the enterprise, helping 70,000

customers in 200 plus countries improve operations, drive growth, and quickly adapt to changes in business demands.

To learn more about Infor, please visit www.infor.com.

Disclaimer

This document reflects the direction Infor may take with regard to the specific product(s) described in this document, all of

which is subject to change by Infor in its sole discretion, with or without notice to you. This document is not a commitment

to you in any way and you should not rely on this document or any of its content in making any decision. Infor is not

committing to develop or deliver any specified enhancement, upgrade, product or functionality, even if such is described

in this document.

Copyright© 2014 Infor. All rights reserved. The word and design marks set forth herein are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Infor and/or related affiliates and subsidiaries. All other trademarks listed herein are the property of their respective owners. This document is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute a commitment to you in any way. The information, products and services described herein are subject to change at any time without notice. www.infor.com.

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Summary Why are more and more companies using behavioral onboarding techniques? It can be

condensed to one phrase: Information is money. Organizations save money when the right

employees are hired (selection), when those employees are made to feel that they truly

belong in the organization (onboarding), and when staff productivity is maximized through

effective training programs (development). If you want success in all three phases of every

career launch, take the necessary steps to collect the best quality behavioral data that you

can, then use that information to improve all three parts of the employee timeline. Before you

know it, earnings will be “over the moon” while turnover rates reach all-time lows.

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