A friend, who is working in the recruiting function of a medium-sized company, wrote to me recently. She was worried about her
company’s on boarding process, or lack of, and was asking how to improve
it.

“We had a gentleman start in sales yesterday and I was really surprised at how disorganized we were for his first day.
He arrived, and spent an hour with Benefits filling out paperwork. Then, nothing! His boss was out of the office so he sat at
his desk for awhile and finally came to me and asked what should I be
doing?”

Well, needless to say this is not the way recruiters like applicants to be welcomed into a company. Corporate recruiters
know all too well how difficult it can be to persuade a key player in the
industry to take a chance and come on board with a new company. It is a mixture of hard work, sales skills,
and a little bit of luck and when that new hire comes on board, first
impressions are the key to more referrals and the professional
reputation.

I can only imagine the new hire’s thoughts as he sat in his cube, twiddling his thumbs.

• How many days until Ramadan?
• Wonder if anyone would mind if I checked my Facebook?
• This monitor is kind of dusty
• Do we bring our own Kleenex or is that supplied?

There are so many blogs, articles, and white papers out there about how to develop an effective new hire orientation program that I am not going to bore you with that
here. The key to the success of such
programs is getting executive buy-in on its importance to the employee retention
and then actually USING the tools. Is it
really so hard to stock supplies in the desk, schedule one-on-ones with key
players in the organization, and take the new hire to lunch?

Too bad outgoing employees never write in the comments of the exit review form, “MY FIRST DAY SUCKED! My manager disappeared
for three hours, no one bothered to ask me what I was doing for lunch, and I
asked the CFO to help me use the scanner.
No one cares – I quit!” It is
also pretty rare to see a new hire quit after their first day in this economy
where the average job search stretches out longer than any other time since
1948. If this lack of preparation
translated to bottom-line revenue, more managers would take the time to really
invest in the first impressions, but therein lays the difficulty. It doesn’t - in this climate of more work for
fewer employees; more people are using their time to impress “UP” the ladder,
rather than “DOWN”.

If your company refuses to value the new hire experience for its intrinsic value to retention and employee morale, here is a word key for what you are telling your
employees on their first day:

No agenda – no one really cares what you do today, but tomorrow expect to account for every minute.

No office supplies – the last guy in this cube was so disgruntled, when he left he took everything and sold it on eBay.

No invitation to lunch – you won’t be here long enough to develop a relationship with any of us, so why put forth the effort.

Someone shows you the coffee pot but not the restroom – you are expected to make coffee but not to drink it.

No log-ins or passwords to the network – Psychic ability is a prerequisite.

Your boss is out on your first day - this place is so bad, she is interviewing too.

No one introduces you to the big wigs in the office – the employees can’t wait for you to put your foot in your mouth with one of the execs.

No wonder 46% of U.S. new hires must be classified as failures within their first 18 months (fired, pressured to quit, required
disciplinary action, etc.)

Source: Leadership IQ

In addition, 58% of the highest-priority hires, new executives hired from the outside fails in their new position within 18 months. Source: Michael
Watkins

What do you think? Any comments for the good of the cause, or to share your horror stories are welcome.