standardized onboarding process

In my experience as a consultant for Fortune 500 companies, I’ve found that the most effective organizations onboard new hires for the duration of their first year — their most vulnerable period — and focus on three key dimensions: the organizational, the technical, and the social. By using this integrated approach, they enable their employees to stay, and to thrive...

Organizational Onboarding...

• Teach them how things work...
• Help them assimilate...

Technical Onboarding...

• Define what good looks like...
• Set up early wins...

Social Onboarding...

• Build a sense of community...

If you want to retain the talent you spend good money to acquire, make sure a new hire’s first year is positive and productive. Organizations with a standardized onboarding process experience 62% greater new hire productivity, along with 50% greater new hire retention. Those that invest time and effort in their new employees reap the benefits. If you want to be an employer of choice for top talent, make sure a new hire’s organizational, technical, and social needs are well met.

Ron Carucci

"To Retain New Hires, Spend More Time Onboarding Them" Harvard Business Review. Dec. 3, 2018

clear, effective and engaging

"Communication is one of the most important skills that a leader and, frankly, most employees now need to excel on the job."

According to [John] Chambers, one or two decades ago a leader could get by without being an exceptional communicator and still be considered great. Today it’s a different world. “You’ve got to deal with social media, you've got to deal with a dramatically different speed of events, you've got to be able to talk to your shareholders, your employees, your customers, and your partners. If you don't have communication skills, you're not going to be an effective leader.”

Measuring and elevating communication skills. Since Chambers believes the ability to communicate with diverse audiences is a critical skill, he always held his leaders to a very high standard. Cisco executives—including Chambers— were rated on their customer presentations using a scale of one to five. After every customer meeting, the speakers were scored in two areas: delivery and content. The speakers had to be clear, effective and engaging while their content had to be useful, relevant and timely.

Carmine Gallo

"In This Candid Conversation, Legendary CEO John Chambers Reveals The Critical Skill Leaders Need Now" Forbes. Dec. 4, 2018

well-placed pauses

Research suggests that most conversational speech consists of short (0.20 seconds), medium (0.60 seconds), and long (over 1 second) pauses. Great public speakers often pause for two to three seconds or even longer. Our phonetic data shows that the average speaker only uses 3.5 pauses per minute, and that’s not enough.

This is understandable. Pauses aren’t easy to embrace. For many speakers, even the briefest pause can feel like an interminable silence. That’s because we tend to think faster than we speak. According to our research, the average professional speaks at a rate of 150 words per minute. Yet, according to research from Missouri University, we think at 400 words per minute (and depending on who you ask, the rate may be as high as 1,500 words per minute).

Because of this discrepancy, when you’re giving a speech, your perception of time is often distorted, and what feels like an eternity in your mind is actually a few short seconds for the audience.

Despite how they may feel at first, well-placed pauses make you sound calm and collected... Strategically placed silence can build suspense, emphasize a point, or give the audience time to absorb a key insight.

Noah Zandan

How to Stop Saying “Um,” “Ah,” and “You Know” Harvard Business Review. Aug. 1, 2018

be humble and grounded

Ron Nessen, who served as press secretary for President Gerald Ford, shared a story about his boss's leadership style: "He had a dog, Liberty. Liberty has an accident on the rug in the Oval Office and one of the Navy stewards rushes in to clean it up. Jerry Ford says, "I'll do that. No man ought to clean up after another man's dog."

Laszlo Bock

"Work Rules! Insights From Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead", 2015, Hatchette Book Group, page 126.

the balance between giving and taking

Gauge the balance between giving and taking. Givers offer assistance, share knowledge, and focus on introducing and helping others. Takers attempt to get other people to do something that will ultimately benefit them, while they act as gatekeepers of their own knowledge.

[Adam] Grant’s conclusion is clear: a willingness to help others is not just the essence of effective cooperation and innovation — it is also the key to accelerating your own performance.

Merete Wedell-Wedellsborg

"Help Your Team Do More Without Burning Out" Harvard Business Review. Oct. 15, 2018