Acing Turnover: Onboarding and Assimilation
Change is inevitable. That’s certainly true when it comes to business, and in particular, staffing of our businesses. Canadian companies are not only having a hard time finding workers in today’s tight labour market; they are also finding it increasingly difficult to keep the employees they already have.
Turnover might be a fact of life in 2022, but you have a choice: let turnover stress you out or get good at dealing with it.
How do you deal with turnover for maximum results? Today we will discuss two key strategies: onboarding and assimilation.
“The only thing you can count on is change.”
Onboarding
Onboarding is the process of integrating new employees into the organization, preparing them to be successful in their jobs, and helping them to become fully engaged, productive members of the team.
Onboarding is more than just a brief introduction; it includes the initial orientation and the pursuant three to six months, or however long it takes to get a new employee up to speed in your company.
According to a 2021 Harris Poll survey, 69% of employees who engage in a structured onboarding program are more likely to stay. So, what does structured onboarding look like?
To be successful, onboarding should include:
a clear, documented, repeatable plan that lists activities to be completed throughout the duration of the onboarding;
the involvement of other team members and the assignment of a buddy/mentor to support the learning;
regular, scheduled check-ins with the director supervisor.
Consider the following as an outline:
Before starting - Communicate with the supervisor, complete paperwork, assign a buddy, set up a shadowing schedule, and inform all involved.
First day - Introductions, allow new employee to experience the service as a patient / customer, review job description, shadow areas of the business, supervisor check in at end of day.
First week - Job shadow, set up a schedule, assign trainers to teach required tasks, assign simple tasks.
First month - Follow training plan with scheduled check-ins with the supervisor.
Months 2 & 3 - Follow training plan, coach to improve skill set, 90-day review.
Assimilation
When hiring a key member of the team who will have authority, such as a manager, consider doing assimilation. This activity consists of gathering the team to share information and insights with the new employee. In roles with authority, it is important to quickly establish what I call FCT (Familiarity, Comfort & Trust), and assimilation helps facilitate this.
Assimilation objectives:
Provide current team with the opportunity to get to know the employee in a brief timeframe.
Begin to build the basis for a longer-term working relationship between the new hire and the team.
Lay the foundation, early on, for open communications, work planning and problem-solving.
When you have the proper resources in place for thorough onboarding and assimilation, you can get ahead of turnover and reduce stress.
How does assimilation work?
Step 1 - Notify the team and the new employee you will be hosting an assimilation.
Step 2 - Share the objectives outlined above.
Step 3 - Gather answers to the questions below, letting the team know it is anonymous: What would you like to know about the new employee? What does the new employee need to know about us as a group?
Step 4 - Summarize responses.
Step 5 - Meet as a group and facilitate the conversation by using what you learned from the answers above and sharing what the team feels the new employee needs to know.
Assimilation may be a new business concept for many, but I can assure you that it is highly effective way to have real discussions and eliminate the gossip or speculation that sometimes arise when we bring on new team members.
When you have the proper resources in place for thorough onboarding and assimilation, you can get ahead of turnover and reduce stress for both the new employee and the other team members.
If you are intrigued by this concept and have further questions, please feel free to reach out to me.
Nancy Dewald is a business development professional, workshop facilitator and optical industry veteran who founded and is CEO of Lead Up Training & Consulting, a company specializing in identifying business gaps, implementing solutions and developing leaders.
Article as seen in Optical Prism