September 2012 | askGrapevine HR 4342 askGrapevine HR | September 2012

Succeeding in a new roleHow can HR ensure a new hire will succeed in their role?

Onboarding

I n his book, ‘The First 90 Days’ Michael Watkins says that your first three months in a new job will largely determine whether you succeed or fail.

The pressures of starting a new role can be intense. For external appointments, not knowing the organisation, the people and the surroundings, can all be daunting. For internal hires, moving up to a job with more responsibility can be equally stressful. But how much can HR do to alleviate the pressures of starting a new role and make those first 90 days successful?

“Despite the immense time, effort and cost that can go into identifying and landing the right appointment, most employers take very few steps to ensure that employees stay the course,” says Barney Ely, Director at Hays Human Resources. “Therefore, it is key that the HR function makes the best use of the key time between offer and arrival.”

“Their first day isn’t always their first day” Making sure a new hire feels part of the organisation from the day a job offer is made can help them feel at ease for their first day of work. Often organisations help new

hires by allocating a mentor or ‘buddy’ – someone they can go to for advice at any time. By setting up meetings for new starters and helping them to form connections with the company, new recruits develop networks and can often learn the organisation’s culture much faster.

Andy Hill, Vice President, Talent & Resourcing at Invensys, actively encourages engaging with new employees before their first day at work. “The time between the candidate accepting the job and during their notice period is when the new employer should be getting them involved with the organisation,” says Hill.

Hill advises that as well as sending the new employee information on the organisation’s strategy and structure, the employer should invite them to team meetings, offer to meet up for a coffee and ask if there are questions they wish to ask. “Their first day isn’t always their first day,” Hill adds.

As well as providing new employees with company information, allowing them to network with their new colleagues is another opportunity for them to get to know people before their first day. When someone joins Invensys

Onboarding

they receive an invite to a closed LinkedIn group, where they will have the opportunity to look at the profiles of all the individuals who work in the leadership team.

“For executive leaders there’s a lot more pressure on them to perform and a lot of preconceived ideas,” adds Hill. “You’re often paying a disproportionate amount of money in terms of salary or search fees, so it’s really important that you follow up and give them the best possible opportunity for them to be successful.”

Jane Kirk, Director at Armstrong Craven, holds a similar view. She says: “I think it’s really important for HR to help people go up that learning curve very quickly. Give them the information, help them know which relationships they need to build quicker than others and help them navigate the culture.”

First impressions countCreating a network is vital for employees starting a new job and this is something that the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, emphasises during the induction process, which has recently been redesigned.

The HR team at CERN reviewed the induction programme in 2010, under a new slogan ‘first impressions count’. James Purvis, CERN’s Head of Recruitment, describes the programme as “world-class”. Cécile Granier, a CERN HR Advisor, was the project leader for the programme’s review, to promote employee engagement.

“Our main concern is to make integration at CERN as smooth as possible,” says Granier. “We also want new employees to develop their network at CERN. We do more than arrange a meeting and provide them with presentation information - we organise a few ice breakers. We really want them to discuss and exchange their cards and names to develop their network and to communicate as much as possible. In one hour sessions, we give them the opportunity to interact with CERN’s management.”

The induction programme varies according to the profile of the person and is staggered over the first 12 months in the job. It consists of one half day session per month and one full day session every three months, where the whole line management up to and including the Director-General is involved. Indeed, as mentioned by the

Barney Ely, Director,

Hays Human Resources

“It is key that the HR function makes the best use of the key time between

offer and arrival”

44 askGrapevine HR | September 2012

“Having someone who has informed you they’re going to help you do everything really helps, and before the person joins HR can help the person do their homework. But why can’t the company give them literature, telling them about how the com-pany operates to help them become more familiar? Why can’t there be a first meet-ing with the boss to help understand the expectations and set the scene? If they have been chosen well, they will have a sign-poster who is helping them to learn the key relationships they need to make to be successful. But the individual still has to look for the quick wins and learn to take early decisions to make sure they make the impact.”

Jane Kirk, Director, Armstrong Craven

What makes a good induction process?

CERN Director-General in the CERN Code of Conduct, the organisation values the contribution of everyone as part of a collective endeavour.

Granier emphasises that the programme creates a feeling of belonging for the employees, giving them not only the chance to “take part” but also to become part of the organisation. CERN also encourages supervisors to join the induction sessions so that they know what is expected of them throughout the induction process. Each session is also rated by the participants so that the HR team can constantly improve the process. “Generally our feedback is extremely positive,” says Granier. “I’ve realised that what we’re doing in terms of welcoming people is still quite exceptional.”

“No one is 100% perfect for any role”Ensuring that new recruits have a development plan in place as soon as they arrive at an organisation is important for their success in a new role. But Hill believes that many organisations are failing to identify employees’ development needs as soon as they are recruited. Most often, this occurs at the interview process, where the employer is most likely to identify the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses.

“We all spend an awful lot of time and money on recruiting people,” says Hill. “What we get through that process is a huge amount of data on skills gaps. What we don’t do enough of is taking that information and helping them build their development plan straight away.”

Hill also highlights that employers often give more development feedback to the unsuccessful candidates, while simply congratulating the successful candidates and telling them why they got the job.

“No one is 100% perfect for any role,” Richard MacKinnon, Head of Learning & Development at Talent Q admits. “So something that should fall out of a good selection process is feedback - feedback that focuses on both strengths and development needs. You can do something about those development needs and factor those in to the new starters’ experience.

“If you’ve invested the time with us to go through our assessment process, the very least we can do is give you quality feedback to enlighten you as to how you performed,” MacKinnon adds.

Graduate successHotel chain Accor is about to employ a further 3,500 people to hit its growth target of reaching 300 hotels

Onboarding

To perform strongly in the future, organisations need to understand where the next generation of leaders will come from.

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For more information contact succession.planning@shl.com

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Onboarding

46 askGrapevine HR | September 2012

by 2015. This high intake of people will require a strong onboarding process to ensure these employees succeed in their new roles. But Accor doesn’t only recruit externally; many of its senior employees have worked their way up through the company. 75% of general managers were promoted from within and each year 15% of employees are promoted, either within the same hotel, from one hotel to another, between brands or even across countries.

Despite having good retention levels, Philip Addison, Accor’s HR Director (pictured above), found that retention levels are not as high for graduates. At a graduate level, people are often still forming their idea of what work is and where they want to go in their career. Addison has since decided to adapt Accor’s recruitment channels for graduates. Accor’s graduate programme has run since 2003, with 14 former graduates now holding general or senior managerial roles. But Addison has discovered that organisations can often invest a lot of money in recruiting graduates who later decide that the job is not for them.

“We want to take more people from UK hospitality courses onto a one-year sandwich programme to offer them the opportunity of gaining valuable experience of the industry from a global leader such as Accor,” says Addison. “University is still an incredibly valuable route to business and as fees rise and employment continues to get increasingly competitive it is important for employers

to work with undergraduates to introduce them to the industry at the earliest possible occasion. We provide each of the students with a real opportunity to gain new skills in the work place, learning on the job as part of our team, giving them a chance to experience what it is like to work at Accor. The hope is that we can recruit high potential candidates directly into the business once they have completed their final year.”

Accor has set a challenge of employing over one hundred placement students each year. “If people have a year to try it out they can decide whether hospitality and Accor is for them. We hope to encourage young people to join the industry, so that we can train and support them to a high standard, providing a pool of talent for the future of the hospitality industry,” Addison adds.

Whether it’s giving graduates a taster of the job before starting, redesigning induction programmes or simply making a new hire feel involved from the day they accept the job, all of these can make a significant impact on the employee’s success in their new role. Of course though, it shouldn’t just rely on HR. Line managers must help to engage and look for development opportunities with that employee, and the new hire themselves has to take responsibility to succeed. If all these areas work together, a new hire is sure to be on their way to success in their new job.

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