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HR Party of One is brought to you by BerniePortal.

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This episode’s alternative title is “How one company’s bad leadership

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onboarding process cost them $75,000!” Let me explain why:

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A colleague worked at a staffing agency in a popular beachside city. This agency’s niche

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was providing resorts and hotels with trained waitstaff for events and extra

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hands during busy summer seasons. Most of the leadership sought work outside of

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the hospitality industry during the pandemic shutdown and did not return when work resumed.

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New leaders were hired, and things seemed great! So how did the company lose $75k?

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I’ll tell you the details at the end of the episode, but here’s a hint:

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the onboarding process for leaders was ineffective and failed to account for an important detail.

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The staffing agency failed majorly because it didn’t

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equip its leaders with the knowledge they needed.

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However, you can prevent that from happening in your own company.

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I’ll show you how. So, let’s cover:

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Evaluating Your Current Leadership Onboarding Process;

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Using the ADDIE Method; and, What Do the Experts Say?

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Let’s get started!

Evaluating Your Current Leadership Onboarding Process

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Evaluating Your Current Leadership Onboarding Process

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Before you can improve a process, you have to understand how it works. Collect your

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knowledge and resources and determine metrics for success before you implement any changes.

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Outline your current onboarding process for leadership. Managers, directors, executives,

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anyone within a leadership position. Do they use 30/60/90 plans? How do those plans differ

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from others in the org? Ensure you define how new leaders are onboarded versus those who are

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promoted internally. And if you’re not onboarding internally, I STRONGLY encourage you to do so!

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Talk to current leaders at your organization about their onboarding experience. Gather

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feedback from those who experienced it and arrange their input on a scale so

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you can see where the trends lie. This step is also critical because it gives

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you a way to measure how impactful your new and improved process is—or, will be.

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Pull data from your HRIS to fill in the details. How long does it take to hire leaders,

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internally and externally? Does the length of the onboarding process change depending

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on the team? Are there certain sticky points that slow down the process? An HRIS like BerniePortal

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should enable you to pull data reports to answer these questions and more.

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Perform a gap analysis. A gap analysis is a research tool that takes your organization’s

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current state and compares it to a specific future state. This information can give you a snapshot

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of what is needed to achieve projected growth. If your headcount must increase,

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bringing on additional individual contributors and leaders, then improving your leadership onboarding

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process is an impactful, high-priority project. Growth often unveils issues within a company,

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and if there’s a shaky transition of power when leaders onboard, you might lose great

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employees, who are instrumental to achieving the organization’s goals.

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After you have completed this research phase, you can begin the ADDIE method.

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But I’ve gotta admit… I tricked you. You’ve already started the ADDIE method.

How to Use the ADDIE Method

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How to Use the ADDIE Method. It’s like the scientific method we learned

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in school, except for improving business processes rather than running science fair experiments.

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ADDIE stands for assessment, design, development, implementation, and evaluation.

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Your research phase was step one of the ADDIE method: assessment. You assessed

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your current process critically and gathered data to better understand

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The next phase in the ADDIE method is design, which is the rough framework you will put together

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to add structure to the onboarding process. The most important factor in your design is

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time. How much time must a leader, and others in your org, spend onboarding to achieve competency?

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At BerniePortal, we design onboarding around a 30/60/90 plan. This plan determines how

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the first three months progress for each new hire. It differs by team and role depending

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on their needs. A new blog writer may need to write ten blogs within their first 60 days,

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or an account manager may need to get their HIPAA license within the first week.

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A good leadership onboarding design reflects their position and experience. A 30/60/90 plan is

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great for setting expectations for reaching certain milestones within a specific time frame,

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but you aren’t hiring leaders who must be guided and monitored to ensure success.

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A new executive shouldn’t need to track their progress like that. However,

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that doesn’t mean they don’t need a plan at all.

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Organize your leadership onboarding design by reframing the 30/60/90 plan,

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or whatever else you use, as an organization alignment strategy. After all, that’s the goal

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of a great onboarding experience. And leaders like those words. To identify

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what you should add to this plan, we move to the next stage in the ADDIE method: development.

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Development is how you flesh out the design. What specific things must a leader do to be

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successful in their role? Here are some ideas: New leaders should meet one-on-one with the other

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influential people in an organization to learn about how other teams function

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and work together. Here are specific examples: Finance: New leaders should meet intentionally

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with the finance person to learn about projected earnings, revenue streams,

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future goals, and most importantly, the budgeting practices for the organization

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and their particular team. This information is critical to guide all levels of decision-making.

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Marketing: New leaders should meet intentionally with the marketing leader. Understanding how your

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company brands itself will align them with how your company presents itself to the world. A

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leader should be on-message and follow branding guidelines to serve as an example, as well.

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IT: New leaders should meet intentionally with the IT person to understand the importance of their

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role, like IT security, and how to ensure their team follows protocols. Plus, how IT supports

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other teams and the company as a whole. HR: New leaders should, of course,

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meet you! One of the most vital positions HR must fill is the historian. You are the

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one equipped to provide a new leader with the context needed to lead effectively.

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New leaders should learn about the individuals on their team. BerniePortal’s performance management

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feature lets me review 1:1 notes between managers and direct reports. When a new

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manager or director joins us, I can tell them things they should know before taking over.

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When we hired a new executive-level leader, I pulled up 1:1 notes between one of the new exec’s

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team leaders and his direct report to show that this person was making serious errors in their

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work. The exec needed this information to make decisions about the direction of the team.

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New leaders should review anything the previous leader did annually during the

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fiscal or calendar year. For example, BerniePortal’s marketing leader ensures

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our SHRM and HRCI-accredited courses are recertified, which requires applying as

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a certified provider and paying annual fees. If you don’t have documentation on things like this,

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you risk potential disaster—as the staffing agency experienced.

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There are many things you can add to the development stage. Later,

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I’ll cover some ideas from other companies.

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After development, next up is the implementation stage of the ADDIE

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method. Implementation is straightforward. While you’re implementing your new process,

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ensure you are simultaneously completing the final ADDIE stage: evaluation. This is done by asking

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leaders who onboard how the experience was. Also, take the temperature of their direct reports to

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see how an improved process has a “trickle-down” effect on others in your organization.

What Do Other Companies Do to Onboard Leaders?

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What Do Other Companies Do to Onboard Leaders?

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Organizations have unique needs, so each one onboards leaders in different ways.

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Some organizations know leaders will need to onboard quickly, so they introduce microlearning.

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Sharlyn Lauby, HR expert and host of the popular show HR Bartender, describes micro-learning as

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small time increments spent on certain topics. A new leader joining your company can micro-learn

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topics, like the functions and goals of each team, in a short online course to devote the majority

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of their time to more important projects. Free websites like Quizlet allow users to

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create study guides for any topic, and you can password-protect guides from being used by others.

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John Deere, the major farming and construction equipment manufacturer, builds team lunches

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for new leader onboarding. This allows them to learn about the individuals on their team on a

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personal level, removed from the office. And it promotes goodwill; everyone likes a free lunch!

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Apple, tech giant and multi-billion dollar corporation, has a highly-regarded onboarding

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process. While your new leader may have learned much of your organization’s mission and vision

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during the interview process, Apple takes it a step further. It considers the impact

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of placing new hires within a historical context, meaning that Apple ensures everyone

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knows the humble beginnings and the company’s current and future state. This helps people

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understand the importance of certain teams, growth trajectories, product development, and more.

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For new leaders, think of ways to show them how the visions of past leadership have

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evolved your org’s values and goals into what they are today. For example, your CEO could

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write a welcome letter, or template for one, breaking down certain aspects of the company.

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Or, consider writing a quick e-book and hosting it in the compliance feature of an HRIS,

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so anyone can access it. Encourage other leaders to take responsibility for sections about their

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teams and add their mission statements in. That’s the logic behind creating a Culture Guide,

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so it’s also part of a different project that will prove immensely helpful to onboarding everyone,

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not just leaders. I’ll link a resource to creating this guide in the description.

Final Thoughts

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Other companies don’t onboard their leaders well. Remember the staffing agency that lost $75,000?

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The agency had contracts with multiple businesses, and one large hotel used them every time a big

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convention was hosted in their premier event space. This hotel is prestigious, and requires

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an extra layer of security from their waitstaff: annual safety licensing to serve alcoholic

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beverages. The old leaders knew that each year they had to sign up their current waitstaff for

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training with enough time to complete it and get confirmations to the hotel. New leaders weren’t

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aware of this requirement, so the waitstaff wasn’t licensed properly in time for the hotel’s event.

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The company lost a valuable client and a lot of money because the new leaders didn’t know

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they needed to sign the waitstaff up for that safety training every year.

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The ability to critically evaluate a process and improve it is one of the most important

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skills an HR professional should have. So take this episode with you, and apply it

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to other areas of your role that need improvement. Remember—your role is as strategic as you make it!

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That’s it for this episode!

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Subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notifications about our newest episodes,

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which are released every Tuesday and Thursday! As always, thanks for watching.