The Three Common Elements to Successful Onboarding

Hi, this is Wayne Rivers at FBI, and We Build Better Contractors.

This week, I want to talk about onboarding and the three common elements to successful onboarding. So, this comes from
my peer Arlin who got at it from a blog from a gentleman named Jim Baker. And Baker starts off with onboarding is
inconsistent or even non-existent in most companies. And I think that's generally true in our construction companies. My
son went to work for a really well-regarded construction company and the selling process, the hiring process was really
well scripted. And he was really intrigued and charmed and all that stuff. So, okay, first day of work, nothing. Still going
through COVID protocols. And so everybody basically was working remote. So, he was supposed to go to Charlotte, North
Carolina for training, but it got pushed back and there was little communication. There was no organization. There was
nothing in writing about what to expect and when to expect it, from whom to expect it.

The onboarding was really, there was a disconnect between the hiring process, which was wonderful, and the onboarding
process, which was nonexistent. He finally got onboarded and it's been hit or miss, and scatter shot, but it is what it is, but
it really did not reflect the reputation or the company nor did it reflect the quality of the hiring process. It was really
disjointed from the rest of it. So according to Gallup, there are three common elements for successful onboarding. The
first thing is people, and it makes sense because any human being that comes into an organization is going to be
surrounded with other people. And what do you want from those people? You want support, you want welcome. You
want understanding, you want inclusion, respect, education, all those things. Who do I go to get my questions answered?

If you think about it, at least traditionally, maybe not so much now with the hybrid work model, but traditionally you
spend more time with the people that you work with than you do with your own families. And forget about the eight
hours of sleeping. I'm not counting that, but in waking interaction, you spend more time with your work colleagues than
you probably do with your husband, wife, kids, whatever, and who wants to be around people who are not welcoming
and supportive in all those things? Life is too short to put up with that.

The second piece of successful onboarding is learning. How do I contribute? What is the direction in this company? Where
are we going to be in five years? What's our mission? What's our vision? What's our values? How do I get training and
learning? What are the norms of this company? What's the dress code? All the basic stuff.

Gallup says that if the supervisor, the direct supervisor of a new person takes active participation in the onboarding
process, that person is 3.4 times, you know they're scientists because 3.4 times more likely to view onboarding as a
success. So, you don't want to turn it over to an HR person solely or just others on the team, the boss needs to be in there.
Whoever's supervising people needs to be involved in the onboarding process.

And the third thing, the third success element is the process. It needs to be intuitive and easy. It needs to be organized. It
needs to be delivered intelligently and not scatter shot. It needs to be structured and linear, and it needs to be tailored to
the employee. So that's one of the good reasons for doing psychometric evaluations. If you know a Myers Briggs type or
a disc type or something like that, then you're better able to tailor your onboarding materials to the individual employees.

So, we'd like to hear what your lessons are. This is what Gallup says are the three common elements for successful
onboarding. What do you do? What's worked for you? Please share with us in the comment section below. And this is
Wayne Rivers at FBI, and We Build Better Contractors.