Some names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Imagine the scene. You’ve passed the interviews and all the tests. Finally it is day one at Doofus Corp and in you walk, the new broom, ready to sweep clean. Sitting in the shiny new reception area you wonder, what excitement awaits you on this day of days?
Hallelujah – it’s induction time! Time to find out all that cool useful stuff you just have to know about.
The doors to the inner sanctum slide effortlessly open and you are bathed in a warm, welcoming light. Unable to resist you are drawn to the light and you enter in. Keen to show willing you move to the front of the room and take a seat. The lights dim, the curtains part to reveal a screen and you feel a little…different? The screen illuminates with a slide. The slide says welcome to Doofus Corp. It is followed by another slide, and another, and another, and another…
Six hours and one hundred and ninety five slides later you emerge. The shine has gone. Long gone. You have been inducted. And it hurts. I wish I was kidding, but I’m not. In a recent conversation I learned that a company delivers a one way, six hour, one hundred and ninety five slide induction nightmare.
It doesn’t have to be like this – does it?
Thankfully it doesn’t. There are folks out there, caring sharing folks who have some interesting and thoughtful ideas around how to make the onboarding, the induction experience more meaningful. One of these sharers is Ben Eubanks. I’ve not met Ben but we’ve shared tweets and blogs, and he seems a good guy. He likes zombie HR too. Ben runs UpstartHR and has recently published a useful ebook about onboarding and induction. He’s collaborated with some interesting folk to give this publication a diversity and a depth you don’t normally find. Especially in the world of induction.
And then there’s Sukhvinder Pabial. Sukh has been in the field of learning and development for a number of years, he and I meet regularly in twitter land and we’ve even shared a few good ideas in real life. I recently read and enjoyed an interesting article about onboarding that Sukh wrote for Training Journal. In it he talks about the importance of collaboration and one of my favourite things – the power of proceed until apprehended.
And as much as I respect Ben and Sukh, and as much as their ideas are much better than those at Doofus Corp – I feel there’s still something missing. All this onboarding, induction stuff is too one way, too broadcast. Cue a great conversation with Liam Barrington-Bush. Liam is from Toronto, and he’s been to the bar owned by Alex Lifeson of Rush fame which instantly qualifies him as a dude. And he is a founder of Concrete Solutions, an innovative community interest company which is all about “helping organisations to be more like people”. I love that.
Liam and I have followed each other on twitter for several months. We met recently and enjoyed a diverse and vibrant conversation about how to make the world of work feel more like…the rest of the world. We both had a good moan about induction and its dehumanising effect. I mean – companies recruit individuals because they believe they will fit in, sure. But what about the spark you saw in the potential new recruit – that sense of individual flare? Surely you’re not telling us that you only asked those questions about creativity and innovation because someone told you to?
Over the course of two beers (each – how rock n roll is that?) Liam and I agreed that there needs to be something else. What about anti-induction, antiduction? Nahhh, that word doesn’t work but the idea might. A lot of what seems to get covered at induction (is it just me or is that word starting to creep you out too?), could be given out as reading material if it’s really necessary – and then new folks could get together with each other and a few folk who have been there a while and chew this stuff over.
Wouldn’t it be cool if when folks are onboarded, they get a chance to onboard something of themselves too? It would be really interesting and hell, maybe even really useful to learn more about these people, their ideas, their personalities. But nearly all Liam and I see in the world of induction and onboarding (aaaccckkk!!) is one way – telling telling telling. Kinda haunting eh?
So next time you welcome some new folks into your place – why not make some time for them to remind you about why you invited them in. Help them to help you, one conversation at a time. Is there room for that? I think there should be.
photo c/o …Alba…
Doug,
Great post! Yes, it’s amazing how quickly companies kill the excitement and engagement in their new hires. How about a bank in Denver that sticks new hires in a conference room and makes them watch 3 DAYS of ‘How to be a Teller’ videos? Nuts.
Necessary paperwork aside, induction needs to more conversational and discovery-oriented. You’d love how New Seasons Market in Portland, OR inducts their new hires; a “Waldorf experience” they call it. Fantastic.
My company, OnBoard Yourself, helps organizations create better onboarding and orientation processes starting the moment a new hires accepts an offer. So much of the 6 hours and 195 slides can be done digitally, before a new hire arrives, and in more engaging ways like videos, podcasts, graphic novels. Then, companies don’t feel compelled to lock new hires in a room and firehose them with the company history, mission, vision, values, culture, policies, procedures, etc, etc, etc. New hires educate themselves, arrive with a base of knowledge and begin real conversations right away.
I worked for a small company back in the 90s. Once I’d got the job offer, I was sent an invitation to attend ‘International Kate Day.’ This was my induction. It started with understanding that your start day would be named after you. So, I started on May 24th and from that day on, May 24th became known as International Kate Day! This day was celebrated with half a day holiday for all employees. (There were only 15 of us, so this was pretty easy; we all had roughly an extra week a year off. Thinking about this now though, I can’t see why it wouldn’t be possible for the holiday to be given to just the person in question or to the person in question plus two or three others they nominated if it was a large org.)
I had five Kate days in total. I’d bring a cake in, the MD used to stand up and say something nice about me and tell me how valued I was and we all reviewed my contribution from the past year. He was pretty good at it, never felt contrived or creepy. This happened to everyone. We all, genuinely, loved them.
The induction day itself didn’t involve any PowerPoint slides on the basis that they were banned from presentations. It was just a simple, friendly, relaxed ‘get to know you’ event followed by a week of ghosting and collecting information. The result of this approach of course was that I ended up doing far more background reading at home and after work, but it felt enjoyable. With every ‘Kate Day’ I became more entrenched with that company, was hugely proud of it and valued my role. The MD played a big part; he was very nurturing and respectful, a very, very good mentor – I was promoted three times and well rewarded.
I’ve yet to experience anything of a similar nature, which is a shame. It really wasn’t a complicated or expensive scheme.
Kate,
Your experience sounds wonderful. Some of the best things are the simplest.
And here’s the link to my blog post about the New Seasons Market induction and training process
Thanks to Todd and Kate for building a conversation. Two new visitors to the site and no induction pack in sight, he he. Lame jokes aside I’m pleased you both came by and added to this subject. Your comments are useful. Thanks Todd for the case study and Kate, I look forward to celebrating International Kate Day with you.
Cheers folks – Doug
I’ve seen several sides of induction – I’ve done the hour-and-a-half in a room with HR going through everything (even I started yawning…), the lock-em-in-a-room with Health and Safety and bore them for a day type (and not great as they only happened 4x/year so you might wait 3 months for an ‘induction’!) and currently where individuals spend time over their first couple of weeks making their way around the company, meeting key individuals or dept representatives and understanding how all the cogs fit together. Lovely because it’s low key, and you get to meet most people (under 100 people company makes it easy). The best bit is they get 1.5 hours with the MD who goes through the values and mission etc of the company, personalising them to their contribution, and also reiterating the value of new eyes. We encourage people particularly in their first couple of months – before things become ‘normal’ – to observe, challenge and suggest.
Hello LW, you’ve been through the mill eh? Thanks for posting. I like your low key approach and yes it may be “easy” in a smaller business, it is also do-able in larger places too. Your new eyes point is great, and I think that is something that I (and indeed any consultant with the honesty and integrity) can bring to a new workplace. The ability to ask the questions that others have forgotten or are perhaps too scared to ask.
Thanks ever so much for popping by.
Cheers – Doug