The Cost of Bad Onboarding

This summer I spoke to over 500 attendees of the Society for Human Resource Management conference on New Hire Onboarding. One of the key points of my talk was the ongoing financial benefit of integrating new hires into companies well vs. the immediate and long-term costs of doing it poorly.

It's critical to understand that all employers have new hire onboarding, whether they manage it or not. Research shows that organizations with structured onboarding programs enjoy a 60% year-over-year improvement in revenue per full-time employee and a 63% year-over-year improvement in customer satisfaction.¹

• Increased turnover
• Diminished productivity
• Reduced employee engagement
• Loss of respect for the management and company
• Degradation of the company brand

To what extent does your onboarding process fit the needs and expectations of your top talent? To what extend does it detract or contribute to your company’s bottom line?

For additional insight and strategies on this topic, download my new white paper, “New Hire Onboarding: Guidelines for Boosting Employee Performance & Retention.” Please feel free to download any other whitepapers of interest directly from my site.

Amy Hirsh Robinson, Principal, Interchange Group

Workforce Strategies for the New Economy


¹Source: The Aberdeen Group, “Onboarding: The First Line of Engagement,” February 2010. 

A Guide for Managing Millennials - Decision Making

This is the last of a 3-part series of guides for managers who are struggling with the performance and engagement levels of their Millennial employees. The first two provided concrete tips for Delegation and Performance Feedback. This last one addresses Decision Making.  

My recent blog post on Helicopter Parents in the Workplace raised alarms (primarily from Generation Xers) that a "reported 20-40% of Millennials' parents have called HR to obtain employment information, schedule job interviews and debate questionable performance reviews on behalf of their grown children." The concern is that it bespeaks a generation of teens and 20-somethings that does not make independent decisions. 

It's true. Millennials do not typically make decisions on their own. Given the choice, they will share their ideas through their social networks (which include their parents!), letting the group find the best answer through their combined experiences. In other words, the preferred decision making style among Millennials is crowdsourcing, a "distributed problem-solving model" in which "large numbers of solutions or information" can be gathered by "broadcasting problems" to a diverse group of "solvers."¹

Crowdsourcing as a legitimate decision-making method in the workplace conflicts with the autocratic style of the Traditionalist generation, the consensus mode of the Baby Boomers and the independent decision making style of Generation X. But Millennials will make up 1/3 of the workforce by 2014, and their collaborative approach to work will become accepted protocol in the near future. Managers of this generation will get the best results if they seek concrete ways of integrating Millennial decision-making into daily work. They will also position their companies for future success in the process.

Amy Hirsh Robinson, Principal, Interchange Group

Workforce Strategies for the New Economy


¹Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing

A Guide for Managing Millennials - Performance Feedback

In response to recent requests, I am providing a 3-part series of tactical guides for Generation Xers and Baby Boomers who manage Millennials and whose companies are dependent on Millennial employees for their future success and market share. The first in the series offered concrete tips for Delegating to Millennials. This one covers Performance Feedback. The last in the series will address Decision Making.

So how do you give effective performance feedback to Millennials?

Growing up, Millennials experienced educational and parental systems rich in praise and limited in critical feedback. To stay motivated in the workplace, they need frequent encouragement and acknowledgement. In contrast to the direct, results-focused feedback preferred by Generation X, Millennials respond most effectively to performance comments if you do the following:

• Acknowledge them for their work and significance to the overall project and company
• Assume a coaching role when providing critical feedback by directing them to behavior or tasks that will best position them for success in the company
• Align performance remarks with their career goals - If you don't know what their career goals are, ask!
• Be transparent about the company's promotional track and what specific skills and experiences will help them reach the next level
• Create opportunities for short, daily feedback sessions in person or via text message to outline expectations and provide ongoing support and encouragement

Even as adults, Millennials continue to be coached by highly involved parents encouraging them to set and achieve goals. They look to their managers to play similar roles. These guidelines will motivate your top Millennial talent and correct the behavior of your poor performers. If you are still struggling reach out for help.

Amy Hirsh Robinson, Principal, Interchange Group

Workforce Strategies for the New Economy

A Guide for Managing Millennials - Delegation

My last blog post on Helicopter Parents in the Workplace ignited a firestorm of feedback about the Millennial generation and the difficulty of recruiting and managing this demographic. If your company depends on Millennials for its future success in maintaining and increasing market share, then you may need concrete tactics for managing and communicating with them.

This next series of posts will focus on providing those tactics to support you in your goals and to ease management's pain. It will cover Delegation (here), Performance Feedback, and Decision Making.

We'll start first with tips for delegating effectively to Millennials.

A common complaint of managers is that Millennials do not follow through on projects assigned or do not complete tasks to satisfaction. When delegating to Millennials follow these rules:

• Connect the dots between task and mission by explaining the importance of the project to the organization
• Define the job enrichment opportunities involved in the project 
• Be specific in the results you expect and provide step-by-step instructions for achieving these results 
• Communicate your expected timeframe for completing the project and consequences to not getting it done on time
• Mentor on potential roadblocks and how to get around them  
• Build in frequent check-ins via 10-minute meetings or text messages to reinforce expectations and answer questions as they arise

These tips may seem like extra work to the Generation X and Baby Boomer bosses of Millennials, but I guarantee their success in increasing productivity and eliminating "re-do's" on the back end. Give it a try, and if you are still struggling reach out for help.

Amy Hirsh Robinson, Principal, Interchange Group

Workforce Strategies for the New Economy

Embrace Your Helicopter Parents

Recent press on Helicopter parenting in the workplace has revived a collective sense of dismay over the Millennial generation. Helicopter parents are Baby Boomer moms and dads who exhibit an excessive degree of parental involvement, "hovering" over their 20-something kids. Universities responded first to this phenomenon by establishing Offices of Parent Relations and separate orientation programs for parents of incoming students. Now that Millennials have entered the workforce, a reported 20-40% of their parents are calling HR to obtain employment information, send resumes, schedule job interviews, negotiate salaries and debate questionable performance reviews on behalf of their grown children.

Employers and managers of Millennials are flabbergasted by what they view as the intrusive conduct of Helicopter parents. They attempt to deter the behavior, which only causes resentment from both Millennial employees and their parents. Employers should instead focus on strengthening relationships with parents to increase acceptance and retention rates of top young talent and improve their employer brand. Here are some specific tactics to that end:

• Co-market employment opportunities to Millennials and their parents (the U.S. Military has a great example of this strategy at www.todaysmilitary.com)
• Offer to send employment packages to parents of interns and accepted applicants
• Invite parents of new hires to the office and provide parent tours of the company
• Train managers and HR staff on how to handle parent interference productively
• Publish parent newsletters or allow parents to opt into company newsletters to stay informed
  

If your company's success is dependent on a Millennial workforce you must build parental involvement into your recruitment, management and retention practices. Older generations may balk but I'm a realist. My clients compete daily to attract, retain and manage top Millennial talent. Their business models and strategies depend on it. Do yours?

Amy Hirsh Robinson, Principal, Interchange Group
Workforce Strategies for the New Economy

The Rocky Transition from Intern to Full-Time Hire

To compete in the “New Economy,” companies are seeking employees with an aptitude for technology and innovation. Many, believing that the Millennial generation has these core competencies, have beefed up their college intern programs as a way to fill the talent pipeline. Such programs are successful in developing and motivating Millennials. The problem, however, is in the transition to full-time hire. Specifically, the experience new graduates receive as interns contrasts sharply with what they experience as full-time employees. For example:

• Interns are urged to meet new people and explore the company, while full-time hires are discouraged from actively networking
• Interns receive messages such as “our doors are always open,” while full-time hires hear “know your place”
• Interns enjoy explicit career-pathing guidance, while full-time hires receive little or no career development
• Interns work for managers invested in their experience, while full-time hires report to whomever has headcount, regardless of that manager’s “people skills”
  

Companies that do not invest in a seamless transition from intern to full-time hire will experience high attrition, damage their reputation as a desirable place to work, and lose competitive advantage. What does the transition from intern to full-time hire in your organization look like?

For additional insight and strategies on this topic, feel free to download my white paper, “The Rocky Transition from Intern to Full-Time Hire.”

Amy Hirsh Robinson, Principal, Interchange Group
Workforce Strategies for the New Economy

Tell Your Story In 2012

As the New Year approaches, consider the stories you would like to share in 2012.

Stories entertain us, but they also act as a vehicle for passing memories, values and rituals on from one generation to the next. That's why the Interchange Group supports StoryCorps, one of the largest oral history projects of its kind. Since 2003, StoryCorps has recorded and archived over 35,000 interviews of Americans of all ages and backgrounds. Each conversation is preserved at the Library of Congress and available to enjoy on StoryCorps' Listening Page. Interviews are also featured every Friday on NPR's Morning Edition.

As a gift to our clients and community, the Interchange Group is donating to StoryCorps this year. I invite you to listen to some of the interviews, organized by categories such as work, romance, friendship, September 11 and Hurricane Katrina. And, if you'd like to conduct your own interview, StoryCorps will help you do that. Their Great Questions List is wonderful for getting a good conversation started.

Happy New Year!

Amy Hirsh Robinson, Principal, Interchange Group

Workforce Strategies for the New Economy