HR practitioners these days are recognising the need for an overarching process to welcome a new starter into the fold. They’re talking about the process of Onboarding. Onboarding refers to the mechanism by which new employees provide and acquire the information, skills and behaviours required to become effective organisational members. What’s not so clear is where the process begins. Whether it’s Day 1 or the moment they read a job advert, what’s not in dispute is the importance of getting it right. Historically, every new employee knew that Day 1 was going to be about filling in forms, being introduced to everyone and generally taking care of administration. From there, paper was shuffled from one in-tray and out-tray to another until everyone who needed it had their piece of the puzzle. As time moved on, we embraced the power and efficacy of email and the paperless office was born – as long as the email got to the correct recipient, and they actioned the task. Until the processes became a little more complex, our work more distributed and the volume of new hires increased. The data we were gathering wasn’t exclusive to one team or area and our responsiveness to email action items just wasn’t cutting it. Most dangerously, we risked the potential nightmare of data duplication. So our IT providers offered a new methodology. From ‘in-tray’ to ‘in-box’, a new “In” word came into being. Now, we were all about “in-terfacing”. Incredible! Interfacing meant that we could capture data … Continue reading →