The Leadership Onboarding Conundrum

To gain more insight into what onboarding challenges are faced today, Lexy Johnson, Associate Manager with Cultura Solutions, led a research study to assess how organizations onboard and integrate new leaders, and conversely, what new functional leaders expect during their own onboarding process from the organization they've joined. The study consisted of casual interviews with Human Resources leaders on their processes, tactics, values, and ideas involved in onboarding new leaders as well as interviews with functional business leaders and executives on their onboarding experiences throughout their careers.

We targeted leaders currently working within Minnesota-based organizations with 3,000 employees or less. These conversations revealed several interesting perspectives including some contradicting opinions on an organization's responsibility versus a new employee's responsibility during the onboarding process, how a new leader must plan for early success, ideas for gaining an understanding of a new business, and ways to engage new leaders early on.

Proactively Build A Plan

It was a united opinion of all executives we spoke with that new incoming leaders at the Director, VP, and C level are expected to bring their own 30-60-90 day plan. Often times, this is expected of the new leader during the late stages of the interview process.

"As a leader, you must come in with your own plan, but it needs to coincide with the organization's expectations", said one Director of Operations. Organizations must be clear, both during the recruiting and interview process as well as day one and beyond about what their short-term and long-term expectations are of a new functional leader. This way, the new leader has the ability to tailor their 30-60-90 day plan to those expectations.

There was a unanimous agreement in that if a leader is stepping into a new industry, it is their own responsibility to proactively define a plan for researching and learning from their new colleagues to understand said industry, the products/services, competitors, and common language.

Consistent Onboarding Protocol

There was a divide between Human Resources and functional leadership with regard to whether or not a new functional leader is exposed to the same onboarding protocol as an individual contributor joining the organization. It was consistent among most HR executives that new functional leaders should not be involved in traditional orientations and new employee onboarding protocols that individual contributors are exposed to.

Conversely, it was consistent among all of the senior business leaders we spoke with that they desire to be integrated and onboarded like everyone else within the organization. They have a thirst for knowledge to understand their new company's culture, mission, values, policies, and procedures in order to be successful.

What was unclear was why new functional leaders aren't typically involved in and exposed to the same onboarding orientations as new individual contributor employees. "As an organization, you need include leaders in traditional onboarding and orientation to give them space to self-integrate and fully understand their new organization's story, culture, and policies," an HR Director noted. "From there, once they've completed orientations, the new leader will of course have a different onboarding plan than an individual contributor."

Exposure To The Business - First 90 Days

Many organizations in our study found it critical to get their new leaders exposed to their business within the first 90 days by encouraging the new leader, regardless of function, to:

• Visit the production floor, distribution center, or other operational facility
• Shadow a client meeting or call
• Travel to other offices to meet geographically dispersed teams

A Chief Talent Officer said, "Our new leaders are encouraged to take a trip with a veteran leader or employee to allow time to hear tribal stories, learn the organizational landscape, and further understand the business. There is tremendous onboarding value in those interactions." A senior technology Director stated that he found it important to get real-life exposure to, and integration with, customers, products, and services as quickly as possible in order to better understand how his role fits into the overall business.

"We take a business-first approach to integrating new leadership hires," said another CHRO. "Regardless of function or level of direct face-time with customers, we send every newly hired leader on ride-alongs with top sales representatives and also get them onto the production floors for observation. If they don't know our business, they cannot be successful here."

Several other HR leaders stated that they aid in proactively scheduling 1-on-1 meetings with other pertinent leaders and direct reports in their first two weeks to promote business exposure. While allowing for a new leader to achieve critical exposure to their new business operation seems simple on the surface, many companies seem to struggle getting their new leaders this critical exposure early on. With the fast-paced nature of doing business today, there is very little time to get fully acclimated.

Onboarding As A Reflection Of Overall Culture.

"An organization's leadership onboarding process needs to fit within the learning and training culture of the company; it needs to fit in with your development culture. Be transparent about it," said a senior level Human Resources Manager. This critical advice to be intentional, detailed and customizable when onboarding leaders was a common theme in our conversations with functional and HR leaders alike.

For example, if your organization embodies a culture of structure, guidelines and transparency, then the new leader onboarding processes should reflect just that. If your organization lives in the "grey" space, is fluid and ever-changing with few policies or guidelines, then the onboarding procedures should mirror that. We have found that in situations where the onboarding experience does not match the culture of the organization, the new leader sequentially becomes confused.

Engagement - First Impressions Are Everything

Our data show it is imperative that a new leader joining an organization feels included, engaged and comfortable immediately in order for them to be successful, add value, and ultimately succeed in gaining a return on that organization's investment. There are simple things that some organizations do to drive new employee engagement early on such as:

• Gifting the new leader with branded apparel
• Taking the new leader to dinner to get to know the leadership team they're joining
• Inviting the leader to happy hour at the office to meet the team prior to starting
• Sending a gift to the leader's spouse - one Vice President stated, "When an organization is onboarding an executive, you are onboarding their family. Onboarding needs to be memorable, intentional and specific early on."

We have found that organizations lose opportunity in foregoing this crucial part of the new leader onboarding experience. Early engagement of new leaders can also mitigate concerns organizations have with counter offers, longevity and/or relocation commitments.

Get Both Sides Talking

"The reality is that the higher up you get, the less onboarding there is and more ambiguity," said one CFO. What we can discern from this statement is that it is common practice for organizations to put most, if not all, onboarding responsibility on the newly hired employee simply given their level of seniority. "The responsibility and accountability falls on the new leader to own their onboarding and integration. The new leader needs to drive it", said another local CHRO.

However, through this effort we uncovered that organizations must balance setting a new leader up for success and getting out of their way to let them add value and integrate within the organization autonomously.

Should you be a part of an organization that struggles onboarding leaders or should you be a new leader hoping for further orientations and integration efforts from your new company, know that you're not alone. An overarching opinion on the topic of onboarding was that, "Many organizations do not do a very good job onboarding leaders," as stated by one Chief Information Security Officer. A Chief Talent Officer stated, "We are on our own journey onboarding senior leaders," noting that many organizations continue to explore processes and tactics in doing this correctly and efficiently.

---

Suggested speakers, podcasts and books pertaining to onboarding guidance:
+ Brene Brown, Lou Adler, Matt Norman, John Maxwell, Patrick Lencioni, "The First 90 Days" by Michael D. Watkins and Seth Godin.