Attitudes towards induction programmes are changing. There has always been a focus on meeting the team, health and safety, and operational systems. However, there is a growing recognition that induction/onboarding programmes can be powerful tools for driving and embedding organisational change. In our experience, you have three months to set the culture for new employees. After that, you’re changing culture, not setting it, and that is much slower, harder process.
It’s about strategic design and implementation. By carefully crafting the content and structure of induction training, it’s possible to instil new values, behaviours and ways of working in their newest employees from day one. Framing the need for the new employees’ peers and team leaders to model new practices can help embed them more effectively.
Examples of induction programmes we’ve developed that take this wider view include:
- Connecting induction to retention KPIs through an early-stage career development model.
- Investing in explicit training of managers, buddies and coaches around their role in setting culture.
- Designing induction around structured engagement with the wider business to build understanding and commitment.
If you’re thinking of tackling induction from this wider perspective, here are a few suggestions for the design process:
- Ensure leadership buy-in. If your leadership team isn’t on board with this wider aspiration, it’s unlikely to succeed no matter how well it’s designed.
- Be explicit about the change behaviours you’re looking for. If you can’t describe what you will see people actually doing differently, your chances of success are greatly diminished.
- If the change is significant, consider using change champions who are not only engaged with new employees, but also supporting the existing team to shift their thinking.
- Providing eLearning on ‘the culture here’ is not enough. It’s a start, but unless culture is also reflected in the approach of the manager and buddy, it’ll just be lip service.
- Mesh induction with BAU communications. While the formal induction process typically ends at a defined point, the shift should be seamless for staff who should be well engaged in the flow of work by then. Don’t make it a ‘hard stop’ for them.