The Significance Of On Boarding Process

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

The on-boarding process and the exit policy are ‘moments of truths’ for any organization because these are the two contact points when the employee comes in touch with the organization for the first and last time respectively. An organization committed to employee satisfaction will continuously strive to make this transition easier for its employees. Employers need to ensure that everything goes smoothly throughout the new hire's first weeks on the job. This is the prime time to provide the new employee with a general corporate background to establish the framework that will guide them throughout their career with the organization. Onboarding is successful only when human resource and the hiring manager are both actively involved. The goal of this partnership is to establish a long-term relationship with the employee that begins even before the employee is hired. While HR plays a key role in the early recruitment and orientation phase and in guiding the Onboarding process, the hiring manager must be proactive and engaged in facilitating the employee’s successful integration into the organization over time

. Onboarding process clearly states that

Clearly state new employee expectations about job role and the job itself,

Suggest what is important to learn and from whom to learn it and

Take the new employee’s perspective on what processes, procedures and changes the executive intends to implement at the end of three months, six months and one year.

The on-boarding process helps the organization to share the following information with the new employee

On the one hand, a good employer will always clear the expectation of a new employee about his job and job profile because wrong communication of expectation level can lower the satisfaction of a new employee with the organization. On the second hand, this process is also responsible for clearing employee perceptions regarding his job, job profile, career prospects because wrong perception regarding an all this can increase dissatisfaction level which could lead to increased attrition rate in the organization. On the third hand, the on- boarding process also facilitates a new employee into the organization policies and practices and on the other hand, the on-boarding process is also responsible for establishing the mission and goal of the organization into a new employee’s mind.

Effective employee onboarding serves effectively that

It builds organizations REPUTATION for being a thoughtful employer, with great training, clear leadership, and a strong organization,

It helps RETAIN staff members, it REDUCES high turnover costs, it gets new employees to efficient PRODUCTIVITY levels quickly and it builds a COHESVIVE TEAM, therefore raising EVERYONE’S productivity.

Onboarding is the process of acquiring, accommodating, assimilating and accelerating new team members, whether they come from outside or who are inside the organization. The prerequisite to successful onboarding is getting your organization aligned around the need and the role.

Socialization (Levine & Moreland, 1991; Van Maanen & Schein, 1979) and onboarding(Saks, Uggerslev, & Fassina, 2007) are interchangeable terms used to describe the process that individuals, teams, and organizations go through when a new person joins. When starting a new job, individuals join the whole organization, as well as a number of smaller groups, such as their immediate work team. Newcomers must learn many things as they onboard: how to accomplish their job tasks, how the organization is structured and what their role is within it (Korte,2009; Ostroff & Kozlowski, 1992), their team’s daily routines and normal practices, where to find information, from whom to get it, and the best means to acquire it, the organizational culture, how to work and socially interact with their team, and how to succeed in their role and grow in the organization (C. D. Fisher, 1986). Whether this learning is active or passive, explicit or implicit, supported or laissez faire, eventually newcomers complete onboarding and are considered to be competent and integrated employees.

Ashforth, et al. (Ashforth, Sluss, & Saks, 2007)found that newcomer proactivity was highly correlated with learning success. Other studies found that the fit between a newcomer and her team, along with her proactivity, account for much of the observed variance in adjustment and knowledge (Gruman, Saks, & Zweig, 2006; T.-Y. Kim, Cable, & S.-P. Kim, 2005). Miller and Jablin (1991) also focused on newcomers’ information-seeking strategies, and assert that the type of information sought, the source of the information (e.g., peers, managers, documentation), and the tactics employed (e.g., surveillance, testing limits) all jointly influence new comers’ role ambiguity and role conflict. Flanagin and Waldeck (2004)found that the technologies newcomers choose affect their abilities to access information and develop relationships with their coworkers. All of these results suggest that how newcomers learn is as important, or even more so, than what they learn.

From whom newcomers learn is also an important factor in onboarding. A main theme in the literature says that proper socialization requires newcomers to establish successful social relationships with their coworkers (Van Maanen & Schein, 1979; C. D. Fisher, 1986; Chao, O’Leary-Kelly, Wolf, Klein, & Gardner, 1994). Fortunately, a newcomer’s colleagues know the most about what the newcomer must learn and have a vested interest in helping him onboard as quickly as possible. Not all colleagues are equally good information sources, however. Comer (1991)found that newcomers’ peers are better sources of information than their managers because peers are more available and helpful than managers (Posner & Powell, 1985).

After studying three months of team emails, Ahuja and Galvin (2003) saw that while newcomers were actively engaged in conversations about how tasks should be accomplished, they did not explicitly seek information about the group’s values, structures, or procedures. They argued that social mechanisms such as peer mentoring were needed to support virtual member socialization. Miller and Jablin (1991)argue that observing, especially, helps newcomers appropriately imitate their teammates and to better evaluate their own performance.

After throw evaluation and understanding of the researcher’s views the following hypothesis were framed for the investigation of the study

There is gender difference between employees with regard to onboarding process

There is no significance difference between the employees who are in higher grade level have more familiarized and adoptable perceptions with regard to onboarding than the employees who are in middle and lower grade levels

Sample:

The sample consists of 50 employees of IT sector based company for the investigation of the study. The sample randomized sample technique is adopted for choosing the sample. The distribution of sample can be done through the various departments of this IT based company such as Administration, HR, Finance and IT departments.

Instrument used:

The onboarding questionnaire consists of 10 items to be responded on a 5 point scale from very poor to very good. A response on very good is given a numerical value 5, good 4, average 3, poor 2, and very poor 1 respectively. The maximum and minimum possible scores on this scale are 50-10 respectively.

Results and discussions:

Results: The scores of means, SDs and mean difference of employees relating to gender differences with regard to onboarding in work dimensions, presented in table 1.

Table 1 represents the means, SDs and mean difference of gender differences of employees.

GENDER DIFFERENCE

MALE

N

35

Mean

39.63

SD

4.87

t

2.83*

*Significance at 0.01

In the analysis, the t-test was employed to find out the significance difference with regard to onboarding process in work dimensions between male and female. The mean difference is 2.83 significant at 0.01 levels. It can be said that there is significant difference with regard to onboarding between employees of male and female.

Based on the result obtained, the 1st hypothesis which predicted that "there is gender difference between employees of work dimensions with regard to onboarding process", is accepted as warranted by the results.

Discussion: onboarding in work dimensions is simple and at the same time it contributes effectively. If the employees have well understood the procedure then it will be beneficial to the to them as well as the organization. Here both organization and employees have equal responsibilities. The organization has to clearly state them their requirements expected and the onboarding procedure. Likewise employees should also follow their guideline properly and effectively involve in the induction program.

Basically women have more understanding nature to work more and easily have adoptable nature and have good perception. They have good professional attitude and continuously put strong work efforts in order to achieve the goals of the organization. In case of men, they have different roles to manage including cultural milieu. Also male employees are more attentive and efficient culture in the work. It means that female employees have more commitment and tries to contribute effectively. They should not go for reference by management in order to fulfill the work or not. This is one of the reasons for there is gender difference between the employees.

Based on the result obtained, the 1st hypothesis which predicted that "there is gender difference between employees of work dimensions with regard to onboarding process", is accepted as warranted by the results.

Results: The scores of means, SDs and mean difference of onboarding process in work dimensions of employees working in different grades levels of the organization, presented in table 2.

Table 2 presents scores of the means, SDs and mean difference of onboarding process in work dimensions working in different grades levels A-Lower level employees, B-Middle level employees, C-Top level employees in the organization.

DESIGNATION

A

B

A

C

B

N

10

27

10

13

27

Mean

40.40

40.56

40.40

41.31

40.56

SD

4.86

4.76

4.86

5.04

4.76

t

0.09@

0.44 @

0.46 @

@ Not Significant A-lower level employees B-middle level employees C-top level employees

In the analysis, the t-test was employed to find out the significance difference with regard to onboarding process in work dimensions who are working in different grade levels of the organization.

It can be said that there is no significance difference between employees those who are working at different grade levels, with regard to onboarding in work dimensions. It means that the different grade levels might not be influenced the onboarding process in all work dimensions.

Based on the result obtained, the 2nd hypothesis which predicted that "the employees who are in higher grade level, have more familiarized and adoptable perceptions with regard to onboarding process that employees who are in middle and lower grade levels". not accepted as warranted by the result.

Discussion: As it was already known that this onboarding procedure is applicable across the organization for all grades of employees. That means irrespective of the grade levels all the employees have to undergo this procedure as a new employee to the organization.

The top grade level employees discuss with the other grade level employees and form the procedure for onboarding. And the HR and hiring manager have to actively involve for making it successful. So here we can find that there is no significance difference in all grade levels of employees. This is one of the reasons in such work environment.

Also when we compare the employees of different grade levels there is no significance difference among them. All of them have to pass through this procedure. So by this they can easily understand the organization culture in their work place. In all the organizations even though they have to place employees in different grade levels yet as a new employee every normal and highly educated employee have to go through this process. It means irrespective of the grade levels all have the same procedure to undergo. This is also one of the reasons for there is no significance difference between top, middle and lower levels of employees.

Based on the result obtained, the 2nd hypothesis which predicted that "the employees who are in higher grade level, have more familiarized and adoptable perceptions with regard to onboarding process that employees who are in middle and lower grade levels". not accepted as warranted by the result.

Conclusions:

There is gender difference between employees of work dimensions with regard to onboarding process.

There is no significance difference between the employees who are in higher grade level have more familiarized and adoptable perceptions with regard to onboarding that who are in middle and lower grade levels.

Implications:

Promoting the onboarding process, the HR practices will be much more effective to understand work dimensions quickly and effectively.

Moreover the employees will be more productive, the onboarding terms and its functions will be familiarized on the organization culture.