Brenda Hampel - Perfect Phrases for New Employee Orientation and Onboarding: Hundreds of ready-to-use phrases to train and retain your top talent

PERFECT PHRASES for NEW EMPLOYEE ORIENTATION AND ONBOARDING

Hundreds of ready-to-use phrases to train and retain your top talent

Brenda Hampel and Erika Lamont

Copyright 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-07-176751-4
MHID: 0-07-176751-7

The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: ISBN: 978-0-07-176650-0, MHID: 0-07-176650-2.

All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. Where such designations appear in this book, they have been printed with initial caps.

McGraw-Hill eBooks are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sales promotions, or for use in corporate training programs. To contact a representative please e-mail us at bulksales@mcgraw-hill.com.

Trademarks: McGraw-Hill, the McGraw-Hill Publishing logo, Perfect Phrases, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of The McGraw-Hill Companies and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The McGraw-Hill Companies is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

TERMS OF USE

This is a copyrighted work and The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (McGrawHill) and its licensors reserve all rights in and to the work. Use of this work is subject to these terms. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976 and the right to store and retrieve one copy of the work, you may not decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, reproduce, modify, create derivative works based upon, transmit, distribute, disseminate, sell, publish or sublicense the work or any part of it without McGraw-Hills prior consent. You may use the work for your own noncommercial and personal use; any other use of the work is strictly prohibited. Your right to use the work may be terminated if you fail to comply with these terms.

THE WORK IS PROVIDED AS IS. McGRAW-HILL AND ITS LICENSORS MAKE NO GUARANTEES OR WARRANTIES AS TO THE ACCURACY, ADEQUACY OR COMPLETENESS OF OR RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED FROM USING THE WORK, INCLUDING ANY INFORMATION THAT CAN BE ACCESSED THROUGH THE WORK VIA HYPERLINK OR OTHERWISE, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. McGraw-Hill and its licensors do not warrant or guarantee that the functions contained in the work will meet your requirements or that its operation will be uninterrupted or error free. Neither McGraw-Hill nor its licensors shall be liable to you or anyone else for any inaccuracy, error or omission, regardless of cause, in the work or for any damages resulting therefrom. McGraw-Hill has no responsibility for the content of any information accessed through the work. Under no circumstances shall McGraw-Hill and/or its licensors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, consequential or similar damages that result from the use of or inability to use the work, even if any of them has been advised of the possibility of such damages. This limitation of liability shall apply to any claim or cause whatsoever whether such claim or cause arises in contract, tort or otherwise.

Buyers remorseconsumers have it, and new employees have it. Have you ever started a new job and thought, What did I get myself into? or Do they really want me here? or Did anyone know that today is my first day? Unfortunately, many new employees are asking these questions and having these thoughts. The organizations that they have just joined did not take the time to prepare and onboard them properly. Statistics still report up to a 40 percent failure rate of new leaders and that the highest employee turnover rates occur within the first three years on the job.

Landing a new job or hiring a new employee is one of the few events in the workplace that give us a clean slatea chance to start at the beginning and build. Unfortunately, many times neither the new employee nor the hiring manager takes advantage of this unique opportunity and both end up with buyers remorse. The new employee is excited and highly engaged but looking for support, information, and tools to be able to get her job done and understand the organization. The manager is so relieved to have completed the selection process and filled the position that he forgets the employee is new and expects her to hit the ground running and start delivering results. The two are already on different paths, but unfortunately, these two paths lead to the same placefrustration, confusion, disillusionment, and ultimately, failure.

This is completely avoidable.

Our work with organizations, managers, and new hires is focused on helping each create a road map that keeps everyone focused on the right thing at the right time. A structured onboarding program keeps both new employees and hiring managers out of the returns line. So, when we were offered the opportunity to work with McGraw-Hill on the orientation and onboarding title for its impactful and very successful Perfect Phrases series, we were thrilled!

As we talk with people in both operations and human resources roles at conferences and when we talk with colleagues and clients, they continue to tell us that onboarding is both a hot and evolving topic. This means that the term onboarding itself still has several definitions, and how onboarding is actually structured (or not!) and played out in organizations looks very different company to company. This Perfect Phrases book gives us the chance to share best practices and perfect phrases that further define onboarding, how it is different from orientation, and the positive impact successful onboarding can have on individuals and the organization. Our goal is to provide you with straightforward, practical tools and ideas that you can put to work regardless of the size or type of your organization.

So, the next time you accept a new role or hire a new employee, you will know what to do when and avoid that What did I get myself into? question.

We gratefully acknowledge the professional support of Anne Bruce, speaker, author, and coach, who has guided, mentored, and cheered us through this publishing journey. We value her as a colleague and as a friend.

Our editor at McGraw-Hill, Mary Therese Church, has been a source of encouragement and direction for this, our first book project. We thank her for her faith in us and for bringing us into the Perfect Phrases family!

We appreciate the trust and support of our clients, especially those who have entrusted their onboarding work with us: TJX Companies, Audi of America, Volkswagen Group of America, The Ohio State University Medical Center, WD Partners, Cardinal Health, Nationwide Childrens Hospital, Chicos FAS, Greif Inc., and Tween Brands. It is because of your commitment to the work of your organizations and the passion that you bring that we can do what we do.