On Boarding

Catching up with the reading, June 2009 T+D article, Making New Employees Successful In Any Economy. Good article by Katharine Giacalone about the first 90 days. The first 90 days are critical especially in a downturn and the expense of hiring. As the incoming Atlanta ASTD chapter president, I’ve been thinking a lot about on boarding and reflecting on past experiences.

Giacalone in her article gives us six strategies to make sure your new employees stick:

1. Schedule employees first day when the bosses in the office
2. Have workstations ready for them when they arrive
3. Give the employee the lay of the land – tour of the office, campus
4. Get down to brass tacks – not only the routine policy and procedures but
5. Train new employees within the first week's
6. Check in frequently during the first weeks months and beyond

It's been some years since I've been on-boarded in process. On my last new job I had showed up on the first day and was informed that there had been reorganization and I was now reporting to someone else. I spent my first day following my new manager around and attending three different staff meetings that covered the same topics. That’s my memory of my first day! BTW, no computer, no voice mail, no paycheck in first pay period and my “new hire” orientation, was scheduled in two months.

While I was still in that organization with a different role, the then director of the group had made a new hire. Unfortunately, the director had scheduled herself to be out of the office the entire week. So this poor soul came in on Monday and really had no direction for her first week. I took pity and ran the organizational gauntlet for ID, PC and telephone. Perhaps a better plan would be to have this new hire show up when the director was available.

Back in the 80s I joined a health care system that actually had a very good on boarding system. I went through employee orientation prior to starting my job and then spent the better part of the first week shadowing with other employees in the group. Actually the hospital brought back the former incumbent to orient me to the system, an in-house television operation.

Any on boarding stories to share? Good, bad?

John Kotter’s Town Hall at ASTD ICE

I attended the conference in DC this past week with a different perspective, being a volunteer. As a volunteer you earn one day of the conference per volunteer day. I chose to volunteer for Tuesday and Wednesday. I only had two days of the conference to attend sessions and traipse through the expo floor.

As I review and file my notes, I’ll post about my memorable sessions and observations.

John Kotter’s town hall moderated by Kevin Oakes. I found this session outstanding observations on leadership and change. Many Q&A sessions are boring with questioners playing gotcha and see-how-smart-I-am. Kevin’s prepared questions and follow up primed better questions from the hall. From my spot in the front it appeared that the audience was primarily international attendees. That drove an interesting observation from Kotter in the increasing enrollment in international students in his Harvard classes. He worried that his western-centric business examples were “lost” on international students. He offered to stay after class and work with any student should the examples be unclear or obtuse. To date no one has taken him up on the offer. Kotter attributes that outcome that leadership is still all about human nature, leaders mobile people to achieve astonishing things.

Kotter’s core message was about creating a sense of urgency, the topic of his new book. Complacency has taken over, even in these troubling times. “Complacency capacity to remain consistent is fascinating,” he observed. Success leads to growth that leads to an inward focus (pride, arrogance, internal political battles) versus an outward market focus; his example, Rick Wagoner and GM. In a meeting many years ago, Kotter was astonished at the quiet the executive offices and complacency at GM as Toyota was on the rise. “There wasn’t a Kill Toyota sign in the place.” People were busy he noticed but was that productive activity?

As a leader, get out there, walk around, gather data and understand the real problems. Some gems, “leaders understand that everyone is not six (years old).”
When asked about business schools and finance. “I’m always suspicious of the finance department; it’s part of the system that moved us into this pattern.” I interpreted this as complacency.
When asked about women starting in leadership, Kotter gave this Zen-like response, “should do, start do , just do it.”
“Learn to lead yourself, then others.”

Missing in action

It has been a month since my last post. Took a break with some personal and professional association projects; a paying project; spooling up as an adjunct faculty; thinking about my "brand" and reading.

I have found some wonderful Twitter chats. Check out #lrnchat every Thursday evening 8:30 PM EDT. Tweetchat is my current tool of choice.

Failure rates for new computers?

I was in one of the big box computer stores yesterday and a guy was buying a Mac mini. He asked what was the failure rate. The manager said we see about 34% return in the Mac. He then said this was better than the "average" of 38%. Huh? What a bizarre thing to say.

In Googling failure rates PC, 2006 data from Gartner pegs the annual failure rate at near 25% over two years. For Mac, there's little current data mostly forum entries and tales of woe.

Anyone experience a 1 in 3 failure rate with sets? You corporate IT types, what's been your experience.

Sex and the cellphone

Fascinating above the fold story in Sunday NYT Styles section When the Cellphone Teaches Sex Education. The Birds and Bees Text line in North Carolina is an attempt to lessen the teen pregnancy rate. NC has an abstinence-only curriculum. Teenagers can text questions anonymously to the line about sex and "receive a cautious, nonjudgmental reply, texted directly to their cellphones, from a nameless, faceless adult at the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina."

Regardless of your philosophical or religious position, kids are going to be interested in sex, we're hardwired for it as in propagating our species. Adolescents need to be fully and capably informed. If parents are providing that information, great, but if it's from peers on the playground, watch out. I believe that the US relies too much on denial in addressing sex education (see above abstinence-only curriculum, see celebrated teen moms of 2008/2009).

I applaud programs like the NC and hope that politicians will listen to the public health experts and continue funding. Acknowledge that these programs raise issues regarding parental control. My preference is for informed adolescents.

Related
The CDC is providing widgets for use in MySpace, Facebook and other websites as well as twitter feed: CDCemergency. My spouse is a CDC epidemiologist.