Source: theHRDIRECTOR
Date: January 2007

Lucien Dulak, Head of Talent Management at Hydrogen Group, explains how they give their employees the best possible start to their career to ensure they will want to stay.

Mention induction and onboarding and often the first things that come to mind are the ‘housekeeping’, the office walk around, facilities, and presentations by HR and management. While this is essential, I have never known someone to leave a new role because their business cards were not on their desk on day one! I believe that the following points that we consider vital, are some of the things that contributed to Hydrogen Group being named Britain’s Top Employer for 2007.

GET THE RIGHT PEOPLE
Make sure you onboard the right people. We invest heavily in our screening and selection techniques, which involves a mixture of interviews, assessment exercises and psychometrics. We review the predictive validity of these exercises over time to improve the process as appropriate.

HELP DEVELOP SOCIAL NETWORKS
Give people a reason to stay by helping them to build social networks throughout the company. We balance formal networking with informal activities to get people to interact, helping them to develop their own personal network of ‘buddies’ which is often far more effective then a formal mentoring system.

AGREE A VISION WORTH WORKING FOR
People often leave a new job because they decide their original vision is no longer achievable. Make sure you understand these visions early on and use it to plan a clear development and career path. Our career paths and ‘journeys’ directly link personal goals with corporate objectives, allowing people to fully understand their contribution and value. However, visions can change in the early days of a new job, particularly for inexperienced hires. Don’t assume that what they told you during the interview will remain the same. Make sure you have open and honest dialogue with your new hires so you fully understand this.

MAP OUT A SHARED JOURNEY
Ensure new hires fully understand the journey needed to achieve their vision. Many people in new jobs are stepping out of their comfort zones and face significant challenges, which may easily turn into a feeling of failure. We never assume that new employees will understand these challenges are normal or healthy. So, we get people communicating and sharing experiences so new starters understand that the challenges they are facing are a tangible part of the journey to achieving their personal vision, not a sign of failure.

ACCELERATE DEVELOPMENT…
To help our new employees reach peak performance quickly, we’ve deconstructed our organisational roles, identifying the key elements of success (both in terms of what people do and how they do it) and designing development activities around these. We also used this to set a very clear roadmap of every employee’s first 12 weeks within the organisation, setting clear goals and expectations up front. During this time we provide them with 15 days of classroom training alongside continuous on-the-desk development activities. The criteria we set out are then used to assess their performance and development regularly. This is done through quantifiable measurements against KPIs, on-the-desk observation, role-play exercises etc. This process is used to identify long-term strength and potential in people’s early days within the company, and this insight can be used to steer people in the right direction.

…TAKE THEIR FOOT OFF THE BRAKE
You can give new hires the knowledge and skills to do the job and you know they’ve got the raw ability but sometimes there are ‘character brakes’ which prevent them from fulfilling the role. This often involves an internal struggle with what the role requires versus their beliefs or fears. To help our new employees take their foot off the brake we observe them closely in the first three months of their employment to identify what’s making them uncomfortable. We work with them to understand the drivers behind the ‘character brakes’ and then develop strategies and tools, such as role playing, to help get them back to peak performance.

SUPPORT AND COACH PEOPLE IN THE RIGHT WAY
Coaching and support from managers is vital through the early days of a new role. If you want your new hire to really value this support it’s vital to assess their specific requirements as early as possible. We identify people’s competence, confidence and commitment to different areas of their role early on, and then decide where we need to direct, coach, support or delegate. Flexibility in the approach managers take to developing individuals, based on their personal needs, is a big selling point to any new hire. Our induction and onboarding processes have directly contributed to a quantifiable increase in productivity and a reduction in time taken to achieve ‘payback’ from new hires in the last 12 months. We know we must continually innovate, adopt new best practice, take feedback and improve both what we do and the way we do things. We feel that we’re at the beginning of our journey to make Hydrogen the best place to work, and over the next 12 months, I’m sure we’ll be seeing even more changes.