It is no secret that the onboarding process plays an important role in any new appointment’s success. But when the new employee is a senior manager, the stakes of getting it wrong are even higher.

A HBR article written in 2016 suggested almost half of new leadership appointments would fail within their first 18 months. The failure was often linked to the new incumbent’s inability to drive change.

And this was before the global pandemic. By August 2021 a survey by the ABS showed over 40% of Australian employees were working from home. Many starting new jobs remotely.

Apart from the obvious benefits of your new leader being productive sooner, an efficient and culture first onboarding experience ensures your hard fought for talent, stays to deliver.

Why is a ‘culture first’ approach considered best practice in today’s onboarding process?

A culture driven, positive, engaging, and aligned onboarding process makes a huge difference to a new leader’s experience.

  • A Deloitte survey found a “correlation between clearly articulated and lived culture and strong business performance.”
  • A Columbia University study found that the likelihood of turnover at organizations where employees feel high satisfaction with company culture is 13.9%, compared to 48.4% at companies with low satisfaction.
  • Culture Amp data showed that investing in culture is positively associated with higher company stock prices.

When a new leader understands and feels aligned with a company’s beliefs and priorities, they are more engaged. In turn they are more likely to inspire others, meet role outcomes and influence change.

So what does a culture first onboarding process incorporate?

Transparency and access.

Transparency and access to company processes, operations, and decisions will help cultivate an open and honest work environment from the get-go. A transparent onboarding process incorporates clarity around the outcomes and expectations of not only the new incumbent’s role, but the key people around them.

A great starting point could be your ‘welcome handbook’ or online induction. These as a minimum should include a high-level overview of the business, its origins and who you are. An introduction to the office setting and nearby services are also helpful to new starters.

But in our opinion, the most helpful inclusion in this introduction should be a first day/week/month overview of the role and what they can expect. Make sure they know where to go to find important information, even things that may feel small or trivial to you, like the dress code.

Once onboard, make sure your new starter is introduced to the right people. Connect them with the key stakeholders they’ll interact with and the ones that best promote your company values. A team activity like a lunch can be a great way to make these introductions in an unintimidating setting.

Make sure that any necessary training is scheduled. Having this arranged in advance is imperative to a smoot transition period.

Open communication and updates.

To be effective quickly a senior leader needs to know where to voice their concerns, ask for and provide feedback. As a fresh set of eyes, they have a unique perspective – one that should not be missed because they weren’t comfortable sharing their thoughts.

This open communication needs to start before the first day. The time between contract signing and commencement can feel like no man's land for soon to be employees. Regular contact can fast-track a lot of the administrative burden many companies leave until someone starts, with the added bonus of making your new starter feel valued early on.

If you are time poor, building an automated email sequence to provide regular updates during the pre-start phase can be a game changer. These could include collecting important payroll details, sending inductions or welcome handbooks. Whatever you decide, make sure they are relevant, authentic and specific to the leader joining.

Accountability, values-based decision making and leadership by example.

Successful culture-first companies demonstrate accountability from day one. This is a huge, but often unconscious gauge for many leaders entering a new organisation whether a business can meet its goals; and whether they should stick around to see their own outcomes through.

A company’s values shouldn’t just be words on paper – they are guidelines to how an organization makes decisions. Your onboarding process should include examples of managers and executives living up to the company’s stated values.

Seeing people take accountability for their actions, celebrate the success of others, and recognise when there is room for improvement will give your new manager confidence.

Culture-first companies prove to their employees on an ongoing basis that company values genuinely guide all decisions. Onboarding surveys are a great way to show your new employee that you live and breath these values.

Unsatisfactory planning and onboarding are common threads in new leaders inability to meet business expectations.

Many senior leaders feel their onboarding experience didn’t live up to their expectations or provide the resources they needed most. They felt that figuring things out could have been easier and a lot faster.

In many cases it’s the organisational culture and politics, not lack of competence or managerial skill, that are the primary reasons for failure in a leadership role. 

A well planned, culture first onboarding process will ensure your new leader feels confident in their new role; helping them find success sooner.