BBBSA Manager S Guide to Orientation

BBBSA Manager’s Guide to On Boarding

PREFACE

On boarding is about creating a win-win situation for a new employee and his or her manager, which significantly impacts the entire organization.

During their first several days and months, the new employee is seeking confirmation that he or she has made the right decision in joining BBBSA. This confirmation is determined largely by the nature of the manager/employee relationship, specifically, does the employee feel valued, understand his/her job, and how it fits in the organization. In addition, how the rest of the organization demonstrates its investment in new employee transitions is critical to employee initial success and future contributions.

We have defined on boarding as a collaborative system of integrating new hires to our performance driven workplace to achieve early productivity and retention. This collaborative process involves all employees, with very specific and delineated responsibilities for human resource staff, the manager, functional area staffs, and the new employee. On boarding is about BBBSA proactively taking charge of a new employee’s acclimation to the organization. When executed effectively, on boarding allows for the intentional use of the BBBS mission as a motivator for individual and organizational success.

The BBBSA On boarding program is designed to walk managers through a prescriptive, sequential process to successfully integrate their new hires into the BBBS culture and have them reach productivity and cultural fit and alignment to business objectives. Although very prescriptive during the first three months of employment, this program becomes more flexible as the supervisor develops and maintains a solid and effective communicative relationship with his or her new staff member. The program is based on the belief that new employees are motivated to do well: they are in transition and as such are at a high point in learning new information and new behaviors.

We can experience collaborative success in making the right hire, but ensuring that new hires connect to BBBSA and know their role in contributing to the strategic growth plan through individual performance results is critical to organizational success. Recruitment and training take a great deal of time and effort- fully integrating your new staff member will ensure a return on this initial investment.

BBBSA Human Resources Department 5-05

BBBSA Manager’s Guide to On boarding

This guide consists of a brief introduction, adescription of roles in on boarding, and a list of specific actions you can take to help your new staff member quickly become an effective performer.

On boarding is a collaborative system of integrating new hires to the workplace to achieve early productivity and retention. Without your active participation, this process will not be effective. Successful on boarding should be a shared effort in which the key roles belong to thenew employee, a representative from the HR Department and you.

The on boarding process begins when the HR Department assists you in recruiting and selecting the new staff member. Whether or not the successful applicant will become a significant contributor depends largely upon how well he or she makes the transition to the job, to you as supervisor, to other staff members, to the department and to the culture of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. If one role had to be identified as the most significant in the success surrounding the new employee’s initial transition, it would be the manager role.

The role of the new employee is to learn the job quickly and thoroughly and to perform it effectively and efficiently. To that end, new employees are encouraged to learn about BBBSA and their roles through communicating often with their manager, department staff and other key employees and accessing information available electronically.

The role of the HR Department is to provide the new staff member with an introduction to BBBSA as an employer and an overview of our organization. Each new staff member shall attend a new employee on boarding session conducted by the HR Department. Due to changes in BBBSA culture and the urgency of our technology, on boarding for the ’05 year targets new and existing staff, and will therefore be heldtwice per month beginning June, 2005. To ensure new hires are fully integrated into the on boarding process, all hire dates are effective the first and third Monday of each month. All remote staff members’ first day should be at the National office. For remote staff, Human Resources shall assume responsibility for first day morning schedules, and Agency Services shall assume responsibility for the employee afternoon schedule. The morning on boardingsession facilitated by HR covers topics such as:

Introduction to BBBS’s mission and vision.
Introduction to On boarding
History, achievements and structure of BBBSA
BBBSA’s culture
Office tour
Benefits program and enrollment procedures (Steve Rubeo)
Introductory period
Standards of conduct, i.e. smoking, personal appearance, safety, work area appearance, absences call in protocol
Compensation (paydays, salary increases)
Growing with the company
Parking and transportation information
General information (banking, restaurants, etc.)
Computer system (Len)
Phones, supplies, building access (Scott)
Dashboard training (Amrita)
Navigating the web site (Richa)

In our first on boarding session, new hires will not only learn about our vision, mission, and culture, they will discover that they are in part accountable to becoming fully integrated into BBBSA. They will further realize that everyone, including HR, their managers, and staff members must take a proactive role in ensuring their successful transition. While HR will play a role in recruiting and introducing new hires to BBBSA, the managers of new employees should take lead in the remaining on boarding process. Your role is to provide a new staff member with information and resources needed for him/her to perform the job effectively and efficiently. In addition, as managers, you play an integral part in aligning our big business objectives with individual job contributions. For many employees in our sector the alignment of personal values to organizational vision and mission can become a huge performance motivator. One primary way to form this alignment involves communicating job expectations by setting objectives, providing opportunities for early success, assigning key projects, and providing substantive feedback and coaching to new hires early and often. Through communication with managers, new hires gain a better understanding of their roles and accountabilities within BBBSA, thereby forging a greater connection to our strategic plan and personal value alignment to our mission and vision.

The functional areaon boarding should include:

Description of the department's and organization’s goals
Role of the position in achieving departmental goals
Individual performance objective setting
Description of department/division work rules or requirements
Introduction of co-workers and frequent contacts
Teamwork and customer service expectations
Staff development resources and identification of “need to know” materials.
Ongoing “check-in” sessions around projects/assignments, need to know information, performance feedback and coaching
Imminent meetings and upcoming significant events/deliverable dates

The remainder of the guide highlights key on boardingactivities and accountabilities sequentially with each stage building on the other. A few of these activities may not apply to your situation, but are included so the guide may be used throughout BBBSA.

Before the First Day

New employee focus: will I get to the right place, at the right time without a hassle?

New employee experience: I want my first day to go smoothly

Manager focus: invest in getting a new employee off to the right start. The dividends will be earlyproductivity, mission alignment, improved department morale and a successful manager

First impressions are important! Make sure that adequate spaceand supplies (Scott) computer equipment (Len)are available.
Identify first week crucial information for new employee, plan to achieve and accountabilities.
Ensure that the appropriate people know when your new staff member is arriving, what their responsibilities are, how their roles are integrated with others and your expectations regarding department staff on boardingaccountabilities.
Outreach by HR to welcome, address entering the building, parking, attire and first day agenda.
First day new employee calendars will include: on boarding session times, (Huda), personnel form completion, benefit enrollment (Steve), phone, supplies, equipment operation and building access (Scott), computer access, e-mail protocol and outlook review(Len).

On the First Day (after HR onboard session)

New employee focus: getting settled

Employee Experience: excitement and apprehension

Our jobs: give them what they need

Be available to greet your new staff member.
Describe functional area and any special departmental rules or procedures. Provide handouts as appropriate.
Be sure to identify department accountabilities, key staff, and challenges.
Discuss the new staff member's job duties and responsibilities using the written job description as an outline. Be sure to point out the importance of the job to the department and the need to work as part of the department's "team." and your customer service expectations.
Begin job training. Job responsibilities need to be broken down into small units (digestible chunks), so that job tasks can be understood bit-by-bit, allowing the learner to master each chunk before moving on to the next. Remember to present a little information at a time, and make sure each chunk is fully digested before going on to the next. Never worry if information is repeated.
Explain the work schedule (i.e., work hours, lunch times, overtime policy, procedure for notifying you in the event of absence).
Discuss the security of the work area, both inside and outside of the building.
Conduct a tour of the work area and make introductions to other department members and people outside of the department with whom the individual will work. Remember to identify rest rooms, conference rooms, supply cabinet, building access.
Complete paperwork to obtain access to databases, e-mail, voice mail, etc. (Refer to “Who to See for What” document on the F drive). See also, “Guidelines for Email Usage,” and “Guidelines for Voicemail Usage,” located on the F drive.

Managing for Performance
Be clear about the job and performance expectations. When your new staff member experiences a success, immediately let them know what they specifically accomplished through their behavior, and how their accomplishment contributes to the department and BBBS. Recognize and praise employees for good work by commending how they put their strengths to good use. Cultivate success and encourage them to do more of the same. Reinforced behavior is likely to be repeated! Likewise, when providing critical feedback, do so early, and be specific. Begin to develop your understanding of the staff member's strengths and weaknesses and what you and your other staff can do to build on their strengths, and development areas. At any point, the manager should notify the Director of HR of employee performance concerns.

Second through Tenth Days

New employee focus: learning the culture including who’s who and how your functional area operates.

New Employee Experience: this is overwhelming and interesting. What are my boss and colleagues like? Who is like me around here?

Our focus: provide information, direction, resources, feedback, (including praise and recognition) and coaching. Identify key stakeholders

Create opportunities for the new employee to learn the organization and how your department works on a daily basis. Ensure that there is a balance between reading information and engaging others.
Explain that the introductory period is a time to learn as much as possible about the new job and that you are available to provide assistance. Establish that a 90 day review will occur which involves the manager, your boss (in review of materials) and human resources. Refer to initial review form on F drive, HR information and forms.
Identify upcoming events, meetings, works in progress and deadlines. Make sure to inform new hires of who to see in your absence.
Identify others in the department who also can help and ask them to do so. Co-workers need to help with on boarding new employees and that includes training. It may help to divide the new employee’s job and have different people do parts of training.
Co-workers need to keep negative personal conflicts to themselves. This will enable the new hire to assess the department through his or her own experiences.
Identify projects which are to be completed within this period and what successful completion looks like.
Elicit and discuss questions and concerns.

Two through Four Weeks

New employee focus: What does my boss think of my work?

Employee Experience: Eager for critical feedback. Invested in establishing good relationship with manager

Our focus: Direction, clarity, feedback, (including praise and recognition) and coaching. Information to execute responsibilities successfully and with increased independence.

At this point, the employee’s biggest concern is how their performance will be judged and against what specific tasks. Schedule follow up sessions with the new employee through their fourth week. Has he or she thought of any questions or concerns? Is clarification needed? Inform the employee of your preferred method of communicating. Establish work priorities.

2. Facilitate a collaborative process around performance, that begins with the discussion of performance objectives. Identify priority performance areas that will serve as the basis for individual objectives. Prepare the employee for probably several drafts before completion. In preparation, the employee should review BBBSA employee objectives on the F drive and specifically those within their functional area. You can find posted objectives on the F drive under “HR Info Materials,” “2005 staff performance objectives.” SMART Objectives is another useful tool to help construct results oriented objectives. You can find SMART Objectives under "HR Info Materials," "Performance Review Forms," "SMART Objectives Final."

HR will facilitate a session for employees conducted by Mack Koonce and focusing on the BBBS strategic plan. This is one of many concrete ways to align the employee role with the “big picture” of BBBS and serves as a framework for the collaborative next step of writing individual performance objectives.

4. This session will be followed by the remainingon boardinggroupmeeting, focusing on individual performance objectives, employee roles and responsibilities and challenges as a new employee.Employee will finalize performance objectives with their manager.

Four weeks through Three Months

New employee focus: The fog is lifting. I am getting into this job. I have a growing sense of how I can contribute and be successful.

New employee experience: Initial confidence in being able to do the job.

Our focus: positioning for success including providing direction, clarity, performance feedback (including praise and recognition) and coaching.

1.Finalize individual performance objectives.