For too many companies, “on-boarding” — that is, getting new hires oriented and up to speed — is viewed as a somewhat low priority. But it’s really a huge, undervalued opportunity for business transformation.
Why employees are right to resist change.
Transforming a business is often difficult because many employees are resistant to change. And there are any number of very good evolutionarily reasons for it:
Old ways of doing things are, generally speaking, antifragile. They’ve withstood the test of time and have a decent history of working…If people weren’t resistant to change, good ideas wouldn’t have the time to spread. — D. Lee
Yet when you try to implement a new business strategy, policy, or a more effective way of doing things, your existing employees aren’t likely to just jump on board. And why would they? Things are working fine, in their opinion.
Convincing long-time employees otherwise could take longer than you’d like in order to see results. So your best bet for effective change management may mean approaching the problem from another angle.
Why the status quo stays the status quo.
With a traditional on-boarding scheme — “Okay, there’s your desk, here’s your company manual, and the bathroom’s down the hall. Good luck!” — new employees don’t always learn and internalize the right way to do things.
Too often, though, existing employees “helpfully” teach new employees the way things are currently done, exacerbating the business problems you’re trying to fix.
Bad on-boarding does damage that not only hurts the company immediately, but for years to come, maybe even decades. So, to transform a business, you need to correctly manage and direct your new hires.
Teach the right way, not the current way.
New employees don’t have that same resistance to learning new ways, because they won’t know the old ways. This knowledge gap is an opportunity for you to limit the productivity-leaching effects of entrenched processes and habits. It’s your chance to gradually alter your business’s trajectory and begin a new wave of transformation with employees who only know the new processes and mission.
The trick, then, is to get to quickly and effectively indoctrinate new hires before they develop bad habits. To offer them a comprehensive, dynamic repository of easily accessed resources so they don’t have to ask your company’s bad actors for help.
How to course-correct your company.
With its powerful social tools, tibbr improves on-boarding and training by giving new hires a single, centralized place to find experts, ask questions, and get answers (the correct answers).
The new tibbr Pages app, lets you quickly create dynamic, content-rich webpages and collections. You can drag-and-drop videos, photos and social media elements into professionally designed layouts so your training materials are engaging and always up-to-date.
tibbr is so effective for on-boarding that the consulting firm, Forrester, found that companies using it reduced the cost of new employee on-boarding and training by 20% (of a representative 10% training cost). And, while it’s great to save money, it may be more profitable to properly train new employees, because the things you do today impact your company for years to come.
To learn how tibbr can improve your company’s on-boarding process — get a free trial of the tibbr platform now.
