Onboarding: Who Owns it – HR or Talent Acquisition? | Jennifer Tait on The #SocialRecruiting Show

Define your onboarding process

What’s the difference between pre-boarding and onboarding?. Who owns onboarding and should there be a re-evaluation of this process post-COVID-19?  To answer these questions, and a whole lot more, was this week’s guest, Jennifer Tait.

As an L&D professional, Jen discovered her calling at Blackrock when she applied for an internal training position, “It was my first ever job in L&D and I absolutely loved it!. Fast-forward to 2020 and Jen runs her own L&D company and tells us, “some people are accidental trainers, however, mine was very much planned!”

“I think onboarding starts from the moment you offer them the job, and regardless of the size of the company, regardless of the number of cross-functional teams, this process touches on the way. There need to be four stages to onboarding. Firstly,  the pre-induction, secondly,  trainer-led or Manager-led activity, thirdly,  chance to apply that learning in the job and lastly, post-induction.”

Increasing learning potential through choice

Discussing the ownership of onboarding, “whether there is holistic ownership, what we need to do is to assign clear roles and responsibilities for each part of it.”

“The problem we’re solving here is if you don’t engage your new starters before day one, somebody else will. .For instance, another company will and they’ll go there.”

As onboarding blends into induction, Jen shares her thoughts on the key criteria. She says, “what you want is to get people confident, competent and feeling a sense of belonging, to ensure that your new employee is getting the most out of their induction”. Jennifer goes on to say, “design your induction with a blend of audio, visual and text-based material, so they are all catered for”.

What about the challenge that most companies are facing currently, surrounding virtual onboarding owing to socially isolating?. 

“This has caught people off guard. For example, they are having to adapt and react and do it now. Now is the ideal time to look at what you’ve got and not just pick it up and put it online.”

Linked to the employee and their continual learning, “tech is at the heart of the learning ecosystem, everything has to be tech!”.

If that wasn’t enough, below you’ll hear Jennifer talk about:

• Training should start before the employees’ first day
• Building trust and relationships through onboarding 
• Incentive new starters to conduct e-learning
• Tips for employees first-day experience
• Tailor L&D content to the material you are delivering 
• Building learning and development communities 

Thank you to our fabulous sponsor EnterpriseAlumni