A standard operating procedure for onboarding is to front-load new employees with presentations and written resources, such as handbooks, e-learning modules, or manuals. These can be helpful — but only to a point. Learning new processes and navigating new environments is not just about content acquisition. Much of your organization’s important knowledge and expertise resides in people, and not all companies are tapping into this valuable resource. One study found that 20% of employees reported that their company didn’t do anything to facilitate networking between them and their coworkers.
Kickstart Your New Hire’s Success by Connecting them to the Right People
As a manager, onboarding a new hire isn’t just about providing manuals and login information, it’s about setting the employee up to operate autonomously in their role and feel comfortable within the organization. To do this, leaders need to emphasize the importance of developing strategic relationships with colleagues across the company who can share critical knowledge, and help contextualize and speed up their learning. There are three keys ways managers can help employees engage in internal networking, and thus boost their productivity, sense of belonging, engagement, and retention: 1) Create a knowledge map that shows who knows what within the company; 2) Create a prioritized networking list of people they should meet and why; and 3) Initiate relationship building to facilitate connections for your new employee.