New hire orientation is necessary, and most organizations provide basic information to help new employees get through the door. In the HR world, this kind of orientation, known as the four P's of HR, stands for:
- People - Attracting and retaining employees
- Policies - Providing guidelines to manage people and other important company information
- Processes - Recruiting, onboarding, and performance management
- Performance - Measuring and improving HR strategies
One of the challenges many organizations face is thinking of it as the primary method for onboarding new team members. While this approach may work for the general employee population (even though it's not a great long-term solution), for executive leaders, it's a recipe for losing them within the first 12 to 18 months.
Orientation is necessary to get a leader set up with the basics, including benefits, a company overview, and high-level organizational information. However, orientation is insufficient for executive onboarding and cannot be the only formal setting that prepares them to lead. Based on my experience working with new leaders, orientation is not an adequate setting to prepare a leader for the first 90 days.
I recommend that organizations use orientation as the basic level of executive onboarding. For example, a leader should experience what their team encounters when they start a new role at the company. It allows them to see things from a ground-level perspective if you will. Once the orientation is complete, the executive receives a customized onboarding experience that meets their unique needs. For example, an executive who leads several departments, including those with external stakeholders, will have a very different onboarding experience than a non-profit executive director who has established relationships with funders and actively engages at the community level.
Studies show that an executive leader can take an average of six months to onboard effectively. A one—or two-day orientation will not set the stage for success if there is no progression to a solid onboarding program.
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