ROCKET TO THE TOP

Contact:
Tamara Greenleaf  303.565.6161 tgreenleaf@onboardyourself.com

TWO NEW HANDBOOKS HELP GEN Y INTERNS AND NEW HIRES
GET OFF TO A FAST, SUCCESSFUL START

PORTLAND, Oregon — (April 6, 2011) — One reason why companies are reluctant to hire Gen Y (millennial) employees is the challenge of onboarding this highly facilitated generation. Lean-to-the-bone staffing means hiring managers don’t have time to hold newbies’ hands. As a consequence, newbies left to sink or swim often drown or cause more problems than they solve. And for newbies doing internships, finding success in a workplace where everyone is doing two or more jobs is even more of a challenge.

Responding to this challenge, OnBoardYourself.com today announced the launch of two new handbooks:

For New Hires:  “ My Personal Onboarding Plan: The New Hire’s Guide to On-the-Job Success” teaches Gen Y newbies to  accept responsibility for getting themselves up to speed and  how to take maximum advantage of their employer’s orientation programs and resources.

For Interns: “Not a Moment to Lose: A Step-by-Step Guide to Internship Success” teaches interns how to get a fast start and make the most of  the weeks and months of their internship.

“These handbooks are the perfect thing to include in your intern’s or new hire’s acceptance packet,” says OnBoard Yourself President Todd Hudson. “It’s a great way to initiate the onboarding and learning process in the weeks before  they arrive on the job. You want them to hit the ground running.”

Each handbook takes the new hire or intern through a series of exercises designed to build self-management skills, make the most of their orientation and master the workplace know-how it takes to be successful in today’s lean and fast-paced work environments.

The handbooks can be used as standalone references or combined with OnBoard Yourself’s web-based e-learning programs for interns and new hires. OnBoard Yourself’s web-based program offers a complete package of e-learning resources designed to help Gen Y interns and new hires take charge of their own onboarding and to support them with success skills.

“Our program teaches new hires and interns how to develop a self-directed, personalized onboarding plan that enhances their employer’s existing orientation. The point is to help newbies get themselves up to speed quickly and efficiently and to succeed in their internship or  early  career while avoiding bone-headed mistakes.”

Both handbooks are available in standard (black-and-white) and premium (color with employer’s custom company logo). For more information or to order copies, please visit www.onboardyourself.com.

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ABOUT ONBOARD YOURSELF!
OnBoard Yourself!® is an e-learning program that provides courses, articles, videos, podcasts and more to help new college grads take charge of their onboarding and achieve success in the first year of their career. OnBoard Yourself is based on the Maverick Institute’s Lean Learning System, making corporate education more efficient, productive and cost-effective. More at www.onboardyourself.com.

Tags: gen y, handbook, human resources, intern, internship, millennial, new hire, onboard yourself, onboarding, professional development, todd hudson, workbook
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Thanks, everybody, for the great response to my ‘World of Workcraft…Epic Meaning‘ post! It’s pretty clear that we all want meaning in work and aren’t happy if we don’t get it.

Rereading my work, I realized that I need to add something. I said you didn’t have to be Navy SEALS, Doctors Without Borders or Live Strong to have a great mission; that you could look at Apple, Google or any start up for inspiration. But, you know, it was flip to say that. Those latter organizations are still elite. Even without a life saving raison d’etre, their technology touches people in a way that makes it’s easy for them to create ‘epic meaning’ for their new hires.

Suppose you’re NOT a tech giant or a cool startup in the Bay Area. You’re Acme Pallet, a 57 year old company that makes wooden shipping pallets. The kind that go on planes, trains and trucks. Pretty unsexy stuff. How do you inspire your Gen Y employees now? Where’s the “epic meaning” in pallets?

Here’s my advice for all the Acme Pallets out there…

Borrow A Customer’s Vision

Tell your new hires about who uses your product and how they’re used, for example “Acme pallets were used by the Red Cross to ship relief supplies to Haiti during the earthquake. In fact, our pallets delivered over 250,000 lbs of food and medicine to those in need. Without  pallets, supplies don’t get to children and sick people in need.” Suddenly, pallets seem pretty important. Post pictures of your product in action; supplies arriving at Port au Prince on your pallets. Letters from happy and unhappy customers are another great way to borrow a vision.  Customers will tell you clearly how you impacted them and create a cause to rally around.

Support Your Community

Acme Pallet may be the largest employer in the town or county. Or donate a generous portion of its profits to community improvement or outreach. Companies can have big impacts on small towns or local initiatives. Let your new hires know exactly what Acme Pallet is doing to make its surrounding community a better place. Funding local scholarships, building playgrounds and donating space for the local soup kitchen are all initiatives that your new hires would be proud to support.

Save the Planet

Any company can rally around planet Earth and find compelling meaning.  Acme Pallet could be dedicating itself to using only recycled, reclaimed and sustainable materials and  supplies to build its products. Tout how many trees are saved annually through your smart sourcing. Acme can set the goal to be a ‘zero waste’ generator or a ‘net zero emissions’ company.  The list of possibilities is endless and I’ve personally seen the energy and dedication that goals like this generate.

Create a Vision

So, your pallets weren’t used in the Haiti disaster, you don’t give back to your local community and you don’t recycle. Why not? Satisfied to just hammer pieces of wood together hour after hour, day after day without purpose? I can tell you right now you won’t attract the best, or even good, talent. No one of quality will work in that environment for long.

A compelling mission and vision can elevate performance and bring life to a dull organization. Enlist your Gen Y new hires to help. This generation is steeped in the importance of community and causes. Their internet savvy can help you look outside your narrow field of vision to find something compelling with which to align yourself.

I’m thrilled this generation is NOT willing to toil in silence. I hope they provoke their employers to think hard about their reasons for being and, when they take over, create ‘epic meaning’ for their employees. We’ll all be a lot happier and more productive.

Tags: cause, community, gen y, human resources, millennial, onboarding, optimism, productivity, talent management, todd hudson
Posted in Gaming, Mission/Vision | 1 Comment »

Games don’t just give their players fun missions to accomplish, they give them civilizations to protect and worlds to save. Epic meaning.

Mistakes bring destruction and extinction. Success brings glory and honor (on the virtual battlefield and in the real-world gaming community). There’s a lot at stake in these games.

But, your entry-level job? ‘Save the world’ impact? Hardly. So, you immediately have one strike against you with the Millennial generation. However, you can avoid strikes two and three by fully understanding the reach of entry-level jobs today and clearly telling your new hires the impact they can have.

Today’s interconnected world gives your new hires more impact than ever. Social networking apps let your new hires interact with your key customers, suppliers and competitors in real time without your knowledge. Do they know what to say or topics to avoid? Definitely not. Read Peter Shankman’s story, Be Careful What You Post, about the unfortunate Tweet from a young account executive before his first meeting with Fedex. You’ll cringe with horror. Could one of your new hires commit this same mistake?

The software systems that link your organization with others internal and external to your company can turn simple key stroke errors into million-dollar problems or full blown crises. A simple, misplaced decimal point can have your company flooded with inventory or starving for more. Your new hires need to understand the significance and impact of their work.

If your organization’s cause is “epic”, then this will be easy. Military, humanitarian and medical organizations have reasons for being with a higher purpose than many others. But, don’t sell yourself short. You don’t have to be he Navy SEALS, Doctors Without Borders or Live Strong to be inspiring to your employees. Look at Google, Apple and every start up company around. These organizations live and breath mission.

What’s yours? Lots of organizations have grand mission and vision statements posted in their lobbies. But, can your new hire slogging away in data entry, customer service or filing articulate how their daily activities support that greater purpose? Probably not. You have to spell it out for them. In detail. One on one. Don’t see this as a chore; it’s a fantastic opportunity to converse with your new hires about their roles and responsibilities. To give their job meaning and context.

In particular, they need to answer, and believe the answers to, four questions.

1. Why am I doing what I’m doing?

2. How am I contributing to my organization’s success?

3. How am I helping the important communities in my life, e.g., friends, family, coworkers, customers and planet?

4. How can I, by not doing my job to the best of my abilities, damage my organization and hurt my communities?

Your onboarding and orientation programs need to give your new hires ‘epic meaning’. You’ll capture their attention, engage them mind and soul and make performing at a higher level natural.

Next post, I’ll talk about ‘Social Fabric’, the second of four concepts that engage gamers from Jane McGonigal’s TED talk, Gaming Can Make a Better World. My earlier post, World of Workcraft…Let the Onboarding Games Begin!, features a video of Jane’s prezo and discusses my thoughts on how gaming concepts can improve company onboarding and orientation programs.

Tags: gaming, gen y, human resources, Jane McGonigal, millennial, new hire, onboarding, Peter Shankman, TED, todd hudson
Posted in Gaming, Technology | Comments Off

Jane McGonigal’s TED talk, Gaming Can Make A Better World, really got me thinking…what if company onboarding/orientation programs inspired Gen Y new hires to engage their jobs with the passion that they play World of Warcraft or Halo? Wow. DOUBLE WOW! Every measure you could think of would dramatically improve . Productivity. Morale. Customer Satisfaction.

Her research shows that diehard gamers feel more engaged and successful in the game world than in real life. Now, that’s sad on a certain level, but you’d be foolish to write off this group as nerdy losers to screen out during your recruiting process. First, the number of people playing games is skyrocketing, so avoiding them is becoming impossible. Second, gamers are by and large intelligent, passionate people with high expectations; the kind of people you want to hire. But, hiring gamers and throwing them in a cube by themselves with a stack of data to enter and 3 breaks a day is not going to cut it.

Games provide players 4 important things, namely:

1. Epic Meaning
2. Social Fabric
3. Blissful Productivity
4. Urgent Optimism

Hey, wait a minute…that’s what I’ve wanted in my jobs! I didn’t use these exact words, but I understand their meaning. And Jane’s list squares with my years of experience as a factory manager leading engineering and production teams.

If organizations would incorporate these concepts into their cultures, gamers, and everybody for that matter, would start to enjoy worklife more. And new hires would jump into their new roles with both feet and not mentally or physically check out 6, 9 or 12 months later.

I’ve been noodling on some great ideas about how to translate and incorporate each of these four gaming concepts into onboarding and orientation programs. So, stay tuned for future posts! In the meantime, check out Jane’s TED talk below. Some mind-blowing information on gaming’s popularity and how she wants to use it to make the world a better place.

Tags: gaming, Jane McGonigal, new hire, onboarding, optimism, orientation, productivity, social, TED, world of warcraft
Posted in Technology | Comments Off

My last post, Fight ‘Reality TV’ at Work with Reality…TV Style’, jogged my memory and I remembered how I effectively used ‘Reality TV’ to implement change at a client. This company designed and manufactured commercial power washers and faced three common manufacturing problems, namely, too much inventory, long assembly times and poor quality. The common thread among these is poor product design, in particular too many parts to assemble and assembly is difficult.

The client hired me to create and kickoff a design-for-manufacturability (DFM) program to simplify their product designs. The first hurdle to overcome was convincing their designers that they needed to embrace new  methods. They thought their designs were “very good” and that the long assembly times and poor quality were “operator related”. This wasn’t true, of course. Their designs violated many manufacturability guidelines and I’d been watching their operators struggle to assemble these products.

But, telling them this wouldn’t be enough. Too intellectual. I needed to generate an emotional response that would provoke them to want to change. The answer? Reality TV.

I videotaped one of their better operators assembling their most popular product start to finish and kicked off the DFM program with it. The video lasted about two hours, but it felt like 2 days. Watching the assembler (who they all knew to be very competent) struggle to maneuver awkward components one handed, align holes blind, insert tools into tight places, drop small washers and screws over and over, cut himself on a sharp corner, etc, etc had the product designers gnashing their teeth and almost weeping in frustration. After the first hour, one of the designers had his head on the table saying he “couldn’t watch anymore.” At the end, silence. Dead silence. We took a break. More silence. After break I asked “So, any observations or thoughts to share?” “We design crappy products.” someone whispered and everyone nodded in embarrassed agreement.

I wanted them to feel the assemblers’ pain and a simple video delivered the message with brutal honesty. Not surprisingly, the workshop and DFM program were a huge success.

Video vividly communicates information. And lots of it. Sights. Sounds. Facial expressions. Subtle stuff that speaks to the unconscious. It’s a powerful medium that can deliver an emotional punch, if you orchestrate it correctly. The standard ‘talking head’ video of someone sitting behind a desk or on a stool is a waste of time. Too intellectual. Here are five simple rules to make your videos deliver.

1. Select for Passion – Pick speakers who really care about topics. Their passion will come across and communicate volumes. Don’t default to the person with the highest rank in your organization as your spokesperson. For example, if you’re creating a new hires onboarding program, record new hires or their colleagues talking about the importance of getting up to speed and how to do it well.

2. Generate Emotion – Passion comes out when people talk about events that affected them, positively or negatively. Talk about an event that gets their juices flowing and makes your point. For example, we hear lots of stories from employees about new hire mistakes and the impact on customers and the company. And they’re told with lots of emotion. Capture that.

3. Shoot in Natural Settings – Shoot your videos in settings that make your speakers comfortable and are recognizable work settings. Bob talking about delivering great customer service while he’s leaning on a desk in the Call Center with a headset around his neck is more powerful than him on a stool in a conference room wearing clothes he’s never seen in.

4. Be Authentic – Keep your videos unscripted. Picking passionate people and having them tell a story they care about makes this easy. Feel free to shoot the piece a couple of times and pick the best one. Don’t be afraid to include segments where your speakers gets choked up, frustrated, or swears (you can always blip that out). It’s the emotional message that counts here. Don’t sanitize your videos.

5. Keep It Short – I purposely tormented my client’s product designers by making them watch 2 hours of video. Your messages need to be short and sweet. Keep your videos less than 10 minutes. Your goal is to deliver one powerful message. The Millennial generation entering the workforce is used to short videos; think YouTube. And your video quality needs to be good, not great. A HD video recorder like The Flip on a tripod works very well, even indoors. Don’t think you have to be the next James Cameron.

Now…Lights…Camera…ACTION!!

Tags: emotion, gen y, lean, millennial, onboard yourself, onboarding, reality tv, todd hudson, video
Posted in Technology, Video | 1 Comment »

One of the best parts of my job is hearing stories about Gen Y new hires entering the workplace. No matter the industry, location or size company, these stories are fittingly, like their  subjects, digital. A 1 or a 0. Big success or head-shaking, pitiable failure. Most are the latter and theories abound about who or what to blame. Parents? Colleges? I’m going with reality TV.

An HR Director used this very term to describe the effect her Gen Y new hires were having on her company. Gossiping. Sharing inappropriate, sometimes very personal, information. Creating drama. Being confrontational. ‘Survivor’, ‘The Bachelorette’, ‘American Idol’ and ‘The Office’ (that’s psuedo-reality TV I know) are infecting the workplace. Do young new hires actually believe that the behaviors on these shows are acceptable in this reality?

Obviously, they do and why wouldn’t they?  Reality TV puts bad behavior on a pedestal. The stars of these shows are the raunchiest, most pathological members of the cast. We get a thrill watching them flaunt social rules and cultural norms. Saying and doing things that we’d all like to say or do, but don’t.

The problem is these shows’ stars, in real life, are celebrities and rake in big bucks. Fame and fortune. The line between reality TV and reality is getting blurred and bad behavior is spilling over into the workplace even unconsciously a la “Screaming (or backstabbing or gossiping or crying) worked for ______________ <fill in reality star’s name here>; maybe it’ll work for me here.”

Employers need to confront this problem early (and I mean before you hire someone) and continously reinforce this message. Tell your new hires straight up that reality TV is NOT reality here. That the behaviors they see on those shows are not appropriate in your company and will have strong negative consequences.

Most important, you need to fight ‘reality TV’ with reality TV style. Don’t even think about using classroom training. BOOOOOORRRRIIIINNNG! And forget your typical Powerpoint-style, elearning course. New hires will probably complete these at home while watching ‘The Biggest Loser’. And you’ll lose.

Video is a powerful medium to get your positive messages across. Short videos of positive, productive work behaviors paint a powerful picture of how you want your new hires (all your employees for that matter) to act. Interviews with respected managers and executives talking about how successful employees act and conduct themselves make it clear what your company, and customers, expect. And speaking of customers, their voice can be a powerful influence on behavior. Publicize what they’re saying about your company, good and bad, and use it to make your case.

Recognize, reward, compensate and elevate people who demonstrate the behaviors you want. And make it very clear to offenders early what their drama, gossiping and griping are costing them in compensation and opportunity. And if that doesn’t work, vote ‘em off the island.

Tags: gen y, hiring, millenial, new hire, onboard yourself, reality tv, talent management, todd hudson, video
Posted in Onboarding Story, Technology | 1 Comment »

Attention HR and talent managers… OnBoard Yourself is looking for 25 Gen Y new hires and their supervisors to participate in a new study on the use of e-learning technologies to help millennials get themselves up to speed in their new jobs.

Study participants will receive:

* Free use of the OnBoard Yourself structured e-learning program for six months.

* Monthly coaching/feedback sessions for both millennial new hires and their supervisors.

* Executive presentations of the study findings.

The goal of the study is to test and refine a whole new process of onboarding that focuses on teaching millennials how to take charge of getting themselves up to speed while reducing the hand-holding burden of the busy supervisors who manage them. The time commitment for supervisors will be minimal and aimed towards making their onboarding time spent with the newbie efficient and positive.

If you’re onboarding Gen Y new hires, please consider participating in this study. We know you’ll see some great results.

For more information, contact Todd Hudson at 303.819.6662 or email thudson@onboardyourself.com.

Tags: gen y, HRIT, human resources, new hire, onboarding, talent management
Posted in Intern | Comments Off

Provocative blog post about the negative impacts of Gen Y’s short job tenure (“I’ve been here 3 YEARS! That’s a long time.”) on company onboarding  .The Price of Millenial Flibbertigibbetness?.

Companies aren’t going to invest big bucks, time and energy in onboarding programs if they don’t noticeably increase productivity or retention. Instead they’re going to make entry level jobs dumber (think MacDonald’s with their ‘idiot-proof’ systems) to insulate themselves from employee mistakes and turnover. This, of course, will only drive turnover higher (that’s the main point of post…sorry). If you don’t want your onboarding budget cut to the bone, focus on these three things in your new hire program.

First, make your new hires productive immediately without making mistakes. If new hires are obviously learning by trial and error, executives will legitimately ask ‘Why do we have an onboarding program at all?” What obstacles do new hires typically have at your company that keeps them from being productive? Start teaching them knowledge and skills to overcome THOSE obstacles.

Second, engage new hires continuously throughout their first 18 months on the job. The typical one-day or even one-week new hire orientation leaves Gen Y new hires thinking ‘That’s it?! That’s all you’re going to teach me?” And paper-based, classroom-drive processes bore new hires of any age to death.  They won’t want anymore of your training if it’s ALL going to be that bad!

Instead, engage new hires at least monthly (weekly is even better) and help them build the knowledge and skills they need to become productive and avoid mistakes. And you need to use the power of the web and digital content to keep get attention and facilitate their education, for examples videos, podcasts, screencasts, blogs and discussion forums. Gen Y new hires need a trail of breadcrumbs to follow to keep them productive and interested in your organization.

Third, teach your new hires how to get ahead in your organization by themselves. Make sure they understand your organizational structure, typical career paths, future opportunities and the application process for changing positions. Gen Y’s want to move around and up in companies quickly. Unfortunately, most Boomer and Gen X bosses don’t encourage or facilitate early mobility. In fact, they actively discourage it. So your new hire leaves for what they perceive as greener pastures. Your new hire may not be ready for that manager position after six months, but let them find out through the application and interview process. They’ll undoubtedly get some great feedback and learn what it takes to move up in your company. If they see their boss as a constant roadblock to their future success, they’ll leave.

Millennial employees are NOT going to stay at your company as long your Boomer and Gen X employees. That’s a fact. Your onboarding program needs to change to reflect this new reality.

Posted in Return on Investment, Technology | Comments Off

See the entire post here…Cake Ordering FAIL

Posted in Onboarding Story | Comments Off

During my 20 plus years in electronics as an engineer, department manager and director of operations,  I personally interviewed, hired and onboarded HUNDREDS of people, at least half of them recent college grads. And I watched hundreds of recent college grads being onboarded by other managers. Looking back over all those new hires two things stand out.

First, the new hires who got onboard and up to speed efficiently and added value right away (in less than 3 months) had great careers. This 3 month ‘career trajectory’ kept going and going. Early successes made them candidates for better assignments. They met more people and were in demand when new projects came along. Consequently, performance reviews were better, pay increases were larger and promotions awarded earlier.

Sadly, new hires who struggled their first 6 months on the job NEVER caught up. There’s a limited number of opportunities available and a limited amount of merit pay to award. And missing out on them was demoralizing. Once they started falling behind, it was a downward spiral. Which was heartbreaking because the vast majority of them were intelligent, eager and excited to join the workforce and become part of our team.

Second, the key difference between ‘rocketing to the top’ and struggling was a well-structured plan, meaning clear goals and objectives, readily-available resources to get reach them and frequent feedback.

Today, supervisors and managers are insanely busy. Staff reductions, budget cuts and the extra efforts required to keep the business going have the bosses of new hires spread thin, thin, thin! In my consulting work over the last 5 years I’ve heard hiring managers say loud and clear “I used to have time to hold a new hire’s hand, but I don’t anymore. They have to learn what they need on their own.”  That means no well-structured plan.

And new hires see and feel the change. “My boss is never around. I don’t know what they expect.” “I’m lost. Who should I talk to about this project?” “What should I do? I don’t want to make a mistake!” What I hear loud and clear from new hires is “If I knew what to do I’d do it.” And this became the genesis for OnBoard Yourself.

The skills and knowledge that recent college grads need to acquire in their first 12 months to become valuable team members and on their way to great career are straightforward. The secret is to do them all, in the right order and not fall behind. OnBoard Yourself is the structured plan that new hires, in conjunction with their managers, can follow for first year success. If our company tag line wasn’t ‘Rocket to the Top’ it would probably be ‘No New Hire Left Behind’.

This blog is our forum for sharing tips, tricks, resources, research and stories about onboarding recent college grads and interns. And we hope you’ll join the conversation by commenting on posts and sharing your thoughts and experiences. We look forward to hearing from you.

Posted in Onboarding Story, Return on Investment | Comments Off