Effective onboarding can make or break an executive’s success in a new role, yet an Egon Zehnder study of global HR executives and newly appointed leaders shows less than a third of organisations actively support their new staff to adapt to the cultural and political climate – which rank as the top reasons new leaders fail.
The importance of properly welcoming a new employee is often overlooked. How your new employees are treated and made to feel by managers and members of staff determines an awful lot about their status in that business.
Make sure you don’t overwhelm new starters on their first day, bombarding them with boring documentation; get them to do the necessities and then break the day up with more interesting tasks.
- Relationships should be built.
- Expectations should be established.
- Loyalty and engagement should be cemented.
Unfortunately, without a proper “welcome plan” in place, these simple but important details often fall flat; you could end up losing your new employee, or worse they could stick around but be completely unhappy and disengaged with your business.
Culture Matters
According to a global survey of senior executives who had recently transitioned into new roles, organisational culture and politics, not lack of competence or managerial skill, were the primary reasons for failure. Almost 70 percent of respondents pointed to a lack of understanding about norms and practices, and poor cultural fit was close behind. When asked what would reduce failure rates, they emphasised constructive feedback and help with navigating internal networks and gaining insight into organisational and team dynamics.
