Employee integration is a touchy subject in most companies. For HR professionals desperately looking to find new ways of decreasing attrition, the idea that they’re still getting it wrong can be haunting.
The truth is that integration is complex. It requires a well thought-out and structured plan which involves many moving parts and people.
So, what can you do to ensure that employee integration receives the attention and support it requires within your organization? How do you begin to build a structure that’s needed and ensure your new hires get the very best exposure to all that your organization has to offer, leaving them feeling as if they’ve found a new home?
Navigating employee integration
In this blog post, I’m going to touch on three areas that HR professionals struggle to address. These areas are: cultural immersion, the importance of cultivating the new hire–line manager bond, and the hidden value of peer support.
Cultural immersion
By immersing your new hires into the culture through exposing them to different activities and engagement with colleagues, key stakeholders, and their line managers, you give them the chance to see how your organization works at different levels.
Just as your brand is everything that customers decide it represents within their own minds, your culture is everything that a new hire decides it represent in theirs. To ensure that your new hires get the best experience of your company, always surround them with people and moments which show the progressive nature of your business.
One way to do this is by creating powerful employee integration programs. Using the vi platform, you can decide what the integration process looks like for new hires. You can use a collection of templated plans, or create your own employee integration plan.
The new hire–line manager connection
Of course new hires must be introduced to their managers early in the integration phase. At this stage, important information is shared about the new hires’ roles and responsibilities on the job, and what the performance requirements will be. Sadly, that’s where the all-important bond ends in most organizations.
For a new hire, line of sight is crucial to their performance and satisfaction, which is why integration plans should include regular feedback sessions with managers, where the employee can engage and be engaged to ensure that no stones are left unturned.
In my experience, HR managers and other leaders struggle to manage the integration process because integration plans are limited to a few interactions, which is why it’s not surprising that 22% of staff turnover occurs within the first 45 days.
This all-important bond with a line manager can be strengthened. In fact, it’s something we believe in so strongly that our employee integration software enables HR managers to coordinate regular meetups between line managers and new hires with ease.
Peer support
According to Gallop’s How Millennials Want to Work and Live report, only 4% of HR leaders believe that they are successful at engaging millennials and other generations in the workplace. While this is a shockingly low number, it is believable. Employee integration is often viewed as the responsibility of the HR manager, and possibly the line manager. Because of this, many new hires enter organizations and only receive attention from people in these two roles, and then exit shortly after because they never felt like part of the family.
A simple solution is to broaden the feedback pool. Organizations are becoming aware that teams are stronger when employees are given the chance to contribute to the growth of the organization. One way to support that growth is by involving staff in the performance feedback process.
We’ve made it possible for older staff to share feedback on performance, culture fit, and other key areas of your new hires’ experience. This means a more holistic perspective of exactly what your new hires are going through at each stage of their journey. It also eliminates the potential for small issues turning into bigger problems down the line.
Conclusion
Employee integration can be challenging and complex, but with the right approach and the inclusion of a focused cultural immersion strategy, a solid plan for management interaction and a peer support structure, new hires will begin to feel valued and at home faster than they have a chance to think of leaving.
Is poor employee integration restricting your company?
We’d love to take you through a short demonstration of our Employee Integration and Retention solution and how you can begin to realize the value of a structured approach to creating a more empowered workforce. To book a time, just follow the link below and leave your details.