Add Onboarding to Your New Job Description
After all the stress, challenges and hard work involved with a job search, it’s tempting to sit back while someone shows you the ropes.
We might expect onboarding (especially within big organizations) to be planned, effective, and low stress, but this is rare. Recently, two people close to me—a family member, and a client—have both experienced less than ideal onboarding experiences. In both cases, they were left confused and worried. Worst of all, these two new hires doubted their decision to join their new organizations.
While there are no quick fixes to this problem, a new hire can assume significant responsibility for their own onboarding. This HBR article by Susan Peppercorn offers four important tasks for new hires to tackle:
Actively network, above, below and sideways. Networking doesn’t stop when you get hired—networking is an ongoing activity.
Get clear about your goals. Learn how to communicate your progress and resource needs.
Share your wins. Don’t expect others to notice when you've had success. Part of your job is to communicate your wins.
Make your job objectives transparent to EVERYONE.
Take ten minutes to read the article, then share it with the new hires in your life.