During this year’s HR Indaba, Kindred Technology’s Roland Glass, Discovery’s Khaya Linaya and CCBA’s Terryn Palani explained that employees should be at the centre of the onboarding experience, then culture and compliance will follow.
Traditional onboarding processes are no longer enough to engage and retain employees following disruptions like the Covid-19 pandemic, new technologies like ChatGPT, and global social media movements promoting a fair and inclusive working environment. As a result, more responsibility is being placed on companies and their leaders, especially CHROs, to create environments where their mental health and wellbeing are an important part of how they engage.
“We are living through a critical time in history where human progress is higher than ever,” said Roland Glass, chief commercial officer, Kindred Technology. “But so is anxiety and stress. This is why, despite everything we invest in our employee experience, burnout, great resignations and isolation still persist in the workplace.”
He pointed out that, according to a study by Gallup and Enboarder, 23 percent of employees are currently engaged in their workplace. 62 percent are not engaged, and 15 percent are actively disengaged. In organisations where talent strategies and plans to engage people are in place, these statistics climb to 75 percent engagement from managers, and 70 percent for non-managers. “Decreasing the number of disengaged workers drives positive outcomes in our organisations,” he added.
Roland turned the conversation to Discovery senior L&D manager Khaya Linaya, who looks after programmes and digital learning, as well as onboarding, asking her how organisations can enhance employee engagement, particularly when it comes to new hires.
“It’s important to make sure you integrate new hires into the organisation and immerse them in the culture,” she answered. “This is done in different ways, including connections that they make before joining the organisation after their onboarding; a buddy system once they are part of the team; and induction, where they really get to know the ins and outs of the organisation.”
She highlighted that new hires want to feel connected, valued and understood – not just processed. The panel interrogated the four critical areas of an employee’s experience:
- Compliance
- Culture
- Clarification
- Connection
“Paperwork, policies and procedures are still the majority of what we do. Then comes culture and clarification, and lastly follows connection and experience “ Roland pointed out. “So we’re still not prioritising the right things when we’re designing our onboarding experiences.”
Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) group executive of people experience Terryn Palani agreed, referring to her own recent onboarding experience. “I have never signed my name so many times, because a lot of the documents you fill in during the process require the same information.”
She explained that new hires need to know the organisation cares about them, that it is interested in who they are – even before they get there. “Have conversations around what matters to them. If they tell you what snacks they like, the next time you see them, make sure you bring them some. It’s when you listen and then act on what you’ve learned that you show them they matter to you.”
More than a process
At CCBA, onboarding takes an entire year. “We prime new hires from the moment they accept our offer until their first anniversary, and we ask them to journal their experience throughout the year,” Terryn said. “We learn from those journals on how we can improve the onboarding experience, and it also sets the tone for our relationship with that individual going forward.”
She added that this engagement should go beyond just the onboarding process and also include their journey and legacy. During Covid-19, we transitioned into hybrid and remote working spaces, which has required a special kind of engagement. “We find that because CCBA is largely a remote organisation, there is that factor of loneliness for people who don’t get to engage in-person.”
Roland pointed out that loneliness was higher among fully remote employees at 25 percent and lowest among those working fully on-site at 16 percent. “In fact, people who work are less lonely at 20 percent than non-employed people at 32 percent.”
Terryn explained that this is because “when people get together in person, there’s a big difference in the quality of the interaction, ideas shared, and the overall depth of the engagement.”
She reiterated that, if organisations can tap into what matters most to their people, they will make more meaningful contributions to the company.
“CHROs need to create onboarding experiences that wow and celebrate the things that matter,” Roland summarised the panel discussion. “As we move into an era where technology is once again transforming the onboarding process, CHROs need to keep human engagement and connection at the centre of their system rollouts, implementation and adoption.”
