Case Study
Innovative Global Onboarding Program Empowers Managers and Prepares New Employees for Success
Client
Leader of onboarding, brand, and employee experience at a global Fortune 500 organization in the computer software industry.
What We Did
Partnered with the client to further advance an enhanced global onboarding program and empower managers with the resources they need to successfully welcome new team members.
Outcome
A robust communications strategy and digital campaign to support the program’s global launch that has received overwhelmingly positive feedback.
Communications Strategy and Digital Campaign Supports Well-Received Launch of Onboarding Program
SITUATION
When a global computer software organization split into two companies, they began experiencing challenges with their new-employee process. After the separation, the organization hadn’t revamped their onboarding program, which led to inconsistencies in the new employee experience, leading to some loss of talent for the organization. One of the challenges was that the onboarding process had landed in the hands of recruiters and HR leaders, and the organization wanted to put those resources back in the hands of the hiring managers. Blue Beyond stepped in to partner with the client to further advance an enhanced onboarding plan that was in development. We created a robust communication strategy and plan that included a soft launch, pilot, and global launch of the new onboarding program.
Our consultants met with the client — the Leader of Onboarding, Brand, and Employee Experience within the People Development Team (as well as her core team and a group of key stakeholders) — to envision the desired new onboarding program, establish the rollout timeline, and create the pilot and implementation plans. Highlights included:
- Change management: Implemented an onboarding buddy program to help new employees get acclimated to the culture and the people, while migrating onboarding responsibilities away from HR and recruiters and onto managers.
- Soft launch and pilot: Built and promoted a hiring manager website; developed an onboarding buddy toolkit to promote and socialize the program with ~150 hiring managers and their new employees from across global locations during the soft launch and pilot period; and utilized feedback to further refine the onboarding program prior to the global rollout.
- Communications: Designed an infographic that clarified each role in the hiring process and the responsibilities associated with it, along with a robust global campaign that invited everyone in the company to welcome new employees into their culture and community.
- Mobile app: Used to empower managers with the tools to reach out to employees before day one, so they could start learning about the company history, the culture, and their work site in advance of their start date.
- 90-day plan: Developed a 90-day plan template to help managers prepare for a new employee’s arrival and support the employee’s success during their first three months. This included becoming connected to their teams more quickly and getting access to the information and resources needed to thrive in their new role.
OUTCOME
“I truly can’t imagine how managers would not see this as positive. Onboarding was a struggle because you had to hunt for information, and now everything is in one location and easy to follow.” – Organization Manager, Fortune 500 computer software organization
The global launch of this program coincided with the onset of the pandemic, yet the majority of the program was created to work well as a virtual experience and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Recruiters acted as change agents to promote this program with managers, and the mobile app, infographic, and digital campaign have proven to be extremely helpful to all audiences of the program.
