A topic that I have been wrestling with in my mind and work for the past two years is onboarding. I am unsure if it’s just me coming out of college and an entirely curated experience, but I see onboarding and continuing to up skill employees, that experience, as one of the key things a company can do.
There is a middle ground between intense corporate trainings and the first day at an unprepared company. Onboarding is not just doing all the paperwork the first day, some swag, and impromptu training. It continues for months. And it should be improving with each new hire. A great onboarding is adaptive. Everyone goes through a similar onboarding the first few weeks for culture and ease of a group, but beyond that depends on the individual.
Big picture, making a great onboarding makes sense. But how do we get there? It takes a lot of upfront work and very small changes as each new question is asked. Onboarding requires curating skills and emotional intelligence. Documentation creep is real at most companies, you will end up with a glossary of 100+ terms and an employee worried they need to read and know every one when really they need to know 5 in their role.
Onboarding and the continuing training of employees is going to be the make or break for employee recruiting, retention and raising them up in the ranks. And what does raising up your employees mean? Getting you more and more out of the work you don’t want to do or are not great at.
Build a great onboarding experience and you can apply that, with some industry content changes, to any other business you acquire or join.
Keeping the endless pursuit of better (The Operator motto) in mind, I will be covering the practicalities of onboarding and my experience over the next year. I don’t have all the answers, but I know I will be having conversations about this with great people.
Please reach out if training operations is your jam or you have any questions.
Thanks to Everest Brady for his help, writing, and research in assembling this week’s newsletter.
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This Week on Think Like an Owner
Daniel Reese is our final guest on the CEO series with early career CEOs. Daniel acquired IntellaTriage in November 2019 after a military career and searching with a distinct thesis. IntellaTriage handles after-hours calls for providers, senior living businesses, and others with a remote nursing team.
Daniel and Alex talk about growing a business that felt very much like a startup early on, advice for new CEOs, scaling teams, and finding a balance in his life as CEO. They also talk about working on submarines, which could be an entire podcast in its own right.
This episode’s sponsored Q&A features Ravix Group, CEO Timi Okah joins to answer the question, “How do you help your clients navigate high interest rates as we have right now?” Ravix Group is a fraction CFO, outsourced accounting, and HR consulting firm serving small and large businesses alike. To learn more about Ravix Group, head to their website and tell them Think Like An Owner sent you.
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