Integrating New Employees in the Workplace

Infusing Your Workforce with Mission, Vision and Values

Ok, so let’s say you’ve defined your organization’s mission, goals and values. You spent valuable time and resources in that process, and now there is an alignment between your organization and your employees. Still one challenge remains. How do you transfer that knowledge and alignment to the new employees entering your organization?

 Attracting and recruiting top talent also requires time, resources and capital. But all those resources may be wasted if your organization doesn’t have in place a good new employee orientation program, designed to get the new employees aligned with your organization and up to speed quickly.

The First Week Makes A Big Impression

Research indicates that an employee’s first days in an organization sets the foundation for a successful employee-firm relationship. During those first days, new employees learn habits, form relationships and establish their perception of their role within the organization. The future success of the employee might be dependent on those first days. This is a powerful, vulnerable time in the life of a new employee, and it also represents the most teachable instance that your organization will have to shape the new employee.

 The on boarding process should be a mean to emphasize your organization’s vision, values, goals and policies as well as to provide the new employee with necessary information to start their contribution to the organization. The goals of a good orientation process should be to transfer organization knowledge quickly, highlight the mission and the vision of the organization and how it connects to the individual’s tasks and make the new employee feel at ease.

 Key ingredients for a successful orientation program include:

1.  The orientation process should start before the new employee’s first day. Send a message to all the employees announcing the new hire. Ensure that all the tools and necessary equipment are in place for their first day. Send the new hire an email with information regarding their first day in the organization. This will help them feel welcome in advance.
2. Spread the orientation process over a few days or even weeks. Many organizations make the mistake to try and have the orientation program compressed in one day. This will only add stress to the new employee, who will be overwhelmed with information.
3. Assigned a “go to person” or a type of “mentor” for the new employee, someone that can answer their questions, show them around and formally and informally provide them with information and support.
4. Involve the executive team in your orientation process. This is a great opportunity for the senior executive team to “walk the talk” and emphasize the organization’s mission, vision and goals and strengthen the alignment between your organization and the new hire.  Give new employees the opportunity for an in-person welcome by a senior executive.

The manner in which you handle the acquisition and assimilation of new hires communicates volumes about your organization and your leadership team. A good effective on boarding process will enable and inspire the new hires to deliver better results faster. It will also increase their organizational commitment and your organization’s ability to retain top talent.

Remember–first impressions really count, and will set the tone for the rest of the relationship with your new hires.

Nicoleta Ratiu

SFU Human Resources 2009 Graduate

Community Service Providers Invited

Employment Service Providers Free Networking and Development Workshop

The workplace of tomorrow will be very diverse, comprising individual differences in generations, education levels, cultural, and ability/disability. As an employment service provider, you’re aware of these realities, and are focused on connecting your clients with satisfying work situations.

Through the Tomorrow’s Workplace project, we are supporting the connection of businesses with community groups in order to source and recruit job-ready individuals in Surrey. We are helping organizations explore their “Business Case for Diversity” to help them sustain and grow into the future.

During the workshops and discussions we’ve had with employment service providers, one common theme expressed is their challenge in building relationships with businesses.

Please join us for exploration and discussion

We invite you to join with peers in your community as Dr. Neault and Ms. Pickerell share tips and techniques for building collaborative relationships with the business community. This is about moving forward, taking some risks, and recognizing how employment service providers are uniquely positioned to meet the immediate needs of our business community.

More About the Speakers

Dr. Roberta Neault is president of Life Strategies Ltd., an Aldergrove-based firm specializing in diversity, international/global careers, and career management as a recruitment, retention, and engagement solution.  She is a counsellor-educator at Athabasca, Yorkville, and Trinity Western Universities, and an award-winning keynote speaker, trainer, presenter, and facilitator.

In 2009, working with SUCCESS, she was instrumental in developing a toolkit: SEED: Supporting Employers Embracing Diversity. This comprehensive toolkit guides employers in recruitment, retention, and training a culturally diverse workforce.

Deirdre Pickerell, Life Strategies’ senior consultant, received the BC HRMA Award of Excellence for her innovative work in career management within organizations. Ms. Pickerell is a sought after speaker and an international expert on using career management as an employee engagement strategy.

Meeting Details

YOU MUST CONFIRM YOUR ATTENDENCE – RSVP to Heather Scragg at the Surrey Board of Trade   Email: heather@businessinsurrey.com   Call: 604.581.7130

Wednesday, March 3, 3:00-5:00pm

(network/register 2:30-3:00)

Sheraton Guildford, Surrey BC

Hosted by the Tomorrow’s Workplace project:

Gayle Hadfield, Project Manager,  Lynn Corrigan, Workplace Design Consultant

15th Annual Cultural DIVERSEcity Awards for Business

Gala Event for Diversity – Business to Win Award

Tomorrow’s Workplace is happy to promote the upcoming Annual Cultural DIVERSEcity Awards for Business: April 13, 2010 at the Sheraton Vancouver Guildford Hotel in Surrey, BC.

Businesses from the lower mainland who exhibit leadership qualities in the application of diversity values and practices are eligible for nomination.  There are a variety of business size categories; small business, non-profit, youth-owned, government funded, etc. to insure inclusive opportunities.

Judges will be looking for:

• Cultural Expertise
• Community Involvement
• Employee Initiatives
• Marketing Strategies

For More information, visit their website at DIVERSEcity.

Click here for a quick  FAQ on the event.CDA FAQ

There is an Elephant in the Boardroom!

Some Things Just Can’t Be Ignored!

Politicians, royalty, business owners, charity organizations, and family re-unions can have an enormous beast with a huge trunk in the middle of their lives or boardrooms, and still have a unspoken agreement:

The Elephant is to be ignored.

Imposing as he may be, the obvious problem must be avoided.

The effects can get quite loud and obnoxious, until finally someone has to do something.

The problem is by the time we act, things have usually beccome complex and the web of issues tangled into a chaotic jungle.

Tomorrow’s Workplace has recently launched a new series THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM in an effort to bring to our awareness some of the challenges within the existing workplace.  Our intention to provoke discussion and stimulate what may be lively debate, in an effort to become strategic about solutions.

You can find a listing of the different written posts and videos on our ELEPHANT page.

Enjoy, but not too much!

When the Two Say “I Do”: Marketing Embraces HR

A little used power combination within any organization is a much needed marriage between marketing and HR.

There is no argument that HR must become more strategic in its approach to organizational development. Routine HR functions can be outsourced, freeing the HR practitioner to focus on managing people not paper. Marketing has always been a necessary component of business strategy. When the two functions become aligned and integrated; the result is a sustainable brand. One needs the other to ensure that the brand you build is authentic.

How do the two functions merge to produce a sustainable brand? The key is in authenticity.
Branding is a buzzword that is frequently misunderstood. Let’s begin with what a brand is not. It is not a tag line, nor a logo. A brand cannot be established by changing your letterhead or the appearance of a website. A brand that is sustainable is the essence of your organization – not something tangible. A brand is a promise that must be kept. A brand begins from the inside out. It is the invisible, unreachable heart of your organization that is hard to communicate in mere words. A brand is something that you live every day; not write about in a mission statement or create for an advertising campaign. Branding is emotional. A true functioning Brand is an experience not a thing. For HR to build employer of choice initiatives in order to retain and attract valuable human capital, a partnership with marketing just makes good sense. HR guides the internal experience and marketing guides the external experience. Employees are the link between internal and external – as they influence customer experience every day.
How do you tell if your brand is working?

One immediate measure is employee engagement. A sustainable brand that provides you with competitive advantage and unique positioning is a joint effort between HR and Marketing. A baseline measurement or an engagement survey tells you the most important information you need to know. What is the actual experience of your company? What does it feel like? What emotion does it create in your employees? What emotions are your employees then transmitting to your customers?

To jump-start your organization, here are a few suggestions that enhance both HR and Marketing in their ability to deliver synergistic results.

Strategy Steps

1.    Establish a baseline measurement like the Q12 from First, Break All the Rules. You need to create a qualitative and quantitative baseline to measure the results of your OD efforts (and enhance your credibility as a internal profit-centre).
2.    Ensure that the internal basics are in place before attempting external branding efforts. Do employees know what to do? Do they have the equipment they need to do their job?
3.    Compare your results from your baseline measurement against employee statistics (e.g. turnover, absenteeism, stress leave).

4.    Examine your recent marketing efforts. Does your marketing reflect your internal reality, your actual corporate culture; or is it a fantasy produced to hopefully attract customers? (Such a fantasy alienates your employees and is a major source of disengagement).

5.     Create an internal focus group from a cross-section of the organization. If you feel that your culture lacks trust, bring in someone to facilitate the discussion and compile the results.

6.    Have the employees review the marketing campaign. Does it produce hysterical laughter? scorn? disbelief? agreement? empathy? commitment? passion?

7.    Where are the disconnects? If your employees don’t believe in the marketing campaign – what do you think they will deliver to your customers?

8.    Get a sense of your organizational experience. What do you stand for and why do you exist? What is your core ideology? What does your product or service mean to your employees? Do they care?

9.    Start reading (yes, recommendations are coming) to get a sense of where a strategic approach to HR and marketing can take your organization.

Employees Must Believe
If you want your employees to fully engage in their work, give them something to believe in, an ongoing story that they are part of and one that results in feelings of pride and accomplishment. In order to retain valuable human capital, your first customers should be your employees. A sustainable brand starts within. That is why the function of HR is now more important than at any previous time in the history of organizations. The function of HR is to protect and support the heart and soul of the organization. Only then do you have something to give to your marketing department. Only then can you build a brand.

Each employee should be able to answer two questions with pride and commitment.  What do we stand for?  Why do we exist?

These questions form the foundation of your brand, the essence of your lifeblood as an organization. Without answers to these questions, you are leaking valuable human capital as well as bottom line profitability. Jim Collins calls it a hedgehog; we call it simply a Core Ideology. It is the foundation for creativity in business. When employees can answer these questions with a sense of pride, you have full engagement.

To create a brand experience requires the participation of employees.

To gain commitment to such participation, the employees must believe in the Brand. If you are looking for ‘buy-in’ from your employees, you have already missed the mark for what are you attempting to ‘sell?’ Your internal brand experience must produce authentic value for your first customer, the employee. If there is no value for the employee, you have much work to do before attempting an external marketing campaign.

It All Starts with a Story

How to create and sustain a brand experience? Look to the ancient art of storytelling. What stories do your employee’s tell about your organization? What is your corporate mythology?

First, just like in traditional storytelling, you need to set the stage, to define the current situation in an insightful, coherent and clear manner. You need to be able to honestly describe ‘what is.’ Your baseline measurement. The starting place for your journey.

Next, again just like storytelling, what challenges are being faced? What untapped resources and talents are available to meet these challenges? Engage your entire employee – not just the small part that fits a current job description. What creative employee gifts are hiding in your organization? This is the ordeal phase. Difficult but necessary. Talent management calls for finding hidden talent that is not being utilized.

Finally, how can you overcome these challenges by capitalizing on employee’s untapped strengths and hidden potential? What can they bring to the brand experience? What do your employees need in order to fully engage in this story? The power to change is fuelled by commitment—emotional engagement anchored in lived experience. This is what will make you an Employer of Choice.

When you have accomplished these three objectives, you will have something worthwhile to take to market. Every life—and every organization—is mythic territory. The realm of story is the realm of actual lived experience. That is why the gift of story has carried the human race since the beginning of time. The essence of that story is what marks you as an Employer of Choice and also carries your Brand Experience. To create a sustainable brand experience – start from the inside out.

Dr. Ginger Grant

For more from Dr. Ginger Grant visit her website

More Articles available at:

University of Manchester Blog on Transforming Management:

Tomorrow’s Workplace: Mission, Vision and Values

Applying Mission, Vision and Values in the Tomorrow’s Workplace Project

One area our team is continually promoting to business and community providers is the overall importance of a clear mission for the company or organization, the subsequent vision that accompanies it, and the values that drive it.  To illustrate we asked our Project Director, Mr. Bill Beatty, to outline the MVV for our project and demonstrate what it looks like.

Mission

Tomorrow’s Workplace Partners and Team provide a container that focuses creative, practical, and logical skills on developing resilient small and medium sized businesses, reflecting a diverse workforce, demonstrating strong community support.

Vision

Surrey is a nationally recognized community where business, government, and service organizations collaborate, around the Surrey Board of Trade, to create a vibrant local economy based on sound business practices, community-supported sustainability, and employment representative of the diversity of its workforce.”

Values

The Tomorrow’s Workplace collaborative believes:

♦        Business values community

♦       Community partners will change what they do and how, if it makes personal, professional, and spiritual sense

♦        Local government, educators, and service organizations value business

♦        Business drives community wealth and stability

♦        The entire community benefits when businesses employ citizens reflecting our diversity

♦        Everyone in Surrey wants to see business success

♦        Small and medium sized businesses need community based support to thrive

♦        Surrey can be a model of business  development for our province and nation

♦        The Surrey Board of Trade is a leader in innovative business and community practices

♦        Tomorrow’s Workplace is a key resource for business and community

♦        Together we will succeed

What is A Business Strategy?

To Be Successful in Business, There Must be A Working Strategy

Stragetic outline is crucial to your business success.  It’s your roadmap, you chosen path, you contingency plans, your plan B, C and includes the “run for you life, every man for himself” plan. 

Once a company has a plan, the next step is to communicate your strategy in effective ways to your employees, partners, suppliers and customers.

The first place to start is to answer some of the following questions.  You might find this excercise helpful with a consultant or third party facilitator who will ask the next questions: why, what if, why not, and who says. 

Before you call the board of directors or your management team, begin working with these foundational strategic questions:

• Direction: where is the business trying to get to in the short and long term.
• Markets: Which markets does the business compete in and what kind of activities are involved in such markets?
• Advantage: How can the business perform better than the competition? What’s their competitive edge?
• Resources: What resources (skills, assets, finance, relationships, technical competence, and facilities) are required in order to be able to compete?
• Environment? What external, environmental factors affect the businesses’ ability to compete?
• Stakeholders: What are the values and expectations of those who have power in and around the business?

 Where do you run into roadblocks?  How have you communicated your strategy to the game players in your company?  Your comments are always welcome and others will benefit from your perspective.

Business and Community

Communities Offer Help for the Business Sector

Many small and medium size businesses follow their business plans, mainly concentrating on their products, customers and their vision for success. However, businesses often overlook or underestimate the importance of the community they operate in. Organizations seem to operate in a silo, missing the important resources communities have to offer.

Communities form around geographic locations and they usually have shared values, culture and trends

There are some easy ways to get to know and understand your community better. You can start by connecting with your local Board of Trade and the Chamber of Commerce. Ensure you interact and network with other businesses to find out the trends, opportunities and challenges. This shared interest networking will help your business.

Connect with the local educational institutions

Schools can provide qualified potential employees, which are already members of your community and have a good understanding of its trends and characteristics. By being informed and understanding the specific environment your business operates in, you will be able to be more proactive, better serve your customers and consequently have more opportunity for business growth into the future.

 Nicoleta Ratiu, SFU Business Graduate and Tomorrow’s Workplace contributor

Leading Change

Change Needs a Focus

The Real Deal on Change

There’s a popular belief that people resist change. In reality people don’t resist change–they resist being controlled. People have predictable concerns with change that once identifies, can help valued employers shape their plans to support individuals through business growth and all the changes that brings.

Here’s the inside information on six predictable concerns that can hinder successful change implementation. With this understanding, you’re set to shape your future with employees who are on board.

1. The first predictable concern is information concern. People want to know why the change is needed and what needs to be done. They don’t want to be sold on a plan, but they want to understand the necessity of change. Tell people what is it that you know, that if they knew, they will come to the same conclusion. If people know what change agents know, understand what they understand, they will be less resistant to change.
2.  The second concern is personal concern. People want to know how the change will impact or benefit them. Will they, as individuals, win or loose as a result of the change? If personal concerns are not addressed, people will be more resistant to adopt change, and they will tend to revert back to their old behaviors once they have the chance. 
3. The next concern is implementation concern – the logistics of the change. They can understand the business need, the personal benefits, but they need to know the steps in the change process and the available resources in case things won’t go as planned. It is important to provide them with information about who can answer questions and provide them with assistance in case things don’t go as smooth as anticipated.
4. Another concern is impact concern. People want to know how much of a difference the change will make. If the three previous concerns are successfully attended to, you won’t need to design details of the impact concern. Your people will provide you with feedback and tell you what’s making a difference.
5. The fifth concern is collaboration. More than just addressing everyone’s concerns, involve employees in the changing processes, and they will help you move the change forward.
6. The last concern is refinement. Source continuous feedback and make adjustments along the way. Make the journey together.

 If change leaders understand these concerns, they can anticipate and address them, and facilitate an informative change process. Concerns are not necessarily negative, they are merely unanswered questions.

The key to addressing those concerns is a high involvement strategy. You need to give people an opportunity to have their voice heard. If people are involved in decision making and they feel they contribute to the change, they will be less likely to resist it. “People who plan the battle, rarely battle the plan.”  Go forth.

 Gayle Hadfield; Nicoleta Ratiu

Apply Now: Be Chosen for Tomorrows Workplace Business Consulting worth $30,000

The  business candidates chosen for Tomorrow’s Workplace project receive an extensive portfollio of business consulting with a value of approximately $30,000.  To be considered for the project you must supply a written submission that should not take more than 30 minutes to complete. 

All entries must be received by Jan 18, 2010.

Read more about the success of the project with initial candidates:

  Analyitic Systems  and Full Line Specialties. 

The application process is straightforward.

STEP  1

Compose an email with the following components:

1. Your name, Business Name,  Website Address, email address for contact, and phone number of contact person.

2. Tell us how many employees you currently employ. (Eligible candidates must have 11+full-time employees)

3, Write a paragraph or two about what your business provides, how long you have been in business, what are your basic strenghs and where you believe you need help to grow your business.

4. Tell us why you would like to be selected.  How would you hope to benefit and what changes would you expect to see in your business operation?

All information submitted will be held in the strictest of confidence, and with all legal privacy mandates. Only staff members on the Tomorrow’s Workplace team will have any access to the material provided.

STEP 2

Send your information to: Gayle Hadfield; Project Manager @ gayleh@telus.net

STEP 3

Each applicant will be contacted either by email or telephone within 48 hours.

Thank you for your interest.

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