Onboarding Recent Graduates
(5 minute read: Coaching People is a Powerful Act of Kindness)
May brings on a number of things in the world; flowers, pollen, backyard gardens, and the end of college spring sessions. That means it’s internship and recent graduate onboarding season. There should be greeting cards for this time of year. I get excited about it because in my academic and professional career I have been the recipient of great training/ onboarding/ mentorship and coaching and most of those experiences started around this time of the calendar year.
Enough nostalgia, let’s focus on building better people and better sales organizations, fast. The purpose here is to lean into the leadership work to be completed prior to someone’s first day with your sales organization so put on your thinking caps and grab a piece of paper to capture your notes and organizational thinking.
Onboarding systems are as important as the onboarding process. Your system for onboarding should include the following at minimum, and they all should be written and used systematically:
A defined interview process (# of interviews/format/timeline/etc)
Job Description with a Compensation Structure
Role Based Key Responsibilities and Measurements
Onboarding Plan Document with time based milestones
Structured/Planned Review Points for Feedback and Adjustment. (This applies to leadership for the new team member and the new team member directly) It keeps everyone on the same developmental page.
One of my learning points as a Fractional leader who has hiring and coaching responsibility for multiple companies is that these systems serve as checklists in the same way sales processes in CRMs or GAAP rules for accounting guide teams to repeatable and reliable results. Systems, when used, prevent miscommunications, keep priorities in focus and are adaptable and flexible when adjustments need to happen.
If you are reading this and have a loose system or just a system in your head, write down your hiring process in no more than 5 stages with timelines. I use this template and adapt it based on the role, company size, and industry:
First: Leadership arrives at agreement on hiring for a role
Leadership agrees to the Job Description, Minimum Job Requirements, and Key Results Areas before the role is posted or resumes are accepted or wages are discussed.
Stage 1: Phone/Virtual screenings (2 weeks after job posting, max 20 candidates)
Stage 2: In person meeting/screening & format (1 week, 5 canidates)
Stage 3: Assessments (top 3 candidates day after final in 1st in person meeting)
Stage 4: Executive Interview ( top 2 candidates no more than 3 days after assessment complete- virtual or in person)
Stage 5: Offer (max 4 days to accept)
Having a plan allows the internal team to manage the process in addition to their existing job duties and systemizes expectations for the hiring process. It’s useful to approach onboarding and 30-60-90 day plans in this same way as well as the leadership and the new hire 90-day formal reviews.
If you are looking for this type of systemized leadership to help elevate your business’ growth potential and prevent hiring catastrophes, I bring thinking like this with my consulting experience.
IF you are asking yourself “Why should I do this?”, just go to Glassdoor.com and read how so many companies don’t do these things well and it costs them talent, potential, and lots of dollars when they have to hire the same role 3,4, or 5 times before they get someone to stay in the role long enough to figure out how to do the job with moderate effectiveness.
Your business deserves more than moderate effectiveness, let’s build better organizations that perform at higher levels. And, let’s start
Happy selling!