“Take advantage of this day of“ onboarding ”! To begin with, I suggest you “unbox” [ouvrir] votre welcome pack… » It is in these terms that Cédric, the manager, addresses his new recruits. All have in their hands the welcome kit, which seals their entry into the company: the sacrosanct access badge, the welcome booklet with the plan of services, two masks and a vial of hydroalcoholic gel, a gourd eco-friendly and a beer bottle opener keychain, because we’re in a cool box.
” Welcome aboard ! “, he continues. Many companies use the maritime metaphor, or spatial metaphor for the more daring, to welcome newcomers: they speak of “onboarding”, literally “boarding”. While welcoming new people has always existed, onboarding has become a formal step in large companies, born from the observation that a poor reception could be fatal to recruitment. According to a study by Deloitte in 2014, 4% of new employees leave their jobs after a disastrous first day.
At BlaBlaCar, leader in carpooling, we do not skimp on the welcome program fully combined in “BlaBla”. There’s BlaBlaLearn, the company bible, BlaBlaLunch, the lunch organized with people you don’t know, or BlaBlaTalk, a department manager’s mini-conference every Wednesday. But before that, the first three days of integration, which successively combine visits, history lessons and meeting colleagues: the ” onboarding days ».
Codes and references
The embarkation period first aims to understand how the house works, its codes, its landmarks. If Claudio knows where the IT department is, he will be able to fend for himself and feel included. This is how onboarding, theorized by American researchers in the 1970s, is described as « organizational socialization ».
It is also time for the first contacts: “Hello, this is Farid, he is in charge of web development, Farid here is Carla, she is joining us on a fixed-term contract in customer relations”. « Nice to meet you ! » “See you soon then! “ To avoid presentations being too superficial, some companies appoint mentors. The exploration of the passageways obviously goes through the HR department, to sign some papers.
After having identified the departments, offices and a few key people, it is time to familiarize yourself with the culture and values of the company. This is a major issue in onboarding: acculturation. In the shoe sales company Zappos, in the first month, the new employee must choose ten values that represent him, to ensure that it fits the vision of Zappos. If that doesn’t “match”, he can walk away with $ 2,000 (around $ 1,640).
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