Excelling at on-boarding at a new job is a skill as it’s common to change roles every 2-3 years. Here are four areas of risks when on-boarding.
1. Aligning your Strengths & Vulnerabilities to the New Role
While it’s typical to blame an on-boarding failure on the new person, failure is never all about mistakes they made. New hires who have been very successful in past roles, can still fail in a new role. A strength you had a previous role may become a weakness in a new role. Failures occur when:
- a new person doesn’t understand or refuses to accept the true situation they find themselves in (reality may have been portrayed differently during the interviews)
- the preexistence of time bombs
- failure to adapt appropriately to the given situation
2. Failure to Build Sufficient Momentum to Establish your Credibility
Failing to build momentum could result in your credibility being eroded during each interaction or meeting. We either gain credibility or lose it.
As the human body treats a virus, so can an organization treat a new hire. The organization’s immune system instinctively could whip into action to isolate then destroy the potentially killer infection (i.e. You).
3. Not using a Systematic Method in your On-boarding
While every on-boarding is unique, there is a high degree of similarities between them. Make on-boarding a repeatable successful process by creating a framework. Each time you switch jobs, your plan will get stronger.
4. Not Aligning your On-boarding to the Current Phase of the Business
The book The 1st 90-Days introduces the STARS model. Companies, departments, products and/or processes exist in one of four phases of existence:
- Startup mode
- Turnaround mode
- Accelerated Growth mode
- Realignment mode
- Sustaining success mode
STARS model allows you to identify and differentiate between the business cycles you’re in, and its related unique characteristics and challenges. The key is to match your on-boarding strategy to the STARS phase of your company.
Assuming a transition takes between 3 – 6 months, over the course of your career you’ll be immersed in on-boarding for 3 – 8 years. A good practice to get good at it.