How to reimagine employee onboarding – lessons from the world’s biggest bank

We know that onboarding is often the starting point for many an organisations’ journey towards a more intentional and positive employee experience. It makes sense. A well-planned and executed onboarding experience is the foundation stone for great EX – it sets the tone for a new hire's journey through the organisation, and can significantly impact a multitude of metrics, including engagement, productivity, and retention.

For this week’s EX Space webinar we were delighted to be joined by Toby Sinclair, the former director of employee onboarding at the US-based banking giant, JP Morgan Chase. Drawing lessons from his experience there, Toby explained how a two-pronged approach is vital to succeed – one that carefully balances slick, automated processes with the human touch only people can deliver.

You can catch up on the webinar here, but here are a few of Toby’s key nuggets of wisdom:

Onboarding is not about VR headsets or other emerging technologies. It’s easy to appreciate the quick-fix appeal of shiny new toys, but the reality is that onboarding is a big, messy, complicated network of inter-related processes with multiple stakeholders, new relationships, emotions and so much more. The idea of a tech solution providing a magic bullet to fix all of this is incredibly tempting, but we need to remember that being welcomed into a new organisation is essentially a human experience.

Avoid jumping to conclusions. Insight is vital - you need to take the time to really understand the current experience from the perspective of different stakeholders, not just employees, but the line managers, who are very much the guardians of ‘everyday EX’ for new starters, and subject matter specialists who will support the overall experience, from recruitment, to IT, facilities to talent and more.

Building on the last point, take a genuinely human-centred approach. Spend time with different stakeholders to ensure you avoid assumptions about what will and won’t work. Explore the moments that matter with new hires, and this will help you prioritise where to focus your time and energy.

Use EX design tools to help overcome silos. We know onboarding is a complex and multi-faceted experience with numerous stakeholders and sign offs. Navigating this landscape when you’re trying to make improvements can be a big challenge. This is where EX design tools can really help. Gathering key players together (online or offline) to map the current journey and consider the ideal future experience is a really effective way to get everyone on the same page and working towards a common goal.

Don’t rely on the onboarding survey to tell you how you’re doing. Consider other metrics - such as calls into the help-desk, and retention rates – and explore softer, qualitative insight too.

It's always super helpful to peak behind the curtain and see what real companies are doing in the real world to improve employee experience and engagement. This webinar was full of practical advice, so if you haven’t listened to it yet, please take the time to do so.

And if this is something of interest to you, you might also want to check out this fantastic case study from AGCO Corp - as recently shared in our EX Files live webinar.

And for pro members...watch this space as we'll soon be launching our EX Powerpacks - curated tools, resources and more to give you everything you need to tackle specific EX and engagement challenges....and one of our first packs will be centred around the onboarding experience! We can't wait to share it with you!

So what next?
It's always super helpful to peak behind the curtain and see what real companies are doing in the real world to improve employee experience and engagement. So if you haven’t listened to it yet, sign up to The EX Space for free and access this webinar (and more!) in our knowledge bank...

Or if you're considering our pro membership, then you'd have access to this and more - EX tools, EX training...and if you watch this space as we'll soon be launching our EX Powerpacks - curated tools, resources and more to give you everything you need to tackle specific EX and engagement challenges....and one of our first packs will be centred around the onboarding experience! We can't wait to share it with you!

If you'd like to know more, then get in touch for a tour - as we'd love to show you around!

Reimagine employee onboarding – lessons from the world’s biggest bank