9
DRIVING
IMPLEMENTATION—FROM
BLUEPRINT TO IMPACT
In 2008, we helped strategy and technology consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton as it set out to renew its onboarding system. This rapidly growing firm of 22,000 employees works with clients, including government agencies, corporations, institutions, and not-for-profit organizations to “deliver results that endure.” Booz Allen considers its employees its most valuable asset; therefore, attracting, developing, and retaining talented people is essential to the firm’s mission.
Diagnostic analysis of Booz Allen’s redesign showed that though many employees were enjoying their work, they felt less emotional connectedness (what we call “valued connectedness”) with the company than management would have preferred. The firm’s rapid growth, accompanied by a dispersed workforce, created obstacles and inconsistencies in onboarding processes and programs. Recent and unprecedented growth also challenged the scalability of Booz Allen’s existing onboarding processes, technology, and systems. To support the firm’s operations while balancing significant growth demands, the onboarding redesign team realized it could cut its recruitment demands (i.e., reduce the number of new hires it would need) and costs if onboarding protocols helped employees more effectively and rapidly understand their roles, become productive, and recognize their value. The team also concluded that the new processes should incorporate a concept for better connecting the aforementioned off-site staff as well as helping develop a bond with Booz Allen itself that would ultimately add value and reduce attrition.
A number of ideas circulated as to how the firm might improve the onboarding experience for new hire intake. Proposals included fostering more consistent experiences among new hires, doing more to help experienced hires understand the culture, and building early wins with structured networking opportunities. Booz Allen dedicated considerable resources to the diagnostic phase of its redesign, working to assemble a representative team that cut across functions, business units, and geographies. This core team focused on formulating hypotheses and gathering internal data that was then analyzed to help prioritize the opportunities. Over time, a collective vision of a new onboarding program that would better serve the firm took shape. Executive Vice President and Chief Personnel Officer at Booz Allen, Horacio Rozanski, spoke of priorities and vision for the new program: “Developing an onboarding program that captured and conveyed the culture of Booz Allen was paramount. It is critical to us that our new hires understand and internalize the firm’s core values.” The redesign team eventually concluded that cosmetic changes to specific onboarding program elements were unnecessary, and that the more significant opportunity involved enhancement of Booz Allen’s basic relationship with new employees.
Booz Allen has long distinguished its employer-employee compact by providing hires an opportunity to work on challenging, high-impact/important projects—a distinction reflected in the firm’s strong employment brand. In fact, the company had won numerous awards for its employment value proposition.1 Still, the team realized that if they could expand this compact and offer hires even greater support, then hires could realize an even greater sense of the opportunities available as part of a career at Booz Allen. Their loyalty to the firm would increase and attrition would decrease. Booz Allen’s new onboarding program would be designed to not only show new hires all the resources available to support their long-term development; it would also provide significant value during the first year by offering experiences that engaged them on these issues. Additional value would come via associations and a sense of community that the onboarding program would nurture among the firm’s 22,000 highly talented employees, who represent an array of skill sets and expertise. If onboarding could foster meaningful connections between new hires and Booz Allen colleagues, the hope was that new hires would be happier working at the firm, and therefore perform better, provide more value to clients, and ultimately drive business growth.
It’s one thing to come up with clear program objectives, but quite another to implement change. The latter requires a solid project management effort that addresses the business case created during the diagnostic phase, translates it into a coherent blueprint, and executes on this blueprint. As we have discussed throughout this book, onboarding can only attain the Onboarding Margin if it’s fully systemic rather than a series of standalone tools and programs. The complexity of changing and integrating business processes while still maintaining business operations requires thoughtful blueprinting and an ongoing effort to gain organizational buy-in around the blueprint. Just as an architect tasked with redesigning an entire building drafts formal plans to help organize all the changes that renovation will require—while simultaneously gaining stakeholder and building owners’ support for those changes—so too must change agents within an organization execute a formal and detailed plan. This is critical to identifying the key issues and achieving success. This chapter offers some general advice for bringing onboarding redesign efforts to fruition, using Booz Allen and its award-winning onboarding redesign as an illustrative example.
Creating a Blueprint
In Booz Allen’s case, development of a blueprint took place after a critical second phase of the diagnostic process: Stakeholder Analysis. Upon gaining consensus around program opportunities and objectives, the team began work documenting the requirements of each stakeholder group mapped as essential for Booz Allen to more successfully onboard new hires. Given the organization’s size and complexity—the firm has more than 45 regional offices across the United States that serve three markets and span more than 15 different business areas—the list of requirements reached into the hundreds. It quickly became apparent that most of these line items didn’t actually drive new hire excitement or create new strategic value for the business. Rather, many of them were administrative items that merely needed to be addressed—important tasks, but not the essence of what makes onboarding desirable for a business.
Booz Allen’s cross-functional working team (with participants from each of the business units and from different levels within the enterprise) was divided into six separate teams, each responsible for drafting its own version of what an improved onboarding experience would look like. As a result of this approach, the organization minimized a rush to “group think” around possible answers, thus expanding the number of fresh ideas and approaches. Each team represented deep company expertise as well as unique experiences relevant for tackling the opportunity. Although the teams performed some external benchmarking, they put far more energy into understanding Booz Allen’s operating conditions, culture, resources, and business plan than to mimicking what other firms had done with similar programs.
The teams presented their ideas to each other and created a process for selecting the best ideas and designing a cohesive story line for the new hire. A plan was created—the program blueprint. In general, program blueprints provide the overarching design architecture documentation for an onboarding program, enabling all design and stakeholder participants to coordinate along a single, comprehensive design. Possessing a single design ensures that all elements support the intended objectives. In our experience, the most successful system redesign efforts start with a clear plan and vision of what the future state will look like. They also articulate a timeline and demonstrate how the organization will meet its goals.
The blueprint defined onboarding for the new hire and the hiring manager and determined the timeline for onboarding. It included a detailed outline of all new hire activities, tools, technologies, and resources the firm would offer as part of onboarding. It also explored how onboarding would integrate, in a systemic fashion, with other human capital programs and the firm’s overall business processes. An outline of resources required was included, as was a detailed budget and straw man overview of roles and responsibilities. Aimee George-Leary, Director of Learning & Development at Booz Allen, spearheaded the blueprinting activity. “A comprehensive blueprint enabled the team to gain a shared vision of the future state of onboarding while also acting as a tool to allow our stakeholders visibility in the program goals and objectives.” The blueprint described the findings from the diagnostic and connected each of the pieces of the new onboarding program to specific objectives and evaluation metrics. This blueprint was then socialized outside of the working team to secure early buy-in and feedback. Team members were enthusiastic about presenting the overall work product, and leadership embraced their approach as an important investment that would benefit the firm, which was now going to address longstanding challenges and create an even more effective engine to drive future growth and attain business objectives.
When designing blueprints, it’s critical to approach the exercise as if you were designing a set of architectural drawings for a building renovation. The initial pages paint the picture at a high level, while subsequent pages cover specific areas in greater detail. With these architectural plans in hand, key stakeholders can efficiently review and refine the structure while team members building the program can ensure that the building’s integrity is maintained even as reconstruction takes place.
Since redesign efforts often require an iterative process of consensus building, it’s important for the blueprint to capture the high-level consensus around objectives that the diagnostic phase produced. As a designer, you can do this by including the matrix described in the last chapter that maps organizational goals against current program shortcomings. You can also create a document that describes the conditions and constraints, the program opportunities, and target outcomes.
Booz Allen used this document to illustrate the core objectives that surfaced during the diagnostic:
• A consistent program experience
• Increased affiliation with Booz Allen
• Increased employee engagement
• Reduced time to productivity
• Reduced attrition
Realizing that new hires were having different onboarding experiences, the redesign team decided that Booz Allen should implement more consistency across onboarding efforts. The team also learned that participation in existing onboarding program elements was lacking in certain areas of the firm, so the onboarding program blueprint needed to address the underlying deficiencies, include measures to help hiring managers recognize the value of onboarding, and outline a plan for producing high-quality content that manifestly added value. Finally, the program needed to improve productivity by giving hiring managers the resources and guidance they needed to have more meaningful conversations with new hires during the first year, covering issues and topics that the diagnostic work revealed as being important.
In addition to objectives, the blueprint should also reflect agreement about the new program’s scope. Given the nature and extent of an organization’s diagnostic findings and available resources, it may not be possible to tackle a full Year One program redesign for new hires across all areas and levels of the business. Being overly ambitious in a redesign effort can dilute the impact of proposed enhancements or cause them to fail outright in meeting overall program objectives. Companies can also benefit from identifying what they consider the gold standard and make incremental improvements against achieving something similar; both the finished product and interim steps and gains along the way should appear in the blueprint. Numerous ways to segment redesign efforts exist; Booz Allen’s work on this front was largely focused on prioritization based on impact as determined by the detailed diagnostic process. Organizations can choose to focus on certain categories of new hires (e.g., campus hires, field employees, corporate, etc.), certain new hire levels or functions, certain business units, certain geographies, or certain phases of the Year One program.
Once teams have a strong understanding of program objectives and scope, they can go on to create the high-level program blueprint. Booz Allen’s team started with the four-phase framework outlined in Chapter 2 and defined objectives for each stage, incorporating the principles outlined in Chapters 3 through 6. Booz Allen’s high level blueprint (Figure 9.1) broke down early orientation into two phases (firm-wide versus local). Note the clear distinction between the firm’s existing program and the new onboarding program.
Program designers should take care to modify and update timing and objectives to fit an organization’s core business cycles and other specific operational needs. Next steps can then focus on cataloguing the full range of design options that will meet objectives in each phase. Booz Allen’s experience also illustrated the importance of early efforts around fostering creativity and putting forth as many ideas as possible; teams can prioritize and vet later. Inspiration can come from best-in-class and peer company programs, suggestions from recent new hires, pure creativity on the part of design teams, or consultation with outside advisors.
Figure 9.1 Future State Program Structure
Next steps at this point in the process include adopting design thinking methodologies (e.g., empathetic design, observational research, etc.). To help with brainstorming or organization, teams can perform a Retained—Added—Done differently—Eliminated (RADE) exercise, which includes brainstorming phase-specific program elements that should be Retained in existing form from the current program; Added to the current program, as an entirely new item; Done differently than it’s done today, but retained; and Eliminated from the existing program. These decisions should of course be made with the framework determined as a result of the diagnostic.
For each program element, teams can also conduct an Impact Exercise that determines each business process that touches it. This can allow you to determine where and how to integrate the program into the fiber of the enterprise’s core functions and operations, thus increasing the program’s systemic nature. As designers, the ultimate goal here is to create a program that appears distinct from the rest of the firm and its processes only when the blueprint or navigational aide is pulled out and it is possible to see how the program fits in with the larger business system.
After creating a working list of design options, teams can prioritize them, making sure that each activity, tool, and resource generated links to a specific phase objective; that it can be measured; and that it can be successfully implemented. It’s also important to remember: Just because a “best practice” onboarding activity works for a leading-edge program doesn’t mean it will conform well to another company’s culture or business system or satisfy their specific highest priority onboarding objectives.
The prioritization exercise involves allowing for trade-offs between impact and ease of implementation. Many teams choose program activities, tools, and resources whose initial implementation is possible but that cannot likely be sustained over time. Booz Allen relied on a prioritization matrix to begin comparing the relative feasibility and value of particular design choices. Many program redesigns look to combine “low-hanging fruit” and more ambitious, high-difficulty/high-reward elements. Other efforts focus on designing and implementing quick wins and then move on to the more challenging program elements once they’ve realized cost savings or gathered more organizational support. Teams can benefit from determining which specific criteria to use as the basis for prioritization. As Vince Gonzalez, Senior Employee Development Manager at Booz Allen, notes, “Organizing our program design elements, and collaborating on determining priority across our variables, allowed us to balance quick wins, ease of implementation, and high impact to create answers we not only felt good about but also intuitively knew would have positive and lasting impact on the process we were trying to improve.” Upon conclusion of the exercise, what results is a series of “best bets” using the prioritization matrix, which can then be selected for the program blueprint.
In determining priorities, it’s also often helpful to incorporate input from a champion member of the organization’s broader leadership. Senior executives have preferences when it comes to onboarding elements, and including them when possible facilitates organizational support for the entire effort. Political considerations aren’t the optimal criteria for making prioritization decisions, but in the real world support from a top leader can make the difference between the overall program’s success and failure. As a caveat, program designers should ensure that the team doesn’t compromise and pivot priorities around an element that the diagnostic shows will have a limited impact. This can mean a team might not achieve the initial results that will allow for implementation of more important and costly program elements over time.
Booz Allen’s design team emerged from the prioritization process with a decision to implement the program in four distinct phases, introducing the most critical program elements first and then building on these items in the following three phases. The team divided introduction of the four pillars across the four phases, designating in each phase whether there would be “light,” “medium,” or “heavy” concentration (from a design and deployment perspective) on that content area in a given phase. Under this model, each deployment would build on the progress of the prior one. Assignment of program elements to an earlier or later phase reflected a number of considerations, including whether the content area was a steering committee mandate, where it resided on the prioritization matrix, and whether other elements not yet considered required introduction of this particular element first. Light elements were easily deployed foundational elements that would meaningfully enhance the current program; medium elements were incremental elements that added functionality to the program; whereas heavy elements were final-phase elements that delivered a gold-standard onboarding experience and offered the promise of delivering the Onboarding Margin.
In creating a blueprint, teams should proceed to outline specific new hire activities, tools, and resources that will support each program phase. As further support for the program design, effective blueprint documents for any organization development system should include:
• New program objectives
• A clear link between the design and current program deficiencies
• Enhanced program phase elements
• Expected outcomes
• An integrated work/build plan (by wave and implementation timeline)
• A governance and operations model (overview and guiding principles)
• Systems and technology requirements
• A change management and communications plan
• A summary of high-impact changes and framework with stakeholder messaging
• A detailed business case for change, including an ROI calculation
• A governance/operations model
• An outline of roles and responsibilities for initial and ongoing initiative personnel
• A program development budget and preliminary ongoing program delivery budget
• Program metrics and associated measures
In Booz Allen’s efforts, the main body of the blueprint specified the new program brand (what the program should express and accomplish, not just the logo and tag line), the program phases, the group owners, the high-level metrics for evaluating program success, and the change management strategy. It also included a Timeline Activity Matrix outlining activities organized by our four recommended program areas of Cultural Mastery, Interpersonal Network Development, Strategy Immersion, and Early Career Support.
One final part of blueprints worth highlighting is the detailed governance and operations model. Booz Allen opted for a centralized structure framed around a formal “Center of Excellence.” An appointed lead person oversees operations and metrics for the program, assisted by a number of other individuals responsible for pieces of the program. A firm-wide orientation manager designs and oversees the ongoing orientation strategy, oversees coordination of Firmwide Orientation (e.g., panelists/speaker scheduling, etc.), and ensures a smooth transition between firm-wide orientation and local office orientation. A pre-arrival manager designs the ongoing pre-arrival strategy and oversees portal content updates, touch points, and technological notifications and handoffs. A local team orientation manager designs and oversees ongoing local and team orientation strategy, ensuring consistency and facilitating program-related communication between regional managers. Regional strategic HR managers partner with local and team managers to ensure regional and team needs are actively met. They also work with managers in local offices and teams to coordinate local events and ensure participation in regional events (Figure 9.2).
Figure 9.2 Onboarding Center of Excellence
Booz Allen’s blueprint included provisions to monitor and measure progress on an ongoing basis. The blueprint specified the collection of objective and subjective data from program pilots, the engagement of program participants in conversations to extract critical feedback, and the deployment of surveys that measured stakeholder participation, new hire engagement, job readiness, and productivity. Additionally, a comprehensive metrics dashboard would be monitored on a regular basis to ensure that program performance met the needs of new hires, frontline managers, and the firm. Data sources for the enhanced program metrics dashboard would include participant survey data (new hire surveys, hiring manager surveys), human capital analytics data (new hire attrition and demographics data), new hire portal user data (percent of new hires accessing site, usage trends, etc.) and other data (course enrollment statistics, benchmarking data, etc.).
Tips for Successful Blueprinting
• Determine what matters—Focus on goal setting and performance metrics
• Design through the lens of new hires and managers
• Inform yourself—If you lack design experience, educate yourself and get informed via articles on design concepts and methodology
• Embrace customization—All new hires are not the same, so content should be tailored accordingly
• Integrate well—Consider the impact (and opportunity) on other programs and processes
• Be realistic—Articulate the risks of proceeding under the status quo
• Be flexible—Consider options for how much to take on, not just “gold standard”
• Quantify opportunity size in meaningful terms to your stakeholders
• Answer “What will it take to get the job done?” and ask for resources
• Answer “What will it take to sustain?” and ask for resources
• Design to help the business areas achieve their business objectives
• Ensure that executive champions are onboard before proceeding
Developing Program Content
When attempting to develop content based on your blueprint, consider the full range of tools, technology, resources, and content elements required to deliver the program seamlessly. Assemble a content development team that includes representation from across the organization. Many organizations assemble a less representative team, and this is unlikely to yield the best results. At a minimum, we recommend creating a part-time advisory committee with representatives from each business area or function, instructional designers, the IT department, field members from HR, and a representative from facilities. The business area representative should not only bring to the table the “local” culture of their respective business areas, but also the business goals of those business areas.
To realize the Onboarding Margin, think about how this class of new hires can help the business area achieve its mission, and build around that. We also recommend including in advisory roles: A leader from the company (and business unit) strategy group; the chief talent officer; regional talent delivery leads; recruiting leaders; functional and business unit HR or learning leaders; and an internal communications leader.
With content design underway, designers should take care to leverage existing HR programs to the extent possible. While existing programs will often need enhancement or updating to reflect the guiding principles of the new onboarding initiative, they can serve as an excellent starting point. If you haven’t yet done so as part of the diagnostic process, take inventory of all existing HR programs and materials, including training modules, performance review systems, mentoring programs, firm social events, orientation content, and Web content, and think about linkages between these groups and activities. Often, we see pre-existing links between onboarding and learning and development, recruiting, human resources, and training programs. Identify opportunities to include locally owned initiatives within the larger onboarding umbrella.
Having touched on the importance of customizing onboarding to specific new hire segments, at this point in the process it’s important to develop a baseline of content that serves as a basis for knowledge and is common across all new hire groups while also identifying content that needs to be tailored to the needs of certain key new hire segments. Organizations should pay special attention to groups of employees it has more difficulty recruiting as well as those who fall into “feeder roles” to senior management positions. Offering program elements to one group of new hires and not another can prove sensitive. Ideally, everyone would receive the full range of premier services, but the reality is that the size of your content development team, your time-frame for producing new content, and the cost of delivery will require prioritizing segments that would most benefit from customized material.
Given the large number of participants who typically assist with content development, it’s critical to outline roles and responsibilities for everyone at the outset. With roles and responsibilities clear, the team can begin identifying materials needed for each constituency to deliver against their responsibilities. Mapping delivery roles and responsibilities also addresses frequent pain points, such as key handoffs between onboarding constituencies or decisions around centralized vs. business unit/function delivery of content. Figure 9.3 provides a sample of breakdown of roles and responsibilities by phase.
Figure 9.3 Onboarding Delivery Model
Similar to Booz Allen’s, successful onboarding initiatives tend to develop and pilot new content in progressive stages. Staging allows for greater efficiency by encouraging content development to take place for upcoming reviews even as key stakeholders are reviewing previously developed material. Staging also prevents teams from taking on too much at once, allowing for learning opportunities and gaining momentum over time.
Figure 9.4 First Phase of Four-Stage Program Rollout
Developing content in stages can also make budgeting for and financing a systemic program more feasible. Figure 9.4 shows Booz Allen’s activities for the first phase of its four-stage program rollout. Notice how the firm broke down development activities by onboarding phase, focusing on pre-boarding and orientation.
Given its concern with new hire valued connectedness, Booz Allen’s first stage featured a revamped first-week new hire experience that highlighted the connections among Booz Allen employees. The company determined that the value of connections within the firm acts as a proxy for the value of connection to the firm. Using interactive and simulation-based learning activities, new hires explore a range of content around the firm’s mission, sources of differentiation, core values, and ethics. New hires also learn how the firm is structured and what its mission is in serving clients. New hires collaborate with one another in teams of five or six, navigating the content by engaging in activities, scenarios, and knowledge sharing. These teams work together much as they will in the real workplace—as a diverse group of staff from all levels and areas of expertise. A simulation called “Engage” immerses learners in a realistic consulting engagement preview, teaching them what to expect during a typical client assignment (an important “first”). A workshop called “Your Career, Your Legacy” explores critical factors for a successful 6-month assessment. New hires also build a social impact map to represent their evolving personal network, and they begin creating a personal development and integration plan for their first 6 to 12 months. A new hire portal supports the experience, providing guidance and modular learning activities on key firm-related topics as well as introductory videos from senior leaders.
When developing content, it’s important to develop a clear plan and the underlying materials to support change management within the organization. A best-in-class approach to change management and internal communication requires soliciting input from onboarding stakeholders early and often. Input mechanisms such as a cross-functional steering committee can help gather detailed design and program input. Keep in mind that reviewing and incorporating this feedback is likely an iterative process. Nevertheless, collecting regular input throughout the process of executing a blueprint is critical if diverse stakeholders are to buy into a truly systemic program. Consider developing a regular “news cycle” about the onboarding initiative. During the development phase, team members should develop documentation that the team can use during program implementation to inform the broader organization about the initiative’s goals and likely impact.
In Booz Allen’s case, the enhanced onboarding program was communicated as part of the firm’s two-year People Strategy Initiative. “It is critical not to short-change the investment of time and resources an effective communication and change management strategy will require,” advises Chris Holmes, Program Manager of Onboarding at Booz Allen. “Be intentional about your communications to stakeholders across your organization: a comprehensive communications plan will begin informing a small but key group of senior stakeholders at the onset and become progressively more broad, complex and detailed as program development progresses.” The Booz Allen team leveraged both top-down and bottom-up communication vehicles (memos, meetings, webcasts, firm intranet, etc.) to market and increase awareness of the program. The firm’s onboarding program was also communicated throughout the organization via development and release of a video piece. To further the external employment brand, the initiative is being widely marketed through the Booz Allen web site, webinars, conference presentations, and articles in HR and Learning and Development publications.
Piloting and Implementing Your New Program
Like any major program rolled out across a large organization, a strategic onboarding initiative should roll out after the design team has sufficiently piloted the program. These pilots can take place concurrent with ongoing content development to allow ample time to collect feedback and make changes before broad scale implementation. Organizations can choose to pilot in selected regions or business units, by phase or new hire type. During the first stage of its redesigned program roll out, Booz Allen piloted new program elements with three separate groups of about 30 new hires each, each group spaced a month apart. The first group received the firm’s new, week-long orientation (including simulation-based learning activities), the second received the new orientation plus a new pre-boarding experience, while the last group received new iterations of both these program elements.
During and after pilots, the design team should gather feedback not only from new hires, but from all relevant stakeholders. The design team, and ideally the stakeholders, should observe and analyze all onboarding activities delivered in the pilot and converse with process owners and new hire support personnel. They should also conduct surveys and focus groups with new hires and new hire managers. By observing the pilots, the design team can determine what works and what doesn’t, what delivers the greatest excitement and offers the greatest educational value, and what elements are not being delivered as intended. Design teams can also use the pilots as a chance to provide feedback to and coach individuals responsible for delivering the program. Many of these individuals will continue to play a role in the onboarding process after implementation, so engaging with them now can enable them to develop better delivery expertise.
Piloting in select locations or among specific new hire segments can allow teams to benchmark pilot performance for the enhanced program relative to areas of the organization that still receive the old program. Consider whether new hire satisfaction is higher or whether specific program elements can be improved to increase new hire satisfaction.
In Booz Allen’s case, the piloting phase offered important guidance. Overall survey results surpassed expectations and yielded glowing responses (e.g., “I normally hate this stuff, but I had fun and learned a lot!”). Yet respondents also pointed to elements of the firm’s new program that needed improvement, such as information on Booz Allen’s functional teams, which was perceived to be too scarce. Program designers also learned that they needed to update their messaging to clarify learning objectives behind program components. Ratings from the second pilot group surpassed those in the first group.
Pilots enable you to test not only content, but also those operational processes that will support the program over the long term. Chris Holmes observed that pilots were critical for successful implementation at Booz Allen: “Once our content reached a certain point of maturity, we were able to increase the aperture of the pilots to include technology and process support. Increasingly more complex pilots broadened the scope of our test-bed to include other functions such as technology, recruiting, and help desk support.”
During the pilot stage’s second half, design teams should begin preparing to implement the program operationally across the broader organization. Prior to the broader rollout, teams need to create an implementation task force to help coordinate change management and training for process owners (e.g., recruiters, hiring managers, mentors, etc.) and support personnel. The implementation task force should begin pre-implementation activities during the pilot phase to ensure that no momentum is lost between the pilot stage and implementation.
As pilots are concluding and the implementation team is rolling out the program, it’s critical to again return to the task of change management. For this purpose, the implementation task force includes a communications leader who can educate the organization about the program. This person should maintain strong connections with senior management, since ensuring the support of organizational leadership is vital to success. Many communications leaders choose to adopt a top-down approach, communicating the onboarding message to senior leaders in business units or functions who then pass on information about onboarding to program managers, role players, and other experienced employees.
At Booz Allen, the implementation team developed a compelling “road show” presentation that brought the message to key local offices once the team had secured buy-in from the organization’s key stakeholders. The presentation was given in person at around a dozen offices with large populations of incoming new hires and by webinar at an additional 14 offices. “The road shows provided crucial early buy-in from stakeholders and senior leadership across the business,” notes Holmes. “However, and perhaps more importantly, these sessions also served as a means for establishing an essential channel for ongoing communications and feedback with our regional counterparts across the country.”
Results
Within a year from the start of the diagnostic phase, Booz Allen’s program was off the ground and running. The firm had established a new welcome portal to foster pre-arrival activities, revamped its firmwide orientation, and initiated internal efforts to get diverse stakeholders behind onboarding. With these measures in place, the program had already met several of its goals and business objectives. Results from new hire surveys and interviews indicated that the online portal and the enhanced program curriculum were contributing to increased levels of new hire job readiness and engagement. More than 95% of survey participants acknowledged the program’s positive impact on their impression of the company, reinforcing their decision to join Booz Allen. New hires note that they feel “fully prepared to do business with clients and co-workers and fit into the Booz Allen culture after coming through this course.” A full 96% of participants rated the enhanced onboarding curriculum, ROI, instructors, and program logistics higher than comparable components of the firm’s legacy onboarding program.
The firm also saw productivity gains associated with increased new hire job readiness levels. Doug Carter, Senior Vice President at Booz Allen, remarks that “new hires emerging out of this new onboarding program are some of the most prepared I’ve seen in years. Their understanding of the complex Booz Allen structure, our service offerings, and our methodologies and approaches ensures that we are able to deploy them swiftly to client engagements with the assurance that they will be able to effectively meet client demands.” A four-hour instructor-led orientation class was converted into digital, interactive content available on the portal—eliminating instructor costs, participant travel costs, printing costs, and facilities fees. Other savings yielded from the portal include the elimination of printing and mailing costs associated with the new hire welcome packet, which is now available online for all new hires the day they accept their employment offer. Additionally, the portal’s automation of new hire data collection has yielded substantial process and labor cost savings.
Based on early data, Booz Allen expects its program will improve the firm’s retention rates. Reduced attrition will likely result from the enhanced onboarding program as early as Year Two, since new hire decisions to stay or leave the firm typically occur at the end of the first year of employment. In 2010, the firm won a Bersin Learning Leaders Award for Excellence and an ASTD Excellence in Practice citation for this onboarding redesign. Without question this effort has made an impact on its employment brand and is paying dividends.
Booz Allen’s enhanced onboarding program was successful for a variety of reasons. First, key stakeholder involvement during the design process generated early initiative acceptance and adoption. “Our process of socialization and vetting not only the completed products, but also the work in progress allowed us to incorporate real-time feedback, ensuring our program sponsors’ and stakeholders’ recommendations and direction was fully integrated. Ultimately this streamlined the design and development process and added significant value to our work,” notes Vince Gonzalez. Second, using a waved approach to development, piloting, and implementation permitted the organization to adopt specific gold standard best practices while ensuring ROI gain and continuous organizational momentum and support throughout the process. Third, development of program governance, provisioning, and administration frameworks and support tools contributed to ensuring consistent delivery of a high-quality onboarding experience for new hires.
What sets Booz Allen’s onboarding program apart from other similar initiatives is the program’s integrated and systemic approach, which leveraged existing integrated technology platforms and performance management systems at the company. By making use of Booz Allen’s existing social media tool, the onboarding program encourages new hires to network with their colleagues. Furthermore, deployment of an online new hire portal streamlines program processes and eliminates the need for paper-based welcome kits and automated data collection. Meanwhile, a cohesive identity defined the program, promoting accountability and participation and creating value for the new hires, their managers, and the firm in general. Most importantly, managers are given instructions and tools on how to engage their new hires, drive their progress, and raise their awareness of potential pitfalls. One manager at Booz Allen indicates that the revised onboarding program “takes a more holistic approach to the process. Before, onboarding was narrowly focused on one thing—firmwide orientation—and that was it. We lost sight of the big picture. Now, there is a whole host of tools and activities for new hires and Frontline Leaders that should occur before and after firm-wide orientation throughout that first year.”
Summing Up
All of these results were possible because Booz Allen was willing to invest in the right diagnostic. The firm took the time to develop a systemic approach, reflected in a comprehensive blueprint, and it executed methodically around that document. As this chapter has laid out, companies can realize success more readily by organizing onboarding design efforts around a clear plan. Otherwise, organizations may fail to realize the full extent of their Onboarding Margin. Booz Allen devoted substantial resources in terms of time and energy to craft its blueprint, but if your organization lacks these resources, don’t panic. We’ve participated in success stories with some organizations working with fewer resources. The most important thing is a robust diagnostic, a commitment to drive change, a creative vision of what your institution can accomplish via strategic onboarding, and a strong resolution to get the job done.