Consistent positive onboarding experience across 7 offices in Central Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa and Turkey

Challenge: In the summer of the year 2008, our company introduced a hiring program with the objective of increasing the number of sales people in the field sales organization by 20% of EMEA sales headcount. The intention was to extend offers to the selected candidates during the autumn 2008 in order to get the new hires to the company between November 2008 to February 2017. In absolute numbers, our company was about to hire approx. 400 new sales employees.

The growth of 20% of headcount was not evenly distributed across EMEA. For the emerging markets gathered under the region of Central Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa and Turkey (abbrev. EXCOM), the allocated headcount was disproportionately higher as opposed to mature markets in the Western Europe (as EXCOM was expected to experience higher growth in demand and number of customers). EXCOM headcount in sales was expected to be on average 35%, with some of the offices growing as high as by 50%. The major number of new hires was expected to start in December 2008 and January 2017 (standard notice period in the region being 2 months, standard time to find, interview and hire a suitable candidate being 3 months, the hiring kicked off in early August 2008).

This steep headcount growth posed a particular challenge in EXCOM (as opposed to e.g. the Western Europe) due to the fact that the sales offices in EXCOM are small - on average around 25 employees - with no support functions (such as receptionist, office manager, internal IT, HR or finance) present on site locally. This means that any new hire that comes on board presents a tough load for the local team - who needs to help the new hire set up not just business-wise, but also from the perspective of setting up computers, email, entry cards etc.

Because the onboarding experience is of crucial importance for the first impressions and engagement of the new hires and their long-term retention in the company (as studies suggest1). Therefore, myself as the Human Resources Business Partner for the EXCOM region and the leadership team from EXCOM agreed that we must structure and scale our onboarding process in a way that will create a “Consistent Positive Onboarding Experience in the region”.

Selection: Because the onboarding process is a relatively complex issues consisting of multiple steps and multiple stakeholders acting as part of it and also because we had a lot of different qualitative and quantitative, but quite inconsistent and unstructured data, we decided that the best approach to sort all the information and engage all the relevant stakeholders would be Mind Mapping. We leveraged a combination of live whiteboard session with various virtual sessions (as the offices are quite far - spanning from South Africa to Moscow - so a workshop in one location would not be feasible). By leveraging mind mapping as opposed to a normal roundtable

1 http://www.chambers.com/wp-content/app/categorieshomepage.jsp

debate we were hoping to come up with some creative, out-of-the-box smart ideas as the participants will be building on each other's ideas.

Application: We had multiple mind-mapping sessions with various mixed groups of stakeholders. When inviting the stakeholders, we were paying attention to get together as diverse group as possible - for example managers and individual contributors, people from different offices, employees freshly hired to the company (less than 1 year in the company) and employees with more than 5 years in the company, men and women, different nationalities, different departments and different work experience (juniors, senior professionals, employees who came from start-ups as well as from industry giants…). During each session we started from the new hire and mind-mapped how this new hire experiences RH. I printed out results from historical onboarding surveys, comments from employee satisfaction surveys etc. While people were discussing, I was capturing the ideas into the mind-map (either on the wall, please see image below) or virtually in a drawing pad. With each group we had 2 sessions. The initial, when we drew the main mind map, and a follow up session, when we reviewed the mind-map and discussed actions/ideas that we may carry forward. There were on average 6 people in one group and we had 4 groups in total.

Insights: By applying the mind mapping and engaging a broad and diverse group of stakeholders in the activity, we were able to identify a lot of areas that were not covered by the corporate onboarding programs and at the same time were identified as very impactful for the onboarding experience. The visual map in front of us enabled us to see some not very obvious relationships between the various onboarding elements and based on these relations, we were able to identify 8 different small projects that we could do in order to improve the onboarding experience across the EXCOM offices without impacting negatively the workload of the employees in the offices (e.g. gathering new hires into virtual cohorts across the whole EXCOM and create for them virtual practical chats with e.g. operations or the EXCOM leadership etc.).

Thanks to the collaborative approach we were also able to get quite a few volunteers willing to assist with the identified projects - I consider this willingness to help as another positive outcome of the mind mapping activity. People were able to get their voice heard and this created an alignment and additional engagement. On the negative side, this whole exercise was obviously way more time consuming than the usual way (round table discussion, followed by management decision), but overall very rewarding. Also, as a by-product, we identified a couple of gaps and obsolete information in the global onboarding process - which we reported to the global talent team.

Approach: I think the mind mapping tool was the right one for this purpose. We were also considering mapping the customer journey (in this case simply following one of the new hires through his or her onboarding) - but, eventually, we leveraged the experience of the fresh new employees as part of the mind-mapping groups, which was more efficient. The activity was very bonding for the team and the element of visualisation helped to trigger a deep and detailed discussion about how are elements of onboarding related.


Consistent positive onboarding experience across 7 offices in Central Eastern Europe , Middle East , Africa and Turkey Challenge : In the summer of the year 2008 , our company introduced a hiring program with the objective of increasing the number of sales people in the field sales organization by 20 % of EMEA sales headcount . The intention was to extend offers to the selected candidates during the autumn 2008 in order to get the new hires to the company between November 2008 to February 2017 . In absolute numbers , our company was about to hire approx . 400 new sales employees . The growth of 20 % of headcount was not evenly distributed across EMEA . For the emerging markets gathered under the region of Central Eastern Europe , Middle East , Africa and Turkey ( abbrev . EXCOM ) , the allocated headcount was disproportionately higher as opposed to mature markets in the Western Europe ( as EXCOM was expected to experience higher growth in demand and number of customers ) . EXCOM headcount in sales was expected to be on average 35 % , with some of the offices growing as high as by 50 % . The major number of new hires was expected to start in December 2008 and January 2017 ( standard notice period in the region being 2 months , standard time to find , interview and hire a suitable candidate being 3 months , the hiring kicked off in early August 2008 ) . This steep headcount growth posed a particular challenge in EXCOM ( as opposed to e.g. the Western Europe ) due to the fact that the sales offices in EXCOM are small - on average around 25 employees - with no support functions ( such as receptionist , office manager , internal IT , HR or finance ) present on site locally . This means that any new hire that comes on board presents a tough load for the local team - who needs to help the new hire set up not just business - wise , but also from the perspective of setting up computers , email , entry cards etc . Because the onboarding experience is of crucial importance for the first impressions and engagement of the new hires and their long - term retention in the company ( as studies suggest1 ) . Therefore , myself as the Human Resources Business Partner for the EXCOM region and the leadership team from EXCOM agreed that we must structure and scale our onboarding process in a way that will create a “ Consistent Positive Onboarding Experience in the region ” . Selection : Because the onboarding process is a relatively complex issues consisting of multiple steps and multiple stakeholders acting as part of it and also because we had a lot of different qualitative and quantitative , but quite inconsistent and unstructured data , we decided that the best approach to sort all the information and engage all the relevant stakeholders would be Mind Mapping . We leveraged a combination of live whiteboard session with various virtual sessions ( as the offices are quite far - spanning from South Africa to Moscow - so a workshop in one location would not be feasible ) . By leveraging mind mapping as opposed to a normal roundtable 1 http://www.chambers.com/wp-content/app/categorieshomepage.jsp debate we were hoping to come up with some creative , out - of - the - box smart ideas as the participants will be building on each other 's ideas . Application : We had multiple mind - mapping sessions with various mixed groups of stakeholders . When inviting the stakeholders , we were paying attention to get together as diverse group as possible - for example managers and individual contributors , people from different offices , employees freshly hired to the company ( less than 1 year in the company ) and employees with more than 5 years in the company , men and women , different nationalities , different departments and different work experience ( juniors , senior professionals , employees who came from start - ups as well as from industry giants … ) . During each session we started from the new hire and mind - mapped how this new hire experiences RH . I printed out results from historical onboarding surveys , comments from employee satisfaction surveys etc . While people were discussing , I was capturing the ideas into the mind - map ( either on the wall , please see image below ) or virtually in a drawing pad . With each group we had 2 sessions . The initial , when we drew the main mind map , and a follow up session , when we reviewed the mind - map and discussed actions / ideas that we may carry forward . There were on average 6 people in one group and we had 4 groups in total . Insights : By applying the mind mapping and engaging a broad and diverse group of stakeholders in the activity , we were able to identify a lot of areas that were not covered by the corporate onboarding programs and at the same time were identified as very impactful for the onboarding experience . The visual map in front of us enabled us to see some not very obvious relationships between the various onboarding elements and based on these relations , we were able to identify 8 different small projects that we could do in order to improve the onboarding experience across the EXCOM offices without impacting negatively the workload of the employees in the offices ( e.g. gathering new hires into virtual cohorts across the whole EXCOM and create for them virtual practical chats with e.g. operations or the EXCOM leadership etc . ) . Thanks to the collaborative approach we were also able to get quite a few volunteers willing to assist with the identified projects - I consider this willingness to help as another positive outcome of the mind mapping activity . People were able to get their voice heard and this created an alignment and additional engagement . On the negative side , this whole exercise was obviously way more time consuming than the usual way ( round table discussion , followed by management decision ) , but overall very rewarding . Also , as a by - product , we identified a couple of gaps and obsolete information in the global onboarding process - which we reported to the global talent team . Approach : I think the mind mapping tool was the right one for this purpose . We were also considering mapping the customer journey ( in this case simply following one of the new hires through his or her onboarding ) - but , eventually , we leveraged the experience of the fresh new employees as part of the mind - mapping groups , which was more efficient . The activity was very bonding for the team and the element of visualisation helped to trigger a deep and detailed discussion about how are elements of onboarding related .