The On Boarding Process: First Day in the Office

By Dee Carri, Saturday, 27th December 2014 | 0 comments
Filed under: BPM, SOPs, Operations, Training, Process.

Based on real life scenarios.

Below is an on boarding process from the first day up until 90 days in. In training sessions run by Torque Management, this is sometimes used as an example to begin discussion about the on boarding process. Have you had a similar experience in starting a new job or joining a new organisation? We would welcome comments below detailing your own experiences and will soon be announcing a competition to re-engineer this process for the ideal on boarding steps too. Follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn for updates.

Scenario

I land my dream job “Operational Excellence Director” and it is a career milestone.

The recruitment for the new job took forever, I almost abandoned a couple of times because of delays but it came good in the end. Now, I am seated in the lobby of my new employers premises, all scrubbed up, 20 minutes early and eagerly awaiting the meeting with my new manager, my eight staff and colleagues. It is my first day in the new job.

Here’s what happened.

 

Day 1

8:40 Arrive. Announced my presence to reception and ask for my new manager, Head of Client Solutions.

9:10 Ask receptionist to check if manager has arrived. She says, “He never comes in before 9:30”.

9:30 Manager arrives, it’s clear he had forgotten I was starting today.

9:40 Manager hands me off to one of my staff members as he needs to go to a meeting. I enjoy a nice cup of coffee and am introduced to my other staff, someone loans me a newspaper and I take up a position on the visitor chair beside the PA because my office is occupied.

12:00 Manager reappears... at last. By now, the paper is well digested, including trivia and death notices and I’m glad to see him

12:30 Manager has another meeting but is around long enough to explain the following:

My designated office has not been vacated – I will have to hot desk for a couple of weeks.

The car (A beautiful level 3 car which was selected when the employment contract was signed 10 weeks ago) has not arrived. A loan car will be provided and I can collect the keys from procurement on the 1st floor.

The PC / Laptop have not been ordered – I have no system access. I need to sort that out quickly – IT is outsourced and the helpdesk telephone number is xxxxxx

12:30 Selfishly, I begin with procurement, but they have gone to lunch

14:00 Back in procurement again and get the keys of the car. Great! When I ask about the delivery date for my new car, the helpful purchasing specialist explains that no purchase requisition has been received for a new car. Nor was a request for a mobile phone received – do I need one (I do). My manager is, apparently the go to guy for both of these items.

14:30 Manager back in office, looking hassled. Tells me he is trying to organise my

induction training but HR likes to batch induction sessions (they take a day and are facilitated by an external party). It seems the next one won’t happen for two weeks. I’m guessing it’s just the usual pep talk and health and safety drill and think “ no big deal”. In fact it was a big deal but this I wouldn’t find this out till later. I mention the car and the mobile phone. He says he’ll need to check with HR.

Thinking out loud I say “Better order a business card too” but quickly realise that until I have the mobile phone number and email address the business card order can’t be sent to the printer. The manager agrees but helpfully provides a bundle of his cards, strikes through his name and writes mine over it. “Sorted!” he proclaims.

15:30 Feeling somewhat exasperated, I nab one of my staff and ask them to call the IT

folks and get system access and a laptop moving. They come back with a raft of forms that need to be signed by the Manager. He’s gone to see a customer and won’t be back today.

I spend the rest of the afternoon talking quietly to my staff in the open plan office because there is no meeting room available (and my office is occupied). They explain that things are a bit disconnected in the organisation.

16:55 I book a meeting room for tomorrow.

17:00 I find my temporary car in the car park. It is filthy on the outside and the interior smells like cat pee. Disgusting.

17:50 I arrive home from my first day in the new job. My partner gives me a big hug and asks “how was the first day at the office”

I reply “Great. I’ve set my first priority - I need to meet the owner of the Employee On-boarding process. We’ve a lot to discuss. ”

 

+ 3 days

PC arrived but I couldn’t get access until an IT Information Security Policy was authorised. It couldn’t be authorised until Induction training was completed. Yes, that’s right - it won’t happen for another week and a half because HR likes to batch them.

 

+ 5 days

Mobile phone arrives

Email address assigned

 

+ 8 days

Business card arrive

Induction happens

System access enabled (yipee, now I can work)

 

+25 days

Office is vacated

 

+ 90 days

Car arrives. Wrong colour and no phone hands-free kit installed. I refused to accept it. Major row with my not so new manager

 

+ 8 months

On-Boarding Process is re-engineered, documented and available to all employees.

 

Would you like to share your own experience of an on-boarding processor re-engineer this one? Join us on LinkedIn or Twitter to comment. If you would like to be updated on our opportunity to re-engineer the process as part of a competition, email info@torquemanagement.com.

 



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