A worker’s first point of contact can influence their impression of the company, Lindsay Gainor, vice president of HR and talent management at ServiceMaster Brands, parent company of Merry Maids, Two Men and a Truck, and Two Men and a Junk Trunk, told HR Dive.
That’s why she recommends ensuring every point of contact is transparent and intentional.
“Ask yourself when your onboarding begins. We often think that it starts on day 1, and we think that everything prior to that is pre-boarding,” Gainor said. “Think about it from the time a recruiter picks up a phone and contacts the candidate for the first time all the way through one year and beyond.”
Gainor shared more onboarding insights with HR Dive that she’s gleaned over more than a decade in the people space.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
HR DIVE: At a corporate level, what does onboarding look like?
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Permission granted by Lindsay Gainor
LINDSAY GAINOR: It’s one of those things where you’re truly never done. You can design it, implement it, test it, get feedback and refine it, and then that loop just starts right over again. Information is also changing all the time. What you’re sharing in onboarding is likely to change quite frequently.
The other thing is taking an approach where you have an enterprise-level orientation program with a local feel. For an organization like Two Men in a Truck, obviously we’re franchise, so we don’t do the orientations; our franchise owners do those. But there’s a part of our culture that is alive and well, regardless of if you work in a franchise, from one coast to the other, or even overseas. Allowing a local touch and feel in that orientation is critical, because every location has its own micro culture within it. We see that on the corporate side, too.
What are your tips for managing change?
Try to make it as evergreen as possible, the core content that’s not changing like your company history, the things that are really solid and cemented, keeping that at the core of your content for onboarding. Then anything that may change, like benefits or leadership, keep that grouped together as much as possible. That way, if you need to make changes, you’re not unwinding the entire program and trying to find all the nooks and crannies where that information is embedded.
Also, having it on a maintenance schedule doesn’t sound super exciting, but having a regular review of the content and having one person who owns the maintenance of the program, the delivery of the program, that really helps.
How do you determine if onboarding is successful?
There are obviously some very tangible ways through engagement surveys or different feedback loops that you can implement.
After onboarding, we check in with new hires periodically throughout their first year to gauge how they’re feeling. Who better to give us feedback than the people who just came in our doors? That first 90 days, six months, one year, is so critical. Sometimes new hires might not feel comfortable right away asking their boss or peers if they’re confused about a process or a program, so having those feedback loops and giving those new hires somebody who they can go back to where they can be honest and transparent about what’s tripping them up can be really helpful as well.
How do you ensure new hires’ experiences match their expectations?
The fun philosophical question is: When does onboarding start? It really starts in the first point of contact — the recruiting team — because ultimately one of those people who you contact is going to start with you and that’s their first impression of the company. Are we transparent about the job description? Are we transparent about the team and the organization and the challenges? I think being honest and candid about that is important in the interview process.
We sit down and go through each person’s job description with them when they start to make sure that they have clarity on it.
What are some best practices for onboarding?
Sit down with your talent acquisition team and map out the employee journey from the time that they’re first contacted through their first year, and determine what the touch points are.
Sometimes the offer gets accepted, and then from offer acceptance to day one kind of becomes no man’s land. It can kind of feel like you’ve fallen off of everyone’s radar, so it’s a really great time to reemphasize excitement.
One of the best practices that was ever shared with me was to find out the day that your new hire is going to resign with their boss and call or send a note and say, “Hey, I know today’s probably bittersweet for you, but I just want to reemphasize, we’re so excited for you to join.”
I like to pre-schedule meetings for people when they’re coming on board with important connections for them to make in their first week. I will usually attach their job description and ask the person to share a few people for them to connect with. Schedule lunch with a team. All of those seemingly small things go a long way.
Oftentimes, we try to cram everything in, and we feel like everything is essential on day one. The reality is we’re probably better off if we space that information out.