The employee hiring process is only halfway done when the selected candidate accepts the offer. Appropriate company integration during the first days or weeks is vital for the new hire and company alike. In this regard, having an optimum onboarding program in place is, more often than not, the deciding factor in terms of whether the best person for the job is still there after the first year. Some tech companies are particularly inspiring because of the particular effectiveness of their welcome programs. Let’s now have a look at the five that stand out for different reasons:
1. Google
With over 85 thousand employees worldwide, Google found that incorporating new employees at the team level was more effective than a centralized process. The company uses a just-in-time alert system, which entails a reminder sent to a new hire’s managers to talk with the new hire about one of the five core themes: roles and responsibilities, matching the hire with a peer buddy, assisting in building a social network at the office, setting monthly check-ins for the first half-year or establishing an open-door policy. In this regard, only managers who need to take a step in welcoming a new employee will receive emails via a just-in-time approach.
To learn more about Google’s approach to receiving and integrating new employees, we highly recommend reading Work Rules! Insights from inside Google That Will Transform How You Live And Lead by Laszlo Bock, HR Director at Google for 10 years since 2006.
2. Facebook
The boot camp part of this tech giant’s onboarding process has become legendary. Engineers entering the company get six weeks of ‘training’ before they even know what their jobs will be. New hires roll up their sleeves on the very first day to work on development projects without any restrictions on the structure of the code for this social platform.
They are therefore automatically imbued with the company’s culture and operations, and, moreover, starting from this immersion period, new hires are also given the opportunity to choose a work team that they believe best matches them in terms of interests and skills.
3. Twitter
During the period between the job offer acceptance and the new hire’s arrival at the company, which is referred to as the Yes-to-Desk period, the different departments at Twitter engage over 75 actions. From this company’s point of view, this is clearly the key moment in the onboarding process. In this regard, when new employees finally sit down at their desks for the first time, everything has already been prepared so that their landing at Twitter is as comfortable and seamless as possible. This includes, for instance, ensuring that individuals are matched with a team for lunch to prevent the stress of not knowing with whom they should sit during the first days.
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4. Apple
Before they actually join the company, which usually takes place on Mondays, newly hired Apple employees don’t even know what their job will be. When they actually enter the company, new hires only then receive a full corporate welcome package and their work computer (a Mac, of course), which they are expected to configure themselves, thus promoting interaction with their coworkers. They are also committed to a highly recommended practice for a new employee’s initial weeks at any company: providing new hires with reading material that will help them get up to speed or through the acclimatization process. Apple’s CEO usually sends each new hire a copy of one of his favorite books, namely Competing Against Time by George Stalk.
5. Netflix
Many new hires joining some of the teams in this immense digital audiovisual entertainment platform are usually assigned to large-scale projects from the first day. The actual experience alone is an impetus for motivation and satisfaction, since they can actually see the results of their work in action even before they were expecting. Netflix’s onboarding process also considers further actions that stir up equally positive results: all the new hire’s technological needs are ready before incorporation and a mentor is assigned to dispel doubts and accompany the new hire during the first few days, including requests for resources and a welcome from the top executives at the company.
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In light of the proven leadership of any of these five companies in their respective sectors, it’s obvious that they are investing time and resources into the new-hire welcome process because there is a worthwhile return. Undoubtedly, they remind us of how critical this moment is for any new member of a team at any company.
