February 16, 2023 • 15 mins
If you've got a new employee joining the team, there's no time like the present to ensure they get off to the best start possible! With experience-based onboarding, both employer and employee benefit from an engaging first-day boost – not only is it more likely that the new hire will enjoy their first days on the job, but companies reap the rewards in terms of better-integrated staff members in less time. Join host Shari Simpson and guest Andre Mayes as they examine why experience-based onboarding might be just what your organization needs.
Guest Bio: Andre Mayes, Program Manager Organizational Learning, Paylocity
Andre is a Program Manager in Organizational Learning and has been with Paylocity for eleven years. Andre has spent the last eight years of his career in Learning & Development, researching how to engage and retain talent in today's workforce; designing some of the most impactful programs in our Operations space. Now working on Paylocity's onboarding strategy, he spends his time working with leaders across the business to design and build one of the most comprehensive employee onboarding programs in the business.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
(upbeat music)
- Hey, and welcome to "PCTY Talks."
I'm your host, Shari Simpson.
During our time together,
we'll stay close to the news and info
you need to succeed as an HR pro.
And together, we'll explore topics around
HR thought leadership, compliance,
(00:22):
and real life HR situationswe face every day.
(upbeat music)
Joining me today on thepodcast is Andre Mayes.
He is a program manager
in our Organizational LearningDepartment here at Paylocity
and he is a jack of all trades
when it comes to new employeeorientation and onboarding.
(00:42):
So Andre, thanks for joining me.
- Oh, for sure, Shari.
Thank you for inviting me.
- So we have spent a lot of time here
trying to figure out the best combination
to bring employees on board
and get away from that idea ofcompletely overwhelming them
and/or just making it,frankly, really boring.
And so Andre has spent alot of time in that space.
(01:04):
So I wanted to talk throughkind of what we've done here
and how we've approached
new employee orientation and onboarding.
But to set the stage, I thinkit's good for us to understand
when we talk about onboarding,what do we specifically mean?
So let's start there, Andre.
How do you define onboarding?
- Thank you, Shari.
That's a really good question.
So what we've kind of defined at Paylocity
(01:26):
as far as onboarding is really
kinda starting with thepre-boarding process, right?
So when the employeereceives that offer letter
and they are going tojoin the organization,
what does it look like?
How are they going toreceive their communication
and how are they going to movethroughout the organization
throughout their career?
So when we think about it,it's the pre-boarding process,
but it's the idea of getting the employee
(01:48):
immersed into all of Paylocity's cultures
and understanding the different values
that we represent as an organization
and ultimately, so thatthey could see their path
through their organization.
So a lot of our team members
come in as entry-level employees.
So to be able to see where I could go
within the organization by using my skills
and my talents andalign them to my purpose
is essentially how we've kind of outlined
(02:10):
and defined onboarding here at Paylocity.
- And our onboarding program
is pre-boarding through first year?
- Yeah, first year.
And we even take that throughlike the first 24 months.
So we've provided resourcesto kinda set the employee
with the resources andthe tools that they need,
but for them to be ableto kinda take their path
(02:30):
at their own pace.
- How did we land on what we think
is important to get right?
And the reason I ask that question
is 'cause I think that there'slike the check-the-box stuff
and then there's thecreating an experience.
So when we think about getting it right,
what is it that we're thinking about
we need to nail correctly?
- So it's really importantto get it right, Shari,
(02:51):
because, so what are we chasing?
What is the goal?
What are we ultimatelytrying to solve for?
And so what we were finding
was that the workforce today is changing.
We needed people to be more connected
with the organizationthat they're going into.
And so if you think ofprevious generations
where it was more so "I come to work
and I get my check and I go home,"
today's workforce is completely changing,
(03:11):
especially with the introductionof those Gen Zs, right?
So how do I find my purpose?
How do I find the skillsthat I have as an individual?
And how can I align thoseto the organization's values
and to what the organization stands for?
So it's important to get it right
to make sure that we maintainthe employees that we have
and we retain the talent thatwe have as an organization
(03:32):
to continue to grow asquickly as we have, for sure.
- When you started to tackle this project,
and I'll be fully transparent,
we've tackled this project many times
in many different ways over many years.
You know, I've been here six years
and we've done it atleast three or four times,
but I do think this last time
we finally got the secret sauce.
- I hope so. (chuckles)
(03:52):
- So how did you approach, I mean,
I guess get really tactical.
How did you approach designingour onboarding program?
Because it's such a big endeavor
and for those listening, I'dlove for them just to hear
what are the things you consider,
what are some of the obstacles
and what are the wins that you had
as you were thinking aboutputting this program together?
- Yeah, so as I said, like retention
was really the biggest factorthat we were going for.
(04:15):
And so in order to retain the talent,
in order for us to makesure that people saw
what we were as an organization,
especially with the growth that we have
in the organization that we're in,
we wanted to be able to maintainthat culture in some way.
Obviously, culture, beingdynamic, is always changing.
But we wanted to kinda bottlehow people were feeling
when they first startedwith the organization.
(04:36):
So we really went to everybusiness unit within the org
to really get an understanding
of what their team members were missing.
And so there are a lot oftactical things, obviously,
knowing where things are,
knowing where different resources are
for them to be able to besuccessful in their roles.
But what was really missingwas really the ability
to feel that I am apart of something bigger
or to feel that the role that I came in in
(04:59):
isn't the role that I needed to
or that I have to retire with, right?
So what do I need?
Or how could I navigate myselfthrough this organization?
So after we found outall those tactical things
that all of the differentdepartments needed,
we really wanted to getdown to the feeling.
What did we want our team members to feel
and to kinda explore within themselves?
And so we really focused on the purpose.
(05:20):
And that's reallysomething that's important,
as you've heard it
in many different casesacross the workforce today,
finding your purpose is super important.
And once you've found that,and once you've found that why
and understand what you'redoing and what you need to do,
then you can really go out
for those roles and opportunitiesthat are really for you.
And so that's what we did.
We took the tactical pieces,then we took the feeling,
(05:42):
what did we want people to feel?
And then we started
then started getting the restof the organization on board.
What did they need to do
in order to make sure ouremployees were feeling seen
and feeling that they hada place here at Paylocity?
- I like that approach becauseI think it wraps your content
around how do you wantthe employee to feel
as they walk away in that moment.
(06:03):
And that doesn't mean
that you're still not gonnado the check the boxes
around like where do I find my paycheck?
How do I do direct deposit?
How do I sign up for benefits?
Where do I find all those resources?
You can do that in a way
where now there's anemotional attachment to it
and it's gonna have better retention
just from a knowledge perspective.
So I really like thatwe took that approach.
(06:23):
As you've iterated on this program,
or as you've led this program
over the last couple years,how are you measuring success?
Are you looking at turnover rates?
Are you looking at promotions?
How have you guys decided tomake sure that this program
is indeed working the way wethought it was gonna work?
- Yeah, for sure.
So this is a little bitof a challenge, right?
Because this is somethingthat hasn't been done
(06:44):
in the organization, sowe don't have any stats
or any data to hold any of our results on.
So we really needed to make sure
that what we put in place wecould put in place for a while
so that we'd be able to measure
and see what we needed to change later on.
But what we're trying to solve for
are some of the questions that come up
in various employee surveys
or there's "I don't have a path,"
(07:04):
or "I don't see a futurehere at Paylocity,"
or "I don't know what my resources are,"
"I don't know where things are
to make me feel successful in my role."
And so by surveying our team members
and kinda getting a better understanding
of what they need andwhat's important to them,
we've kind of put these things together.
And so from there, we'llmeasure the success
and we'll take a look
at maybe a journey of oneof our employees, you know?
(07:26):
We'll say employee A went tomaybe these different workshops
and it allowed them to feel this way
when they were able toapply for different roles
in the organization or whatnot.
So the measurements are a lotbased on the employee feeling
and the employee sentimentacross the organization,
but allowing the employeeto have their own journey
and understand that the resources
(07:47):
and tools are there for them.
- How often are you surveyingthose that participated?
Because one of the things I've found,
when you're trying tounderstand the effectiveness
of your onboarding program,
it's almost like you can't go back
and ask previous employeeswhat their experience is
because you're only gonna experience
new employee orientationor onboarding one time.
(08:09):
So there's specificmetrics you've looked at,
turnover being one of 'em.
Is there other metrics you look at?
- Yeah, Shari, so we lookat the employee sentiment
with their manager.
Do they feel that they have aconnection with their manager
or do they feel that their manager
has their best interest in mind?
Or they look at, wemeasure how they're feeling
when they start with their team.
So a lot of our employees gointo new employee training
(08:32):
for a number of weeks
and then they then reunitewith their team members.
So we wanna make sure
that when they reunitewith their team members,
it's a smooth transition
when they move into theactual organization.
And so it's a little tricky at times
when you think about measuringhow the employee feels
at certain points,
but it's really aboutasking the right questions
at the right time, right?
(08:52):
So obviously working withthe different business units
and figuring out whattheir initiatives are
and aligning the survey questions
to a lot of what theirbusiness units are doing,
but ultimately trying tofigure out what we need to do
from a organizational perspectiveto make them feel, again,
that they're connected to the organization
and that they do seea future here with us.
- That makes so much sense,
aligning the questions at the right time.
(09:13):
Because you might have somebody
who's joining your organization
that has six weeks of training
and you might have somebodythat has a week of training.
So if you ask that samequestion at different times,
you might get wildly differentor inaccurate answers.
So I appreciate that little nugget.
As you've gone through this program,
how have you iterated alreadyon what you've created?
(09:36):
- That's been a huge undertaking, right?
So if we think about Paylocity,
we almost brought in 3,000employees last year, right?
So trying to manage theprocess has been a bit tricky.
We've had a lot of hands in the pocket.
We've got the necessaryhands that are there.
And what's important to us is making sure
that we are taking thefeedback from the surveys
(09:57):
that we're receiving from ournew hires when they start,
we do a survey right whenwe complete new hire,
new employee orientation,
just to make sure that we've hit the mark.
And so we make adjustments by there.
So one of the biggestchanges that we've made was,
you know, benefits is always tricky
with different organizations, right?
So when you're introducingbenefits to your new hires,
a lot of the new hiresmake it about themselves.
And so if you're havinga team of 40 new hires,
(10:20):
it's really difficult
to answer all those benefits questions.
And so what we've done
is we've implemented abenefit scavenger hunt
where the team members could really
just kind of go throughall the different resources
that we have available for benefits.
And to top that off,we've actually opened up
benefit office hours thathappens the Tuesday after NEO.
And so what happens is wehave our benefits team,
(10:41):
we have about two or threeof their team members
that come in, and any newhire that has any questions
about any of their benefit selections,
they're able to go in andhave any questions answered,
have any questions answered,
and have our team membersbe able to support them
as they select their benefit options.
So different things throughout the program
that we've changed
to kinda really supportthe employee journey
(11:01):
and making sure that they haveeverything that they need.
- And it just goes to show
that there is a one size fits one approach
to things like benefit offerings.
Like you mention you cover it,
but then you also offer this opportunity
for those that have additional questions.
'Cause I suspect, if you'resomebody like you and me
who's been in the workforce a long time,
we might not need that extra handholding
(11:23):
when it comes to benefits.
But if it's your first time
or if it's a more complexbenefit environment,
you have that opportunity.
So I think that's definitely something,
if you're listening, to consider.
How do you bring a more personal feel
to your onboarding program
and some of the check-the-boxitems that you have?
As we wrap our conversation, Andre,
if you think about where you started
(11:45):
and where you're at today,
what are maybe a couple pieces of advice
for somebody who's juststarting down this road
of, "Hey, I need to redo my onboarding"?
- Yeah, you know, Shari,
I love this question because for me,
when I came into this position,
it was a little overwhelming.
And so if you think about what we have
from an organizational perspective,
(12:07):
we had a bunch of differentteams that were trying to solve
for the onboarding issuethat we had across the board.
And so with the amazing opportunities
that we have here at Paylocity,
we really kinda unleashall of our employees
to go figure it out on their own.
And so one of the biggest challenges
was to really get everybody aligned
to really this one strategy on onboarding.
And so that was one of thebiggest challenges that I had.
I built relationships allthroughout the organization,
(12:29):
but still, those thatare really passionate
about what they've been working on
had been really resistant towards it.
So what I would say is, hey,
when you're approachingsomething such as onboarding,
especially for the organization,
it could seem like a bit overwhelming.
It could seem likeyou're boiling the ocean
and you really are in a lot of instances.
But I'd say break it down into phases.
That's what I had to do
(12:49):
in order to really makeit digestible for me.
And so phase one
was really getting allthose relationships built,
getting everybody aligned,
making sure that everyone understood that,
"Hey, I'm going to take whatyou all feel is important
for your spaces, butI'm also gonna bring it
to an organization level as well."
Once I had that, I was ableto then start phase two,
which was every department,
(13:10):
really getting into theirbusiness, really understanding
how those team memberswere coming on board.
What are your team members missing?
What do they need?
What do you feel is missing?
Phase three was really, now,
revamping a lot of the initial tools
that we built as an organization.
So we started off on this journey
and so now we needed toiterate on some things
because it had been a little bit
and we had gotten tons of feedback
(13:31):
from all the differentworking sessions that we had
as an organization.
Phase four is now what we're going into
as an organization now is the,
we're evangelizing thisall across the board.
We're getting all the leaders on board,
we're getting everybodyexcited about this.
Now we start really honingin on those measurements
because now all of the different resources
that we've created as an organization
are really now startingto come into existence.
(13:53):
And now we're really able tosee this program come to life
and really transform our organization.
So what I would say isbreak it down into phases,
really give yourself some time,
really come up with a project plan
that you could align yourself to,
and then have fun,really, because this is a,
I've had an amazing timebuilding this program.
- I love the phases.
I love the idea of breakingit down before you get started
(14:15):
so you're not just puttingband-aids here and there, right?
You're having a plan.
And your organization might decide, "Yeah,
I don't wanna necessarily havea feelings-based onboarding.
I might," like, there'sso many options out there,
but scoping the project in advance,
such great advice, Andre.
Thank you so much for all of that
and all the work that you'redoing here at Paylocity
(14:36):
to help bring our employees on board.
I appreciate you.
- Thank you, Shari.
Thank you for havingme and I've enjoyed it.
- This podcast is broughtto you by Paylocity,
a leading HCM provider that frees you
from the task of today
so you can focus more onthe promise of tomorrow.
If you'd like to submit atopic or appear as a guest
on a future episode, email usat pctytalks@paylocity.com.
(15:00):
(bright music)
(upbeat music)
- Hey, and welcome to "PCTY Talks."
I'm your host, Shari Simpson.
During our time together,
we'll stay close to the news and info
you need to succeed as an HR pro.
And together, we'll explore topics around
HR thought leadership, compliance,
(00:22):
and real life HR situationswe face every day.
(upbeat music)
Joining me today on thepodcast is Andre Mayes.
He is a program manager
in our Organizational LearningDepartment here at Paylocity
and he is a jack of all trades
when it comes to new employeeorientation and onboarding.
(00:42):
So Andre, thanks for joining me.
- Oh, for sure, Shari.
Thank you for inviting me.
- So we have spent a lot of time here
trying to figure out the best combination
to bring employees on board
and get away from that idea ofcompletely overwhelming them
and/or just making it,frankly, really boring.
And so Andre has spent alot of time in that space.
(01:04):
So I wanted to talk throughkind of what we've done here
and how we've approached
new employee orientation and onboarding.
But to set the stage, I thinkit's good for us to understand
when we talk about onboarding,what do we specifically mean?
So let's start there, Andre.
How do you define onboarding?
- Thank you, Shari.
That's a really good question.
So what we've kind of defined at Paylocity
(01:26):
as far as onboarding is really
kinda starting with thepre-boarding process, right?
So when the employeereceives that offer letter
and they are going tojoin the organization,
what does it look like?
How are they going toreceive their communication
and how are they going to movethroughout the organization
throughout their career?
So when we think about it,it's the pre-boarding process,
but it's the idea of getting the employee
(01:48):
immersed into all of Paylocity's cultures
and understanding the different values
that we represent as an organization
and ultimately, so thatthey could see their path
through their organization.
So a lot of our team members
come in as entry-level employees.
So to be able to see where I could go
within the organization by using my skills
and my talents andalign them to my purpose
is essentially how we've kind of outlined
(02:10):
and defined onboarding here at Paylocity.
- And our onboarding program
is pre-boarding through first year?
- Yeah, first year.
And we even take that throughlike the first 24 months.
So we've provided resourcesto kinda set the employee
with the resources andthe tools that they need,
but for them to be ableto kinda take their path
(02:30):
at their own pace.
- How did we land on what we think
is important to get right?
And the reason I ask that question
is 'cause I think that there'slike the check-the-box stuff
and then there's thecreating an experience.
So when we think about getting it right,
what is it that we're thinking about
we need to nail correctly?
- So it's really importantto get it right, Shari,
(02:51):
because, so what are we chasing?
What is the goal?
What are we ultimatelytrying to solve for?
And so what we were finding
was that the workforce today is changing.
We needed people to be more connected
with the organizationthat they're going into.
And so if you think ofprevious generations
where it was more so "I come to work
and I get my check and I go home,"
today's workforce is completely changing,
(03:11):
especially with the introductionof those Gen Zs, right?
So how do I find my purpose?
How do I find the skillsthat I have as an individual?
And how can I align thoseto the organization's values
and to what the organization stands for?
So it's important to get it right
to make sure that we maintainthe employees that we have
and we retain the talent thatwe have as an organization
(03:32):
to continue to grow asquickly as we have, for sure.
- When you started to tackle this project,
and I'll be fully transparent,
we've tackled this project many times
in many different ways over many years.
You know, I've been here six years
and we've done it atleast three or four times,
but I do think this last time
we finally got the secret sauce.
- I hope so. (chuckles)
(03:52):
- So how did you approach, I mean,
I guess get really tactical.
How did you approach designingour onboarding program?
Because it's such a big endeavor
and for those listening, I'dlove for them just to hear
what are the things you consider,
what are some of the obstacles
and what are the wins that you had
as you were thinking aboutputting this program together?
- Yeah, so as I said, like retention
was really the biggest factorthat we were going for.
(04:15):
And so in order to retain the talent,
in order for us to makesure that people saw
what we were as an organization,
especially with the growth that we have
in the organization that we're in,
we wanted to be able to maintainthat culture in some way.
Obviously, culture, beingdynamic, is always changing.
But we wanted to kinda bottlehow people were feeling
when they first startedwith the organization.
(04:36):
So we really went to everybusiness unit within the org
to really get an understanding
of what their team members were missing.
And so there are a lot oftactical things, obviously,
knowing where things are,
knowing where different resources are
for them to be able to besuccessful in their roles.
But what was really missingwas really the ability
to feel that I am apart of something bigger
or to feel that the role that I came in in
(04:59):
isn't the role that I needed to
or that I have to retire with, right?
So what do I need?
Or how could I navigate myselfthrough this organization?
So after we found outall those tactical things
that all of the differentdepartments needed,
we really wanted to getdown to the feeling.
What did we want our team members to feel
and to kinda explore within themselves?
And so we really focused on the purpose.
(05:20):
And that's reallysomething that's important,
as you've heard it
in many different casesacross the workforce today,
finding your purpose is super important.
And once you've found that,and once you've found that why
and understand what you'redoing and what you need to do,
then you can really go out
for those roles and opportunitiesthat are really for you.
And so that's what we did.
We took the tactical pieces,then we took the feeling,
(05:42):
what did we want people to feel?
And then we started
then started getting the restof the organization on board.
What did they need to do
in order to make sure ouremployees were feeling seen
and feeling that they hada place here at Paylocity?
- I like that approach becauseI think it wraps your content
around how do you wantthe employee to feel
as they walk away in that moment.
(06:03):
And that doesn't mean
that you're still not gonnado the check the boxes
around like where do I find my paycheck?
How do I do direct deposit?
How do I sign up for benefits?
Where do I find all those resources?
You can do that in a way
where now there's anemotional attachment to it
and it's gonna have better retention
just from a knowledge perspective.
So I really like thatwe took that approach.
(06:23):
As you've iterated on this program,
or as you've led this program
over the last couple years,how are you measuring success?
Are you looking at turnover rates?
Are you looking at promotions?
How have you guys decided tomake sure that this program
is indeed working the way wethought it was gonna work?
- Yeah, for sure.
So this is a little bitof a challenge, right?
Because this is somethingthat hasn't been done
(06:44):
in the organization, sowe don't have any stats
or any data to hold any of our results on.
So we really needed to make sure
that what we put in place wecould put in place for a while
so that we'd be able to measure
and see what we needed to change later on.
But what we're trying to solve for
are some of the questions that come up
in various employee surveys
or there's "I don't have a path,"
(07:04):
or "I don't see a futurehere at Paylocity,"
or "I don't know what my resources are,"
"I don't know where things are
to make me feel successful in my role."
And so by surveying our team members
and kinda getting a better understanding
of what they need andwhat's important to them,
we've kind of put these things together.
And so from there, we'llmeasure the success
and we'll take a look
at maybe a journey of oneof our employees, you know?
(07:26):
We'll say employee A went tomaybe these different workshops
and it allowed them to feel this way
when they were able toapply for different roles
in the organization or whatnot.
So the measurements are a lotbased on the employee feeling
and the employee sentimentacross the organization,
but allowing the employeeto have their own journey
and understand that the resources
(07:47):
and tools are there for them.
- How often are you surveyingthose that participated?
Because one of the things I've found,
when you're trying tounderstand the effectiveness
of your onboarding program,
it's almost like you can't go back
and ask previous employeeswhat their experience is
because you're only gonna experience
new employee orientationor onboarding one time.
(08:09):
So there's specificmetrics you've looked at,
turnover being one of 'em.
Is there other metrics you look at?
- Yeah, Shari, so we lookat the employee sentiment
with their manager.
Do they feel that they have aconnection with their manager
or do they feel that their manager
has their best interest in mind?
Or they look at, wemeasure how they're feeling
when they start with their team.
So a lot of our employees gointo new employee training
(08:32):
for a number of weeks
and then they then reunitewith their team members.
So we wanna make sure
that when they reunitewith their team members,
it's a smooth transition
when they move into theactual organization.
And so it's a little tricky at times
when you think about measuringhow the employee feels
at certain points,
but it's really aboutasking the right questions
at the right time, right?
(08:52):
So obviously working withthe different business units
and figuring out whattheir initiatives are
and aligning the survey questions
to a lot of what theirbusiness units are doing,
but ultimately trying tofigure out what we need to do
from a organizational perspectiveto make them feel, again,
that they're connected to the organization
and that they do seea future here with us.
- That makes so much sense,
aligning the questions at the right time.
(09:13):
Because you might have somebody
who's joining your organization
that has six weeks of training
and you might have somebodythat has a week of training.
So if you ask that samequestion at different times,
you might get wildly differentor inaccurate answers.
So I appreciate that little nugget.
As you've gone through this program,
how have you iterated alreadyon what you've created?
(09:36):
- That's been a huge undertaking, right?
So if we think about Paylocity,
we almost brought in 3,000employees last year, right?
So trying to manage theprocess has been a bit tricky.
We've had a lot of hands in the pocket.
We've got the necessaryhands that are there.
And what's important to us is making sure
that we are taking thefeedback from the surveys
(09:57):
that we're receiving from ournew hires when they start,
we do a survey right whenwe complete new hire,
new employee orientation,
just to make sure that we've hit the mark.
And so we make adjustments by there.
So one of the biggestchanges that we've made was,
you know, benefits is always tricky
with different organizations, right?
So when you're introducingbenefits to your new hires,
a lot of the new hiresmake it about themselves.
And so if you're havinga team of 40 new hires,
(10:20):
it's really difficult
to answer all those benefits questions.
And so what we've done
is we've implemented abenefit scavenger hunt
where the team members could really
just kind of go throughall the different resources
that we have available for benefits.
And to top that off,we've actually opened up
benefit office hours thathappens the Tuesday after NEO.
And so what happens is wehave our benefits team,
(10:41):
we have about two or threeof their team members
that come in, and any newhire that has any questions
about any of their benefit selections,
they're able to go in andhave any questions answered,
have any questions answered,
and have our team membersbe able to support them
as they select their benefit options.
So different things throughout the program
that we've changed
to kinda really supportthe employee journey
(11:01):
and making sure that they haveeverything that they need.
- And it just goes to show
that there is a one size fits one approach
to things like benefit offerings.
Like you mention you cover it,
but then you also offer this opportunity
for those that have additional questions.
'Cause I suspect, if you'resomebody like you and me
who's been in the workforce a long time,
we might not need that extra handholding
(11:23):
when it comes to benefits.
But if it's your first time
or if it's a more complexbenefit environment,
you have that opportunity.
So I think that's definitely something,
if you're listening, to consider.
How do you bring a more personal feel
to your onboarding program
and some of the check-the-boxitems that you have?
As we wrap our conversation, Andre,
if you think about where you started
(11:45):
and where you're at today,
what are maybe a couple pieces of advice
for somebody who's juststarting down this road
of, "Hey, I need to redo my onboarding"?
- Yeah, you know, Shari,
I love this question because for me,
when I came into this position,
it was a little overwhelming.
And so if you think about what we have
from an organizational perspective,
(12:07):
we had a bunch of differentteams that were trying to solve
for the onboarding issuethat we had across the board.
And so with the amazing opportunities
that we have here at Paylocity,
we really kinda unleashall of our employees
to go figure it out on their own.
And so one of the biggest challenges
was to really get everybody aligned
to really this one strategy on onboarding.
And so that was one of thebiggest challenges that I had.
I built relationships allthroughout the organization,
(12:29):
but still, those thatare really passionate
about what they've been working on
had been really resistant towards it.
So what I would say is, hey,
when you're approachingsomething such as onboarding,
especially for the organization,
it could seem like a bit overwhelming.
It could seem likeyou're boiling the ocean
and you really are in a lot of instances.
But I'd say break it down into phases.
That's what I had to do
(12:49):
in order to really makeit digestible for me.
And so phase one
was really getting allthose relationships built,
getting everybody aligned,
making sure that everyone understood that,
"Hey, I'm going to take whatyou all feel is important
for your spaces, butI'm also gonna bring it
to an organization level as well."
Once I had that, I was ableto then start phase two,
which was every department,
(13:10):
really getting into theirbusiness, really understanding
how those team memberswere coming on board.
What are your team members missing?
What do they need?
What do you feel is missing?
Phase three was really, now,
revamping a lot of the initial tools
that we built as an organization.
So we started off on this journey
and so now we needed toiterate on some things
because it had been a little bit
and we had gotten tons of feedback
(13:31):
from all the differentworking sessions that we had
as an organization.
Phase four is now what we're going into
as an organization now is the,
we're evangelizing thisall across the board.
We're getting all the leaders on board,
we're getting everybodyexcited about this.
Now we start really honingin on those measurements
because now all of the different resources
that we've created as an organization
are really now startingto come into existence.
(13:53):
And now we're really able tosee this program come to life
and really transform our organization.
So what I would say isbreak it down into phases,
really give yourself some time,
really come up with a project plan
that you could align yourself to,
and then have fun,really, because this is a,
I've had an amazing timebuilding this program.
- I love the phases.
I love the idea of breakingit down before you get started
(14:15):
so you're not just puttingband-aids here and there, right?
You're having a plan.
And your organization might decide, "Yeah,
I don't wanna necessarily havea feelings-based onboarding.
I might," like, there'sso many options out there,
but scoping the project in advance,
such great advice, Andre.
Thank you so much for all of that
and all the work that you'redoing here at Paylocity
(14:36):
to help bring our employees on board.
I appreciate you.
- Thank you, Shari.
Thank you for havingme and I've enjoyed it.
- This podcast is broughtto you by Paylocity,
a leading HCM provider that frees you
from the task of today
so you can focus more onthe promise of tomorrow.
If you'd like to submit atopic or appear as a guest
on a future episode, email usat pctytalks@paylocity.com.
(15:00):
(bright music)
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