Question

1 Aalbo Normal Aalbo AaB No Spac... Heading 1 AaBbci AaBbc AaBbCcDAoBbcc AaBCCD ABC Heading 2 Title Subtitle Subtle Em... Emphasis intense Styles 21st Century Onboarding New employees at Sun Microsystems begin their orientation sessions after being hired with a computer game. It is part of an attempt to integrate new people, improve the image of the company. get feedback, and start training Looking over the shoulder of a new employee, one would see the person playing a computer game called "Dawn of the Shadow Spectors, battling evil forces that are trying to destroy Sun's network Before Sun changed its orientation program, an employee's first day at work consisted mostly of filling out paperwork, as in most companies. Some new employees waited 2 weeks to get e-mail, and people who worked remotely sometimes waited weeks or months before meeting their managers. The chief learning officer at Sun said, "We wanted to make a better first impression," unlike that made on an employee's first day if the company/manager is not ready and the person just sits there. That can make a bad impression that is lasting. Now at Sun the onboarding starts as soon as a person accepts a job. The new employee logs on to the company's new hire website and learns about the company by playing video games. The person sees a welcome video from the CEO and connects with other employees via social networks. New employees also fill out their W-4, 1-9s, and other paperwork on the website. Sun, which has about 34,000 employees, believes orientation should start the moment a person is hired and continue until the person is productive A Houston-based company, El Paso Corporation, which employs about 5.000, has a different onboarding process. New hires attend a first-day orientation and then another a month later. During their first week at the company. they get an e-mail with links to everything from ordering business cards to joining the credit union. Before the new system was instituted, employees sometimes waited to even get a computer. One company official noted that new employees were here but just sitting around because they didn't have the tools to work "Now they have a workspace, computer, and network access on their first day An advertising agency in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, takes yet a different approach. Zimmerman Advertising, which has about 1,000 employees, wants employees to understand the company, so new hires log on and learn from the new hire website what the company does, its client philosophy, and about its leadership. Then they meet for an hour with the CEO who talks about how he built the company. New hires get a 30-, 60-, and 90-day training checklist that must be completed on time and signed by their supervisor. They also have an opportunity to provide feedback via the website. Modern onboarding systems help new employees understand what the company is all about so they are prepared to integrate into it, says Zimmerman's Vice President of HR. Questions 1. The case introduces three companies of very different sizes with three different onboarding approaches. What differences do you see in their approaches? What similarities? 2. Are there important ideas missing from all three approaches? If so, what are they? 3 which approach sounds best to you? Why?

Answer 1

Answer 1. The case is all about three different onboarding processes at 3 different organizations when new employees hired. Employee onboarding refers to processes when a new employee joins an organization and adjusted with the social and business aspects of the organization. In these processes, the new employee will get to know about the organizations, various kinds of rules and regulations, culture and business structure of the organization.

All 3 onboarding processes have their own advantages and disadvantages. Onboarding processes also depend on the size of the organization and industries. We will briefly discuss all these 3 processes mentioned in the case,

At Sun Microsystems, The company is using computer games which were developed specially designed for new employees. When new employees join the organization, they would log in to the system and will learn about the company by playing video games. They will also have a welcome note from the CEO and can connect other employees via the company-owned social network. All other mandatory paperwork would be filled by the employees on the website itself. So Sun Microsystems using online and digital networks to onboard new employees.

A Houston based company, El Paso Corporation, is using another approach for onboarding new employees post-hiring. They conduct two orientation programme, one at the day of joining and another would be post completion one month in the organization. When they join, they will get an email with links for completion of all other paper works. In this process, employees can file all information which company would require, at their own flexible time. They can also order necessary stationery and other documents using the computer system.

Zimmerman Advertising also using a digital platform to onboard new employees. When new employees join the company they will be provided with all details such as about the company, vision & mission, their philosophy, about their products & services on the company website. The company CEO would explain about his journey and future of the company. The company provide 30, 60 and 90 days training as per the employee job requirements and capabilities of the employee. They also use a feedback system to provide feedback about the company and products, which help the organization to develop the organization.

As per the discussion above, we can see there are some differences and similarities among all organizations.

Differences: Below are some differences we can see with onboarding approaches in all 3 organization,

a. Type of Digital Platform: All 3 organization using a different type of digital platform to onboard new employees. The Sun Microsystem uses a video game called, " Dawn of the Shadow Spectres" and other video games where employees can play and learn about the company. El Paso Corporation is using Email process to get the details from the employees and employees can order required stationaries via using email. The last one, Zimmerman Advertising provide the website link to new employees where they can learn everything related to the company and provide feedback also.

b. CEO interaction: At Sun Microsystem, Employee will get a welcome note on the website of the company. For El Paso, there is no CEO interaction at the time of boarding of new employees as per the details provided in the case. Zimmerman Advertising provides face to face interaction with the CEO to the new employees.

Similarities: In today's connected time, all the companies are using the digital platform to onboard new employees which are also preferable by the employees. Employees can file and provide all mandatory employment information in the system which reduces the time for managers and trainers to get all important information.

Answer 2. All 3 organization are using a different type of onboarding approaches as per their requirements and size of the organization. It is not easy to have some kind of onboarding process with all organization as they would have different requirements, different products & services and no. of employees hires. As per my experience and knowledge about the onboarding process, they could use below-mentioned ideas to make the onboarding process smooth and effective,

a. Face to Face interactions: All 3 companies could use this approach to make all new employees feel better and comfortable with new employees. They can use sessions where new employees can meet with each other and with their managers to get to know more about each other.

b. Training programmes: All kind of employees need training whether they are fresher or experienced. Training should be as per the candidate capabilities and company requirements which would be helpful for the employees to learn most from the training sessions.

Answer 3 As per the understanding of the case and different approaches, Zimmerman Advertising's onboarding approach is one of the best approaches in the case. They are using both platforms online and offline to onboard new employees. They use website to teach employees about the company and its leadership. In this approach, face to face interaction with the CEO is one of the best strategies to motivate employees to work hard for the company. In this company, they also conduct training sessions for the employees which could help employees to start better with their roles. In their system, the feedback option also available where employees can give feedback about the company and their experience till the time of the onboarding process and how the company could improve as per the employee point of view.