
While there has been quite a bit written about the Great Resignation and the inability to hire, I’ve seen less attention paid to the issues surrounding onboarding new hires. And yet, many of the conversations I’ve had lately have pointed to just how poorly organizations are doing integrating new hires — and how this has been exacerbated by the remote work environment.
Here are just a few examples of what I’ve heard:
“When I ‘arrived’ for my first day, no one knew I was starting. HR wasn’t prepared to do my paperwork with me. IT hadn’t even been told to order a computer for me, never mind setting up my email account.”
“My onboarding consisted of two straight weeks of back-to-back webinars and Zoom calls. Literally in front of the computer from 8 am to 6 pm. By the time the day was over, I was too spent to actually process any of the events of the day.”
“My boss got onto a team video call on my fourth day and, after a few awkward moments where she tried to figure out who I was, said, ‘oh yeah. Welcome to the team.”