The On-Boarding Process

// Law firms are bad at many things, but they’re good at one: On-boarding new lawyers.

Time is money. Law firms know that. When law firms bring on new lawyers or laterals or have lawyers moving between offices, law firms permit those lawyers to start working on client matters as quickly as possible.

Corporations are less good at this.

In corporations, time is not (so directly) money. Corporate employees spend a fair amount of time dealing with internal bureaucracies. Corporations are less stressed about permitting employees to do productive work.

This is obvious in the on-boarding process.

A new employee joins the corporation.

Oh, shoot! We needed a computer for this person! Can someone order a computer, and it’ll be here in a few days?

Oh, shoot! We needed a telephone for this person! Can someone order a telephone, and it’ll be here in a few days?

Oh, shoot! We needed a pad of paper and a pencil for this person! Can someone see if there’s a pad and pencil lying around somewhere?

This is two things: (1) An abomination and (2) absolutely routine.

It’s an abomination because the employee is nonproductive. But it’s also an abomination because it tells the new employee that the corporation really doesn’t care whether the new employee does any work. The new employee thinks, “If the company doesn’t care if I accomplish anything — if I can wait days before I have a computer — then why should I care if I accomplish anything? I guess the main requirement of this job is to sit in the office from 9 to 5. I guess that’s not a bad gig, and I could learn to be pretty good at it.”

How about avoiding this problem — by giving about two minutes thought, in advance, to what new employees will need when they arrive at the workplace?

For example, you know before the employee arrives that the employee will need information technology supplies. Why not arrange for that stuff before the employee’s first day at work?

You know full well that someone should send a “welcome aboard” email to the team and the new hire, so everyone knows who the new person is. You could draft that email in advance.

The new hire should have an on-boarding package, explaining how the joint works. There’s no reason to be caught flat-footed at the last minute for that one.

The new hire should similarly receive a welcome packet, and again, that can be prepared in advance.

On the first day of work, someone should be assigned to greet the employee. That person should help with obtaining a security badge. That person (or someone) should have lunch with the new hire. Someone should introduce the new hire to everyone on the team.

This isn’t hard. It’s obvious. But someone in the joint should think about it before the employee’s first day.

Over the course of the first few weeks or months, the new hire should be invited to relevant corporate events. The new hire should be introduced to all of the relevant stakeholders in the business. The new hire should be exposed to materials that raise the new hire’s corporate IQ: What are all the businesses that the corporation is involved in? What are the basics of each? Who’s in charge of each? The new employee should know enough to understand the businesses and to be able to describe the businesses on the chance that an outsider asks.

Perhaps the new employee should shadow you (or someone else) for a day to get a sense of the joint.

After a couple of weeks have passed, the new hire should be asked about the on-boarding process, to see how it felt from the receiving end and to learn what you missed, so the process can be improved for the next person.

My sense is that corporations devote painfully little time to thinking about the on-boarding process.

Sadly, it shows.

Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and is now deputy general counsel at a large international company. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy (affiliate links). You can reach him by email at [email protected]

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Biglaw, In-House Counsel, Mark Herrmann, New Hires, On-boarding Process