On Onboarding

I once heard a saying to the effect that:

“You cannot expect anything good from a bad system”

And with that I want to dedicate this edition of Career-Rx to what gives about that most critical part of socialization into any organization or entity. The on-boarding process. And it’s not simply a matter of new hire orientation. If you’ve worked in a hospital system like I and many of our colleagues have, you’ve probably had to sit through 2 to 3 days of intensive orientation and training sessions. After which, you transfer to to your department to get even more hands-on “training.” 

Since the pandemic and its attendant work culture disruptions like short staffing and hybrid work, the question of on-boarding seems to have taken a bit of a back seat going by the conversations I have had in the past few months with clients.

The thing is, onboarding is much more than new hire orientation. Yes, it’s a compliance issue for some organizations, but at its best, onboarding should be an end to end O2E I call it; organization to employee transaction experience. The organization here does not have to be a for-profit. Even volunteer roles and organizations running on volunteer experiences are not immune from the responsibility of providing a functional onboarding experience. And by functional, I mean one with the least amount of friction and that allows for the new adult on the block to get to work.

I have been on the other side of a not-so-stellar experience (if one could even term what happened an onboarding) and had to intentionally step away from the role after a few weeks to make room for someone else who might be able to function in the entrenched existing culture. I’ve also coached people who had to step away after a year or two or three and they can still chalk up a measure of dissatisfaction to an underwhelming onboarding experience.

The examples I give including my own, I realize may be occurring from a place of privilege (or burnout too if I might add) as not everyone might have the wherewithal to be able to give up a role because of poor organizational socialization.

So what do you do if you find yourself in a new role and the onboarding is not going the way you think it should…?

1. Do not ignore your intuitive intelligence. If you sense something is not quite right, bring it up to the team lead. And as a matter of assertive and confident communication, you’re bringing it up should always be from the perspective of the organization and not simply because.

2. Advocate for the role and your part in it. Don’t wait until the 30 or 60 day review.

3. Ask other team members for help in pointing you to the right sources of help.

Find peers and not-so peers and get to know them over virtual coffee even as you remember that socialization is not a one way street. We all have to play our parts within the ecosystem of an organization.

And lastly, remember what I said in point 1 above. If the place is too dysfunctional, your best socialization role would be to go find another “society” to be a useful member and part of a functioning whole.

About the Career Acceleration Precepts (CAP) newsletter:

A monthly LinkedIn newsletter designed to provide pharmacy and healthcare professionals with tools and ideas for advancing their careers in whatever spheres they find themselves. CAP is curated by Dr Otito Iwuchukwu, CPTD, organizational psychologist, pharmacist-scientist, author, consultant, and career strategist. As a certified professional in talent development and career advocate for multi-passionate healthcare professionals, Dr Iwuchukwu helps individuals, put their gifts and strengths to use in and out of work.