Survey: Onboarding Programs Need to Focus on Job Expectations and Team Building

IT staffing and talent management experts TEKsystems has reported that its most recent survey of 2,100 IT pros and over 1,5000 IT leaders in May 2012 has found that most IT employees think that onboarding programs usually address HR information, job information, and company information. Most IT leaders say the primary focus of onboarding programs are on learning about the role (57 percent) and HR information (54 percent). Over 60 percent of IT professionals also feel that HR information receives the majority of focus while 41 percent believe the discussion of job roles receives the highest level of focus. Under 40 percent of IT leaders say learning about the company and team building are the primary focus of onboarding programs at 39 and 32 percent, respectively.

The majority of IT professionals think that a successful onboarding program would focus on team roles/responsibilities (73 percent, team workflows/processes (70 percent), performance expectations (68 percent), day-to-day responsibilities (68 percent), and job workflows (64 percent). Furthermore, 90 percent of IT pros feel that making employees feel like a valuable team member is important to successful onboarding.

“Onboarding programs and HR orientations are not the same. While it is critical to share important HR and administrative information with new hires, great onboarding programs take it to the next level, including detailed information about the company, clear job expectations and team building activities,” says TEKsystems Director, Rachel Russell. “IT professionals need exposure to these more strategic components of the job to efficiently and effectively forge a bond with their new employer and new team.”