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3.1 Define clear responsibilities for everyone involved in the onboarding process

Content

Description of Best Practices

Ensure everyone involved, including the manager, HR, other stakeholders, and the new hire, are aware of roles and responsibilities during onboarding[1] 

Make gender-aware and inclusive onboarding a key deliverable for a manager’s performance review and/or integrate this into the manager’s KPIs 

Pay special attention to which tasks are assigned to women and men in the beginning and what support they get (e.g., is there a difference on the first workday between men and women being “served” by support functions in setting up their workplace and systems) 

Ensure HR and onboarding managers have received gender equality and D&I training and act as role models that exemplify the company’s gender equality and D&I values

Challenges of Implementation

Lack of awareness from management, organization, and peers on how important good onboarding is to create an inclusive workplace 

Lack of awareness of HR and support staff of their own biases resulting in differences in supporting women and men in the integration process

What Success Looks Like

New hires feel welcome and fairly treated, they experience an inclusive work culture from day one 

Women and men have the same chances to perform soon after onboarding 

Management and HR functions have accepted onboarding as a key responsibility 

The business case for effective or ineffective onboarding is know

Resources and Tools

Report/Study (incl. Tools): Onboarding New Employees: Maximizing Success (Society for Human Resource Management) 

Article: Understanding and Designing an Inclusive Onboarding Experience (Medium) 

Webinar: Building an Effective Onboarding Strategy (Ajilon)

Video: HR Basics: Onboarding (Gregg Learning) 


[1] ONBOARDING. Also known as “organizational socialization” is the “process of helping new hires adjust to social and performance aspects of their new jobs quickly and smoothly, and learn the attitudes, knowledge, skills, and behaviors required to function effectively within an organization.” (Source: Panopto, What is Employee Onboarding?)