Onboarding Experienced Hires Technology

Getting Experienced New Hires On-boarded 2x Faster at a Global Technology Services Company

Client Case Study

Onboarding Experienced Hires Technology – Situation

Microsoft wanted the new hire onboarding to:

  • Get new experienced technical consultants up to speed to add value on client projects as fast and efficiently as possible while having a sense of excitement to be working at the company.
  • Apply the technical skills that they have learned in the previous 6-8 weeks in technical training.
  • Know what it is like to work on a typical client project using common company technologies, frameworks, and resources so that new hires add value and do not make a significant mistake.
  • Understand how to effectively consult with customers, project team members, managers, and sponsors in typical project scenarios including, but not limited to scope creep, politics, working styles and personalities, technical, time, budget, and quality challenges, decision making, team dynamics, and feel what it is like to have success.

Onboarding Experienced Hires Technology – Complications

  • Blind Spots
    Microsoft’s’ experienced new hires were at the top of their class from the most prestigious Business Schools around the globe.  They thought that they “already knew everything.”
  • Speed
    It was taking too long (9-18 months) for experienced new hires to hit the quality and utilization targets required by the company, team leads and the client.

Onboarding Experienced Hires Technology – Approach

  1. Define Success
    • List of key business objectives, learning objectives, and project success metrics
    • Description of standard roles, responsibilities, and expectations for new candidates in the first 6 months of their job
    • Resume factors — education, experience, knowledge
    • Performance factors — intellectual, interpersonal, motivational
    • Defined alignment with overall on-boarding process
    • High-Level Design Approach based upon best practices
  2. Design
    • Overall design document
    • Agenda, roles, and responsibilities
    • Pilot project scenario and associated “performance test”
    • Modules, activities, objectives, timing, and resources

    • Final Design

    • List of suggested next steps

Onboarding Experienced Hires Technology – Approach (cont.)

3.  Delivery

  • Coordination and finalization of dates, location, and participants
  • Creation and coordination of a participant disposition letter to set expectations
  • Facilitation, evaluation, and continuous improvement

4.  Measurement

  • Level-1 Satisfaction Measurement and Summarization
  • Customer Success Cycle Meeting to review results and discuss Next Steps

Interesting Design Features

  • Completely revamped lecture-based approaches of the past
  • Required no SME prep time and incorporated company executives for performance tests
  • Utilized real internal projects for simulations and case studies
  • Focused on intense “pressure testing” and mirrored client project scenarios, pace, and personnel

Results

  • 100% client satisfaction
  • 100% client loyalty
  • 50% decrease in speed to ramp (from months to weeks)

Related Information

I just wanted to let you know how pleased I am with how successful the new employee on-boarding project was.

The end product is wonderful!  LSA has been great to work with.

I really appreciate all the flexibility, customer focus, and the high quality of deliverables.

Laurie Torres
Vice President of Human Resources

PDL

We partnered with LSA to help custom design, deliver, and measure an advanced new employee on-boarding process. It was well thought out and bought into by sales leadership.  The combination of targeted sales tools, technology, coaching, performance plans, training, and reinforcement made all the difference.  The solution quantifiably improved new employee and hiring manager satisfaction and increased the speed to sales quota for new hires.

I would highly recommend LSA Global for any sales enablement team looking to increase the engagement and speed to productivity of their sales force. We are excited to implement the program globally as we continue to scale.

Rochana Golani
Director, Global Sales & Technical Field Enablement

ServiceSource has relied on LSA Global’s expertise for a variety of core initiatives, from strategy design and implementation, to business sales skills, to sales coaching. We recently engaged LSA Global to create a competency matrix for our inside sales team that will serve as our roadmap for employee on-boarding, development, succession planning, and retention.

This critical project had a tight timeline with high visibility. LSA Global completed the deliverable ahead of schedule and surpassed our expectations.

PMO and Outside Sales Operations
Senior Vice President

Service Source

I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed working with LSA on the design and delivery of the experiential new employee on-boarding training.

I’ve been getting tons of positive unsolicited feedback.

You truly exceeded everyone’s expectations.

Steven Gray
US Enterprise Services

Congratulations on your pro-activity in establishing this program and developing such an effective New Employee Orientation course.

Farhat Ali
President and Chief Executive Office

Fujitsu

LSA Global has been a great partner in helping us move toward being “the leading developer of talent in the service performance management industry.”

I have engaged LSA to help develop best-in-class programs in the areas of: Executive On-boarding, Manager Training, Sales Training and Coaching, Employee Engagement, and Instructional Design.

They have consistently met or exceeded my (very) high expectations and are always responsive to my needs to increase performance, engagement, customer satisfaction, and sales growth.

Mike Normant
Senior Director, Training & Development

Service Source

The customized new hire on-boarding process, coaching, tools, and measurement have provided a very useful structure and frame for the first 90-days for both me and our new hires.

It has been a very positive experience and will make it much easier to on-board my new hires in a way that makes sense for our unique sales strategy and culture.

Martyn Storey
Systems Engineer Manager

We hired LSA Global to design and deliver a customized outdoor experiential new employee orientation program for our recent group of MBA new hires.

The program reinforced WIPRO core values, helped to build relationships with fellow associates, and enhanced the group’s ability to operate successfully in the global world.

I definitely recommend LSA for effective employee onboarding of top talent.

Vishu Venkat, PHR
Talent Acquisition

The experiential New Employee Orientation was an incredible success for 2,500+ new hires over 4 years spread across the globe.

LSA partnered with us to create an innovative solution on very short notice and added a huge amount of value.

We could never have done it without their unmatched combination of expertise, professionalism, and creativity that aligned everything with our unique culture and growth strategy.

Even our executives and experienced hires were blown away!

Brenda Wagner
Founder and President

Proxicom

We held our 1st Year Academy for our new associates last week, and the critical segment that LSA helped us redesign went exceptionally well.

Their instructional design skills made it more relevant, more interactive, and more engaging.

We greatly appreciate what LSA did to help us greatly improve a key component of our program!

Larry Brown
Senior Manager, Training & Professional Development

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