Onboarding

Starting a new job is not easy for anyone. How will the new colleagues react to me? Will I be accepted? Does the new job meet my expectations? Above all, both sides—employee and employer—ask the question: does the new person fit into the company? For international professionals, this phase is even more difficult. Because starting a new job also means moving to a new city or region. Possibly, the move is associated with a high administrative effort, which is particularly complicated by a foreign language. The behaviors in the company are unpredictable and despite preparation, there is a great deal of uncertainty. There are several ways to successfully design onboarding: from the perspective of the four C‘s Compliance, Clarity, Culture, Connection. The four levers of self-efficacy, role clarity, social integration, and cultural knowledge then provide a first overview of how onboarding can succeed. As in the previous chapter on recruiting, onboarding consists of several phases: from pre-onboarding to stability and acceptance. But not everyone goes through onboarding in the same way. Depending on the origin, professional experience, and career path, a different focus is needed. The roles that support the onboarding process are also oriented towards this: some newcomers need close guidance from a mentor, for some the occasional support from the manager is sufficient. Important for everyone is successful integration into the team. Since the beginning of the Corona pandemic, companies have increasingly relied on online onboarding. The special features of this are also explained in this chapter. Since a lot can go wrong in this phase of the employee journey, an evaluation and quality assurance can help and make onboarding a successful phase for all new employees.