Cater onboarding to your employees

Not every employee likes to work or be managed in the same way. Some people like clear rules and careful planning. Other people feel stifled by rules and prefer to wing it. By catering your onboarding process to these preferences, you can keep employees more engaged in the onboarding process. That doesn’t mean you need…

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Make onboarding a team effort

In the last lesson, we mentioned asking future coworkers to greet a new employee. Your team shouldn’t just help with early onboarding, though—they should be involved in the whole process. We’ve created a FAQ for this below.

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Onboarding starts when the offer is signed

Many organizations don’t start onboarding until the employee official walks in the door. But why wait? By starting the onboarding process early, your new hires can begin to absorb your organization’s culture and values before their first day. They’ll hit their first week with more confidence, fewer hiccups, and stronger relationships. Check out our very…

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What is onboarding and why is it important?

When an organization hires a new employee, it’s rare that the employee immediately starts working. Instead, the employee needs to learn some basics first, like what their role is and how it helps the broader organization. The process of teaching an employee these basics is called onboarding. Onboarding is often defined as the first week…

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Establish your culture.

Any senior team should view establishing their company culture as one of their most important activities as leaders. Culture is a result of deliberate, intentional action. Not only should an organization’s structure have tight alignment with the organization’s business strategy, but a purpose-built culture should also be consistent with that strategy. Culture, along with organizational…

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Prescribe improvement actions

Why prescribing improvement actions is important to talent optimization Prescribing improvement actions is where you plan the actions you need to take to correct the issues you discovered upon measuring and analyzing your talent metrics. Using our medical example again, prescribing is where the doctor would say “Take this blood pressure medication.” Companies that excel…

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Analyze objectively

Why analyzing objectively is important to talent optimization Returning to our medical example, analyzing the evidence is akin to a doctor determining how to solve the problem of high cholesterol by examining blood testing results. In business terms, this is where you’ll look at the people data you’ve collected and generate a hypothesis based on…

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Measure what matters

Why measuring what matters is important to talent optimization If diagnose is similar to an annual physical exam with your doctor, the activity of measuring is having bloodwork done. Just as a doctor would order blood tests to measure cell counts, a business should collect and measure its people data. Most businesses regularly monitor key…

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Introduction to Diagnose

Diagnose is part four of the four-part talent optimization framework. This is where you’ll measure critical people data, analyze that data in the context of your business, and prescribe remedies as needed. Why diagnosis is important to talent optimization Consider how a medical doctor uses reliable lab results to measure a person’s overall health, evaluates…

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Reinforce your culture

Why protecting your culture is important to talent optimization It’s been said that “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” When an organization’s culture is aligned with its business strategy, it acts as a catalyst for individual and collective productivity. But if left unmonitored and unmanaged, a toxic culture can develop and spread throughout the organization—zapping engagement…

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Ensure productive peer relationships

Why productive peer relationships are important to talent optimization When a sole proprietor adds their first employee, they open a door to expanded output—and interpersonal conflict. When any two people in an organization collaborate, they are able to share resources, skills, knowledge, and abilities in mutually beneficial ways. Two people not only can do twice…

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Develop your leaders

Why developing your leaders is important to talent optimization Talent optimization requires developing leaders at every level to drive employee performance and engagement. It also includes identifying and evaluating leadership competencies and giving performance feedback within business context. Leaders should exist at all levels of your organization; they’re an asset you should continuously nurture and…

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Create new jobs and career paths

Why creating new jobs and career paths is important to talent optimization As your organization grows and matures, you’ll need to create new jobs to execute your strategy. You’ll also need to create career paths and modify job roles for your current employees. Creating career paths for your employees has a direct impact on your…

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Introduction to Inspire

Inspire is part three of the four-part talent optimization framework. Inspire includes important employee-oriented activities ranging from career pathing to maintaining organizational culture. Inspire also includes enhancing that critical relationship between an employee and their direct manager. Why Inspire is important to talent optimization In most organizations, employees lack the necessary people data insights to…

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