Dive Brief:
- LAN Systems, an award-winning Atlanta-area employer, has created an innovative onboarding program that borrows from, of all things, mountain climbing, according to Entrepreneur.com.
- Based on the sherpa concept (yes, the guys who help others scale the world’s tallest peaks), LAN Systems’ Sherpa System was the brainchild of CEO Mary Hester, who two years ago decided that new employees appeared “lost” during a company hiring ramp-up.
- The Sherpa Program helps new employees by matching them "purposefully and not randomly" with an existing employee or "sherpa." The sherpa's job is to "complement, communicate and work well" with the new person. Ultimately, the idea was they would get to full productivity more quickly than before the program existed.
Dive Insight:
Hester got personally involved by meeting with each sherpa and his or her new employee-partner monthly, ensuring the both had their needs met and that the pairing was going as planned, according the article.
After year one, an emotional-intelligence (EI) assessment and training program helped "tune up" employee skills and knowledge around EI -- a change that strengthened the employee-sherpa partnership.
Hester told Entrepreneur that not only did the new employees benefit from the program, but sherpas also reported receiving benefits -- including the opportunity to learn how to teach and train, as well as "permission to slow down, think about their partner and ultimately understand that person in a more holistic way."
This concept is deeply personalized, which is a critical success factor for an effective onboarding process, according to research. Larger companies should be able to do it, too, though it might have to be broken down into smaller bits by department or location.
