In this recession, can you afford to throw inexperienced employees into the mix who don’t have a clue what the company’s goals or mission are?

Some time back, we were conducting employee focus groups in preparation for the development of a new base salary program for a client company. As part of the warm-up, we posed the question:

“What is XYZ’s mission and purpose as an organization?”

 Stunned silence followed for a moment, and then one blatantly honest soul blurted out, “No damn clue.”

Soon, everyone in the room jumped into the fray and described a total lack of understanding of the business’ goals or even their reason for being.

Employees at Booz Allen Hamilton and Vestas Wind Systems would be unlikely to utter those three clueless words, according to one Workforce Management article by Garry Kranz. As the economy slowly climbs into recovery mode, many are still paring back. But Hamilton expects to add 5,000 jobs by the close of 2009.

Eighteen months ago, Booz Allen began an overhaul of its on-boarding processes. It begins delivering training and developmental tools to new employees the moment they accept a job offer, Kranz writes.

 During preboarding, new recruits are directed to an internal Web portal to access job information, “early learning” activities and company information, including the company’s 15 business lines and messages from senior executives.

“Preboarding is all about getting someone engaged and excited about being here, prior to their actually showing up for their first day,” says Aimee George Leary, who is the McLean, Virginia-based consulting company’s director of learning and development.

Vestas, which has its U.S. headquarters in Portland, Oregon, had a U.S. workforce of nearly 1,900 people in 2008. Nearly three times as many employees could be on board in 2010, according to Kranz.

 The resulting “people and culture tsunami” is prompting Vestas to take a more comprehensive approach to training and development, says Helle Bay, the company’s senior vice president of business performance and operations.

 “We had to focus on our people and our culture: finding out what’s good for them and walking the walk” to help them grow professionally, Bay says.

It sounds like Booz Allen and Vestas do everything but throw its employees in and let them “sink or swim.”

The process of learning by osmosis isn’t the best in the real world of business. Getting everyone involved in the basics of your business makes dollars and sense – take the Booz Allen and Vestas examples as evidence.

Using short, well-planned meetings held over a period of several weeks/months can help you give your team members a solid foundation.  

Here are some topics to consider including in your sessions:

·         What is your company’s mission statement and how does each individual fit in?

·         Why is your company in business, and how do you measure your success as an organization?

·         Where does revenue comes from at your company?

·         What are some of the unique features of your company positioning strategy and value to customers, and who are your major competitors?

This is the kind of information that helps people at all levels develop a big picture understanding of why they do what they are doing in your organization, and that all adds up to motivation. 

People at all levels need to have a basic understanding of what they are trying to accomplish and why, in order to achieve results.

Read the rest of Kranz’ article, “Training that Starts Before the Job Begins” at http://www.workforce.com/section/11/feature/26/55/57/.

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