Executive Onboarding
The Need
When it comes to securing top talent for top positions, today's business landscape is increasingly complex and competitive . Given the struggles of the current economy, it is critical to make sure that each executive hiring decision has a lasting and positive impact on business results. Now more than ever before. Unfortunately, for both organizations and newly recruited executives, too large a percentage of these decisions do not work out. When the fit is not right and an executive decides to leave or is asked to do so, the costs are tremendous. Lost time, focus, talent and energy. Lowered morale and decreased confidence in leadership. Confusion, gossip, and wondering about who’s in charge and what will happen next. Momentum is stalled, plans are put on hold, and business results are delayed. Some estimates of direct and indirect costs in such cases put the price tag at ten times the executive’s annual salary.
StartSmart² LLC
With StartSmart², Marlyse Cato and Kathleen Ryan offer a uniquely tailored and cost-effective approach to executive onboarding to Pacific Northwest organizations. Building on our 60+ years of experience in human resources, change management, and organization and leadership development, our goal is to help organizations retain and leverage the talent that people have worked hard to recruit. New leaders quickly get up to speed and deliver on business results through on-boarding consultation that helps them to:
- Understand and adapt appropriately to the new culture
- Establish their leadership credibility
- Build effective relationships
- Become an effective agent for the changes needed by the organization
Our first connection is with the leader who hires the new executive, identifying the spoken and unspoken role expectations and success criteria. Depending on the size of the organization, we would develop an ongoing partnership with the HR staff responsible for executive recruitment. Over time, each additional on-boarding engagement enables faster and easier collaboration between the organization’s key players and ourselves. As local practitioners who want to work with only a few local clients, we avoid the high overhead and formulaic programs of many of the large national search or consulting firms. As such, we see our on-boarding services as a smart start for organizations. More specifically benefits include:
- Increased likelihood that a new executive quickly asserts effective leadership that contributes to organizational success
- Executive on-boarding actually gets done and is done well and consistently; it is not left to already constrained internal resources
- This type of support is a recruiting advantage for top talent
- Feedback to the organization regarding progress of the new executive, his or her fit with the organization, the organization’s culture and systems and how they influence leadership effectiveness
Details of Executive On-Boarding
Our consultation is end-to-end, lasting up to one year from the time a job offer is accepted. While the primary focus of the work is the new executive, other key players in the consultation include the executive’s new boss and Human Resource and Organization Development partners. A core set of activities include:
- Getting to know the organizational culture and leadership expectations
- Understanding the specific expectations of the new executive
- Developing an on-boarding plan unique to each new executive
- Periodic assessment and feedback to new exec and to the organization
- Executive coaching
- Observing the new exec and providing feedback
- Facilitating group discussions and team building sessions with the new exec’s direct reports and, if appropriate, his or her larger team
- Check-ins with the exec’s boss, HR, and OD partners
- A 12-month assessment of progress and feedback to the exec and the organization
- Building HR capability
Thanks to a talented pool of colleagues, ancillary services can include candidate assessments during recruitment; pre-acceptance support for a candidate considering an offer; spouse or partner relocation or career support; coaching on public speaking; membership in executive forums; and personal counseling services.
Details of Building HR Capability
HR leaders need HR staff on the ground who can connect effectively with line executives and managers in order to help them produce business results. Strong HR practitioners support their business clients by coaching them in the application of people strategies. Many HR functions do not have this critical capability. The goal of this consultation is to assist HR leaders in building an HR organization that brings obvious value to business clients, where HR staff at all levels are viewed as credible, trustworthy, and effective partners. Toward this end, we offer our clients a set of results-oriented services, including:
Delivering HR services with a business mindset: understand the client’s business, revenue stream and/or contribution margin; understand how HR contributes to profitability
Creating a high performance culture within HR: create clarity around the value proposition for HR; define the values, assumptions, and strategies that will shape how HR staff work with each other
Coaching and feedback: increase effective use of client engagement strategies; adapt interpersonal style to match clients; become a catalyst for organizational change
Facilitating HR team development: build trust and clarity among the HR team to maximize productivity and job satisfaction
Developing proactive, systems-based skills of HR staff: see patterns of behavior for individuals and groups; serve as a sounding board and mirror for clients; prioritize work and determine the correct level of engagement with clients
Consulting skills practicum: build change-focused process consulting skills through a structured action-learning experience where participants consult on real issues with real business clients
Building readiness among business clients: consultations with line organizations in order to pave the way for effective HR engagement