Problem

Hiring managers were struggling with the amount of time needed to manually customize onboarding experiences, keep up with changing resources, and provide a department-wide consistent experience to all new hires.

Solution: Interactive Onboarding Calendar Template

The template was a Google Sheets-based tool with accompanying Google Docs-based documentation. It included a series of features to help reduce onboarding setup admin time. Features included:

• Linked Department Database: The template sheet pulled department-wide admin information such as associates' names, email addresses, geographic locations, time zones, team managers, role alignments, and other details, allowing managers to easily include this info during setup and planning or give it to their new team member directly. A manager was prompted to use a dropdown to select a specific associate to align to an onboarding role. Then the template would parse the information and apply it throughout the onboarding calendar into meeting invites and agendas. The system would flag time zone inconsistencies to allow for easier schedulings.
• Linked Role-Specific Templates: The template sheet pulled individual onboarding schedules aligned to the goals of 10+ department roles using a bespoke modular onboarding program system to create a customized curriculum. Role templates included required and optional activities, time commitments, links to resources and files, and meeting schedules. While the template brought in the basic information, managers were also provided with instructions for customizing based on role level, location, type of hire, and systems access.
• Date and Holiday Management: The template incorporated company holidays for 8 different locations, and automatically skipped those days in the calendar. It also allowed for more granular customization by hiring managers to move and adjust modules manually or automatically based on their needs and the information they had.
• Meeting Scheduling: The template automatically generated a file which could be imported into Outlook on a PC to automatically create planners for all required and optional meetings, including the correct dates and times, with time zone adjustments. 
• Automated Individual Links: A Google AppScript included with the template allowed for quick auto-hyperlinking of individual resources, such as customized welcome kits, aligned interactive training sessions, and individual trackers. 

​Results

• Decreased hiring manager admin time from an average of 5 hours to 30 minutes.
• Centralized updates meant that new hires were 80% less likely to access out-of-date resources.
• Managers reported an easier and more streamlined onboarding setup experience.
• New hires across 250+ person department had a consistent onboarding experience.
• With everyone using the same system, managers could more easily provide coverage due to unexpected leave.