Article: Macquarie - Integrating new candidates into organizational culture

Employee Engagement

Macquarie - Integrating new candidates into organizational culture

Macquarie Global Services recognized the need to enhance the onboarding experience for new joiners and established a consistent and standardized orientation program for all
Macquarie - Integrating new candidates into organizational culture
 

The onboarding plan is designed using the 3E methodology of learning from Experience, Exposure and Education

 

Onboarding is an important process. There is a high correlation between onboarding and future employee retention. Macquarie Global Services recognized a need to enhance the onboarding experience for new joiners. With an aim to enhance and refresh the company’s orientation program, Macquarie focused on establishing a consistent and standardized orientation program for all employees regardless of their business or team.

Getting new employees to settle faster

The goal was to create an end-to-end experience over a six-month probation period. Through this initiative, Macquarie sought to increase productivity by ensuring that the new employees were equipped in their roles, but also developed an understanding and appreciation of Macquarie’s culture. The program also sought to increase engagement and retention to make employees feel valued and reaffirm their decision to join the company. Another important aspect of the program was to ensure the new employees were aware of and aligned to Macquarie’s principles, culture and values. Macquarie recognizes the correlation between onboarding and future employee retention so it was important that the process was well structured, transparent and enabled the employee to settle into their role faster, and ultimately made more productive.

Putting onboarding strategy in place

Macquarie has initiated a 180 day onboarding program for new joiners in its Gurgaon office. The program has been designed to help new joiners understand the business and culture, establish their bearings around the office and also learn how to make their mark in Macquarie’s fast paced growth. The 180-day onboarding plan has been designed using the 3E methodology of learning from Experience, Exposure and Education. The plan is therefore a combination of various classroom sessions, on-the-job learning, e-learning programs and networking opportunities with senior leaders as well cross functional teams. This provides new joiners a holistic understanding of Macquarie’s culture.

Some of the key elements covered in the 180 day on-boarding program include:

· Pre-joining connect with a new starter along with a buddy from the team

· Mandatory Day 1 orientation providing an extensive overview of the organization’s business operations, global presence and culture

· Cultural awareness to promote healthy working relationships despite globally distributed workforce

· Functional orientation to provide a team specific induction

· Overview of performance management processes and mandatory objective setting in alignment with organizational goals

Apart from these, the 180 day program also covers sessions on diversity and inclusion, networking for success, working in a matrix environment and the art of communicating effectively.

Capturing benefits and learnings to improve the program

After the launch of the onboarding program, Macquarie saw a sustained and significant improvement in the feedback from new employees on the efficiency of the process as well as the overall experience of joining Macquarie. Leadership interaction and engagement with new joiners have risen significantly which has provided the joiners at Macquarie with exposure to possible career growth and opportunities to enhance internal networks. As a result, there has also been a drop in the attrition rate of employees within the first year of joining. The learning curve for new hires has also reduced leading to improved productivity and overall engagement with the organization and its culture.

Macquarie is now looking at persistently improving the 180 day onboarding program. Virtual floor walk of corporate and regional offices at locations outside of India for new joiners is an initiative that Macquarie is looking to launch soon. The company hopes to include new joiners who have successfully undergone the program in the planning process to bring improvements to the program in terms of content and methodology. 

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Topics: Employee Engagement, #RootedinLearning

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