All onboard

F3Wireless employs a team of engineering experts that partners with clients on anything from wireless technology certification test plans to complete device development. It’s been set up from the start where people can work remotely because such engineers tend to work best if they have long stretches of quiet time.

Until recently, the company was small enough where staff could collaborate or have questions answered through Google Chat or other online tools. But often times, information most new hires would get early in their time on a job fell by the wayside due to the lack of formal processes.

“There was no process associated with ‘How do I find someone, how do I document.’ There was no process for the job description,” says Chris Anderson, chief technical officer.

He would find someone interested in a new role, they would negotiate compensation, he’d send them a letter and refer them to the company wiki, which contained information about how to punch in to work, access the time tracking system and start getting paid and fill out the paperwork for getting paid.

Once that was filled out, he’d hand the new hire off to a project manager and they’d get to work.

Growing up

That worked fine for a while but a lot of information never ended up getting conveyed to new hires.

by Andrew Tellijohn

As the company grew — it now employs about 45 people and adds another employee every month or two — it became clear to Williams that he needed to firm up the hiring and onboarding process and that he needed help doing so.

“I was making it up each time. There were no templates, there were no existing job descriptions to riff off of,” he says. “I was doing the recruiting and it was very ad hoc.”

Through a colleague, he was introduced to Heather Boschke, owner of Vogel Venture. He contracted with Boschke to perform mostly marketing tasks, but she also took on building some systems.

Though she is a contractor, he has included her as a part of the team.

“It was that aspect of starting to become a grown-up company,” he quips. “One of the biggest keys to that is that you, as a business owner, need to focus on things that only you can do. I don’t remember who said it, but if you can pay someone to do it for you, you should.”

Now, F3 Wireless has a documented written recruiting process for what happens to create a job and recruit a new hire. There are templates to use as starting points for job descriptions and processes for winnowing the applicant pool to serious candidates truly interested in the job.

And, once someone is hired, they are assigned a “buddy” within the company to help them acclimate. The new hires receive a full employee handbook along with a checklist of activities they must perform as part of the onboarding process. Then there is a check back period several months in to make sure they have progressed as expected.

The system isn’t entirely complete — there are still things added from time to time, Williams says. Company officials have sought feedback from previous hires on what they wish they had been taught earlier in their time with the company. But it’s a professional process that provides workers with a clear understanding of the company and their place within it.

“When we do know things need to be addressed, we do add them in,” Boschke says, adding that the company just did its first round of annual reviews. “We’re going through what we’re calling universal themes that maybe one person had feedback on but it’s something the whole team could benefit from.”

Part of the culture

Properly onboarding is a vital part of making sure new employees are engaged and engineered into the company in a way that makes them feel welcomed and that they understand what the company is all about, says Boschke. Small companies do sometimes let that slide, but that can become problematic quickly as the company grows.

“In the past, when you’re small, it’s just ‘OK, you’re just going to talk to this person and they’ll fill you in,’” she says, adding that F3 Wireless’s situation was much like that faced by many growth companies. “As the team grew it was like ‘we’re big enough that we need to document and have an actual process.’”

With F3 Wireless, it took a few sit-down meetings to create the process, which lays out a total of about 30 steps that happen over the first few months.

One thing she adds is that it’s key to make the employee accountable for the information. There’s a checklist at the end of the process where they can go to make sure they know the important things like where to access the time-off calendar or how to access benefits.

“It’s not just us as an organization saying, ‘here’s your process,’” she says. “You are now in this flow.”

Make it personal

A lot of companies see the onboarding process as a way to get the employee set up so they can get benefits and pay, figure out their operating system and get started with work.

Those are all important, says Steve Schad, president of Optima Advisory LLC. But there’s a better way.

“We’re bringing somebody into the organization and we want this to be a decision affirming process,” he says. “Businesses really need to center their thinking on the employee experience. The employee is the one who’s in this job market. They’re in the driver’s seat. They have a lot of power in the employee-employer relationship. That makes it all the more important for employers to do this well.”

So, find ways to show them they made the right choice in joining the company. He suggests clearly explaining right away what the new person’s first day, first week and first month will look like on the job. Erase any confusion.

Schad remembers onboarding a new employee several years ago at Andersen Corp. where he sent her a written letter explaining just that. He told her he’d meet her in the lobby, that he’d be buying her lunch, what the dress code is, when she would be introduced at a team meeting and how her desk would be ready on day one.

“She still talks about that today and it’s almost 15 years later,” he says.

He compares it to a student on the first day of school needing to find their locker. A good or a bad experience can paint the person’s entire experience with the company.

“You’ve touched something in them on both a rational level — this is a job that’s going to meet my needs — and an emotional level — this is a job that’s going to give me fulfillment and I’m going to enjoy my work,” he says. “You want the experience of joining the organization to be one that builds on that decision.”

Chris Anderson is chief technical officer at F3Wireless: chris@f3wireless.com; www.f3wireless.com; in/the-wizard97

Heather Boschke owns Vogel Venture: 612.327.7735; heather@vogelventure.com; www.vogelventure.com; company/vogelventure

Steve Schad is president of Optima Advisory LLC: 651.587.0588; sschad@optimaadvisoryllc.com; in/steveschad

Catching Up

by Andrew Tellijohn