Employee onboarding

What is employee onboarding?

Employee onboarding is bringing a new hire up to speed on the role, the people and how work gets done. It starts before day one and runs well past orientation. For a new seller, it covers the services sold and the territory, along with the internal relationships needed to get work quoted, approved and delivered.

Why it matters to a revenue leader

Each week a new seller spends unsure of the role is a week of pay with little to show for it, so onboarding drives ramp time and can shape whether new hires stay. Research by Phillip Wiseman, Michael Ahearne and colleagues, published by Baylor University's Keller Center, found that new salespeople onboarded through decentralized, manager-led field training sold 23.5% more on average than those in centralized programs, and the gap widened when managers had fewer people to supervise. That puts the front-line manager at the center of onboarding. For new leaders, Mark Byford, Michael Watkins and Lena Triantogiannis argued in HBR in 2017 that support beyond standard onboarding helps executives reach full performance sooner.

An environmental services company hires four sellers in a year. Two attend a week of classroom training and then work their territories alone. The other two spend their first three months on site walks and bids with their branch manager. After nine months, the second pair has booked $320,000 between them against $260,000 for the first pair.