When it comes to onboarding, expanding the context can make all the difference.

Last week, TALY announced the release of our latest, AI-driven tool – Onboarding Insights for new team members.

Ideas and tips - customised to the candidate, the role, your culture – to make sure that a new team member’s first experiences really land.

Why? Well, to catch up, check out our blog from last week.

But in a nutshell, 88% of employees feel that their company doesn’t do onboarding well – despite this being a critical moment to set off in the right direction for the new team member, for the team they are coming into and your culture overall.

In this week’s blog, we’re expanding on this further. Remember, our personalities don’t live in isolation – they need to CONNECT and ALIGN with the personalities around us.

So, when mapping out the ideal onboarding plan for a new team member, make sure you are thinking about the eco-system. Then you can be sure you’re really going to make an impact.

This month TALY is excited the announce the release of our customised AI-driven onboarding tool. For any leader looking to really welcome new team members in the right way, this is the solution!

The TALY Onboarding Tool starts with TALY’s valid, scientifically-backed approach to personality profiling and then uses customised AI solutions to make it easy for any leader to understand a few things they can do to maintain strong engagement from Day 1.

With the new solution, you get simple ideas on what to focus on with each new team member – a few tips and ideas to make sure you build a strong connection that aligns with their personality.

And the best part – all TALY Personality Profiles for recruitment now include these onboarding recommendations at no extra cost!

Get in touch to find out more about how you use TALY profiling to give you leadership super-powers! Or Book a Demo today to see how easy it is to start using TALY in your business.

What is the Onboarding Eco-System?

Onboarding is a critical moment in any employee’s journey. Recent research from the Harvard Business Review found that “companies that implement a formal onboarding program could see 50% greater employee retention among new recruits and 62% greater productivity within the same group.”

And in the same research, they found that “Poor onboarding can leave your employees with lower confidence in their new roles, worsened levels of engagement, and an increased risk of jumping ship when they see a new, more exciting position elsewhere”.

So it matters!

But, a great onboarding experience takes a village.

As we all know, there are a range of practical elements that need to come together to make a great onboarding experience. The aim is to get the new team member embedded, prepared, aligned and equipped to go ahead and start contributing as soon as possible.

But one critical area is WIDE OPEN for improvement – no one is thinking about the personality aspects of this.

As we discussed last week the new team member’s personality plays a very important role in how onboarding can work well for them, and why sometimes onboarding falls flat.

But equally important is the Onboarding Eco-System – the complex mix of humans and personality that the new team member is coming into. It’s not just about their personality, but it’s also about how this personality connects and aligns with the team leader, and with the team they are coming into.

Where do the personalities align? Where are the differences? What are the potential implications of this?  

If we just focus on the new employee and their personality, we’re only seeing one side of the story.

We need to think about the personality connections with the leader, with the existing team members, and also how the leaders personality is already playing a role in the team.

Why does this matter?

Your personality is the engine behind a lot of your behaviour, and creates the core within which a lot of your habits, attitudes, ideas and inter-personal approaches are formed.

Imagine this. A new team member comes into a highly extroverted team, but they are an introvert. You have two options…

Option 1: Just throw them in and see what happens.

Option 2: Actively manage the interactions and give an opportunity in a positive environment for everyone in the team to be aware of the differences.

Option 1 might be interesting to watch and to see what happens, but Option 2 is much more likely to avoid unnecessary tension, to make the new team member feel seen and understood, and for the team to actively work towards finding positive ways of working together.

Or what about this. A new team member brings a high level of Order, but their manager is very low on Order. On Day 1, the new team member will feel most comfortable with a plan and a high level of structure, they will want to know how processes work, they’ll want to understand the flow.

But the manager doesn’t see the world this way. They feel like a great first day is fluid and flexible, that it’s about exploring, and that the new team member can just get started and find their own way.

Neither of these are right or wrong perspectives, but being open on these differences, and actively planning around them, is much more likely to lead to stronger outcomes for this new working relationship.

How can you make it work?

There are lots of examples like this. It doesn’t need to become overly complicated, - just taking the time to be aware of the differences between the new team member, their manager and their new team can help you easily find where there might be moments of tension, and to pro-actively manage these tensions in a positive way.

Here are a few things you can try…

Find a buddy.

Is there someone else in the team who has a similar profile to the new employee? Can this person be a buddy, share some insights on how they navigate the different personalities to make it work.

The more open the better.

As a leader, share your personality profile with the new team member, and talk about similarities, differences and what this might mean. Not only can this help to avoid future problems, but it also sets a precedent for open and honest conversations across the team

Make personality part of the daily conversation.

Our personality plays a role in so many moments each day at work – so building a team culture that is open about personalities, and that actively works on these, will be more likely to be successful.

Diverse teams are proven to drive stronger outcomes – but only when managed effectively.

Encourage open and regular dialogue.

As a leader, build a positive rhythm with the new team member around feedback and check-in sessions, and make personality part of this. Where there are challenges or things aren’t quite working, consider the personality side of these tensions.

Or of course, you can just leverage the AI-driven personality tools inside the TALY eco-system that help you to proactively manage these interactions with new employees!

At the end of the day, like with all things personality, open and deliberate communication is the first step in building strong, connected high performing teams.

If you want to find out more about TALY’s Personality Insights and the NEW ONBOARDING TOOL, get in touch today and be sure to follow TALY Australia on LinkedIn.

The TALY approach to personality profiling brings together a unique mix of Five Factor and Emotional Intelligence profiling to help organisations, hiring managers and teams to make better decisions about recruitment and teams.

Get in touch to find out more… we love talking about this stuff! Or Book a Demo today to see how easy it is to start using TALY in your business.