From New Hire to Team Member: Key Methods for Overcoming Onboarding Barriers A case-study at Boeing Flight Operations Implementation Department
Publicerad
Författare
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Master's Thesis
Master's Thesis
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
Onboarding is the process by which new employees are integrated into the organiza-
tion and develop the knowledge and skills needed to become effective team members.
The quality of onboarding processes impacts time to productivity, job satisfaction,
and cost, making it a critical business process. How to achieve the desired onboard-
ing quality in environments of high business complexity has received little to no
attention in previous research. This master thesis has contributed to this research
gap by analyzing how to improve the quality and efficiency of an onboarding process
through a qualitative case study. The case study investigated the Case Company’s
current onboarding processes and identified possible barriers to learning. Lastly, the
study analyzed and presented improvement initiatives to increase onboarding quality
and efficiency. The studied department at the Case Company implements in-house
developed IT systems for airlines globally, mainly employing engineers with higher
degrees. Challenges regarding time to productivity and strain on mentors have been
experienced within their onboarding processes. Both the talent program onboarding
and regular onboarding process are built upon a mentorship program accompanied
by courses. The study has identified and highlighted current barriers within the
areas of business complexity, process variation, courses, mentorship, and socializa-
tion. With business complexity being the most significant barrier to becoming a
productive team member, process variation impacts the possibilities of continuously
developing the process, and socialization is one of the Case Company’s strengths
compared to previous research. Based on the identified barriers, some of the rec-
ommended initiatives for the Case Company include increased formalization of the
onboarding process, striving for a mentee-centered learning approach, and involv-
ing new employees in customer interactions early. Firstly, a formalized onboarding
process aims to provide similar conditions for success to all mentors and mentees
by balancing standardization and adaptability. Secondly, Mentee-centered learn-
ing focuses on planning learning around each mentee. This could be done through
increased digital course offerings complemented with workshops rather than pre-
scheduled physical courses. Finally, customer interactions have been identified as
one of the main experiences facilitating increased learning within business complex-
ity. The case study further shows the impact organizational culture can have on
socialization.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
Onboarding Process, Onboarding Barriers, Mentorship, Process Improvement, Business Complexity, Socialization