Boarding Capital

Recently the SHRM - Globeforce survey 2011 pointed out that most of the companies know about their engagement practices during exit-interviews. Isn't that too late? I am not ruling-out the effectiveness of exit-interviews. But for a company to know the true state of its engagement best only when an employee leaves the company is pretty much the same as letting an opportunity go-by. That brings to the point when a company should start engaging its employees.

In my opinion the most crucial part of en employee stay in any organization is the induction period. Most of the perceptions about the company, its people, its culture, its practices etc. are drawn at this time and consequently majority of the decisions regarding how long an employee decides to stay in the organization is consciously or sub-consciously taken during on-boarding stage. In other words maximum engagement or disengagement happens during this stage. After this whatever the employee experiences is contributory to that state. In short if you fail to engage an employee during the on-boarding stage, then you have missed the bus and rest of the time you are trying to catch the same... You may if ‘sprint’ well but in all likelihood you will miss. And remember, if you keep missing buses, you are less-likely to reach the destination.