Why is executive onboarding important?

Onboarding executives is important to your organization because:

• It enables the new executive member to concentrate on their responsibilities. The new CEO may concentrate on performing the requirements of the position after an efficient and transparent onboarding procedure has been established.
• Turnover rates are lowered. A company's resources may be used heavily on the hiring, training, and retention of new executives. Executive team members may acclimate to their new positions easier by setting clear objectives and formalizing the onboarding process, which can lower the likelihood of employee turnover.
• Executive onboarding enhances employee morale. Executive team members are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs when they have the resources necessary to accomplish them properly.
• Executives can now take on enterprise-level responsibilities more quickly. An executive might be better prepared for their work through a successful onboarding process. This suggests that they could be more prepared to embark on ambitious initiatives and quickly incorporate themselves into the objectives of the business.

Now that you know what executive employee onboarding is and why it's important, let's dive into the process of onboarding a new executive.

How to onboard executives effectively

The process of onboarding new executives should differ from bringing on standard team members. These executive members help develop employees, achieve organizational goals, prioritize tasks, and lead their teams through executive presence. That's why your onboarding process for executives needs to provide an experience that will quickly ramp them up to speed and engrain them into your company culture.

Here's the 6-step process to onboard executives into your organization:

Step #1: The executive onboarding process starts with the interview

There are compelling arguments that cultural fit is one of the most important qualities a job candidate can have. HBR’s Katie Bouton puts it best:

Cultural fit is the likelihood that someone will reflect and/or be able to adapt to the core beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that make up your organization.

And a 2005 analysis revealed that employees who fit well with their organization, coworkers, and supervisor had greater job satisfaction, were more likely to remain with their organization, and showed superior job performance.

Successful executive onboarding is a lot easier if your new executive already fits well with your organization. Assessing cultural fit during your recruiting process should be a top priority. Consider tailoring your interview questions to address cultural fit. Focus on recruiting executives that will work well within your company’s culture.

Of course, this isn’t always possible. But it will give you a big advantage when it comes to executive onboarding.

Step #2: Create a 90-day executive onboarding plan

After you’ve decided to hire an executive, it’s a good idea to create a 90-day executive onboarding plan. This will outline the events, meetings, and priorities that your new CxO should focus on over the first three months on the job.

This document should contain everything from planned lunches with direct reports to high-level strategic considerations.

You can download our executive onboarding template below, or you can design your own. Whatever you decide to do, work with your new exec to ensure that it’s both reasonable and useful.

Step #3: Continue onboarding after their start date

Between the interview and their first day on the job is another important time for executive onboarding.

Absolute honesty is crucial with new executives. They need to know what’s working in your company, what’s not, who they’ll be working with and what they’re like, and any problems they’re likely to face right away.

A new executive will perform significantly better if they know what they’re getting into. Low team morale, staffing difficulties, communication problems, and departmental dysfunction are much easier to deal with if an executive is aware of them from the outset.

You should also let your new exec know about your company’s strengths. A strong company culture, especially helpful employees, effective resources, and anything else that your execs can take advantage of are incredibly helpful.

One of the best ways to get this kind of information to your new CxO is to pair them up with an executive mentor.

Even CEOs need mentors. In a confidential, supportive mentor relationship, new execs can ask difficult questions and get honest answers. They can get a feel for the company’s strengths and weaknesses without worrying about their relationship with you (or whoever hired them in the first place).

Find someone in a good position to mentor the incoming exec and encourage them to take on a mentoring role. The value of an incoming CxO is incalculable.

You should also arrange meetings with other C-level executives as well as your new CxO’s direct reports. It doesn’t need to be anything formal—just make sure that your new executive knows the people they’re going to be working with. Schedule a lunch or a coffee to facilitate introductions.

Step #4: Hit the ground running quickly

Byford, Watkins, and Triantogiannis recommend that companies get their new executives involved in both operation and strategy immediately.

C-level executives need to be immersed in business-critical areas of operation—they should be sitting in on important meetings to see how the company functions, taking part in discussions about parts of the company they don’t oversee, and be introduced to the parts of the business that are even peripherally connected to their own.

They should also have a strong introduction to the company’s strategic plans:

• Where is your company going?
• How will it get there?
• What changes will need to be made?
• How will they be affected, and what’s expected of them?

These are all questions that need to be answered.

Of course, there’s such a thing as too much early on in an executive’s tenure, so you’ll need to be careful with this. That’s why it’s good to have a 90-day executive onboarding plan. You hired a capable person to do this job, so you can throw a lot of information at them. But don’t overdo it.

After this level of preparation, your new executive is ready to start driving strategy. It’s important to hand over the reins quickly. That’s why you hired a new executive in the first place. With the right preparation, they’ll be fully ready to start making positive changes in the company.

Step #5: Provide opportunities to connect with the rest of the organization

Beverly Morgan sums up this point nicely: “New CxOs should be visible CxOs.”

As a leader in the company, your new executive needs to make connections with not only other C-levels but with the larger employee base as well. This is a new leader that you’re bringing on, and they’re expected to lead your company. It seems obvious that they should be visible to employees, but it’s easy to overlook.

New executives should be in touch with the people under them—not just their direct reports, but the front-line employees beneath them, too. New CxOs should share their visions and the plans they have for taking the company forward.

Making personal appearances and discussing issues of importance, priorities, and ideas is the best way to get a CxO engaged with the workforce. It’s easiest to do this at very small companies, but even larger companies can take steps to make a new CxO more visible.

Step #6: Know when onboarding is complete

At a certain point, executive onboarding needs to stop. If you stick with your 90-day plan, you shouldn’t have any problem turning over full control to your new CxO. There are always more things to learn, and it can be tempting to continue teaching and hand-holding long after it’s necessary.

You hired a capable and effective leader, and it’s time you let them do their job. Different companies and CxOs will have unique onboarding requirements, so you may find that 90 days is way too long or doesn’t cover everything your CxO needs to know.

That’s why executive onboarding is a constantly evolving process. Take a look at how effective your onboarding process was and adapt the procedure for your next new executive. Ask current executives what they wish they would have known when they started, and incorporate that into the onboarding process.

Like any other business process, executive onboarding is one that requires continual refinement.

Always improve the executive onboarding process

Whether you’re about to bring on a new CxO or not, you should be prepared to start the onboarding process. Circumstances change quickly, and you might need a new exec sooner than you think. It’s time to get your executive onboarding plan together, no matter what stage of hiring (or not hiring) you’re in.

The most important thing to remember in executive onboarding is that it can always be improved. Keep the lines of communication open, identify strong mentors that can help you improve the process without breaking confidentiality, and observe new execs to see what’s working and what’s not.

In the end, you’ll find that you save time and effort in the onboarding process.