When your neighbors have signs in the front yard advertising the “Movement Against Payments” association.

When you see a lone cyclist with the anxiety painted on his face in an inferno of aggressive, honking giant cars.

When the kids’ playmates are about to burst into laughter at your proposal to walk to the park.

… Then you know that without a car, you’re not going anywhere. A natural effect of that culture is that the body steadily and safely degenerates to the point where I order a small draught beer, since my car-driving academic arms can’t lift anything else. Instead of following the customs of the country, which compensates for the lack of exercise with a Triple Bacon Ultimate Monster Combo Burger with cheese fries from Wendy’s, I turned to “SoldierFit”. A training center run by active duty-soldiers from the US Marine with all that it entails. Given that my Danish military contribution was to write “øf øf” for all the questions at the session, so that a long-haired musician could escape, my choice seemed quite obvious.

As I sign up, I am greeted by numerous questions. In addition to the basic data such as name, address, nationality and, of course, card information, personal matters such as background, motivation, and interests are asked. It seems a little overdone, but I give it a candid shot, and don’t think about it anymore – until I arrive. Here, I am met by a big screen welcoming “Simon Schmidt” and a trainer who has read and references my information. In addition, the team I am assigned has an international edge thus others in a similar situation, which makes small talk somewhat easier and immediate. Rarely have I experienced such a personal welcome. I was home!

Who has ever been received in such a way as a new employee? The usual story is a slightly surprised organization that gets a new employee with the prospect of a time with lack of equipment and access, introduction and information. Like many of the company’s processes such as procurement, maintenance, inventory management, etc. onboarding just doesn’t get the same attention. But there is money and prestige in not only getting an employee productive as quickly as possible, but also making the employee feel welcome and wanted. The cap must be correctly screwed on from the beginning. It forms ripples in the water and helps to make the company attractive and in demand among candidates. First impressions last.

With Onboarding 2.0, SuccessFactors closes the gap between a successful recruitment and a prepared start-up in the organization, in the form of an integratable module between Recruitment and Employee Central. Centrally, start-up programmes are orchestrated, adapted to new employees containing data collection, signatures, equipment requests, and preparation lists. This is also where start-up meetings can be informed, awarded a “buddy”, set goals or recommend specific partners in the start-up phase. In addition, notifications can be formed in such a way that the right IT accesses and access cards are established. The new employee will have access to the Onboarding home page with managed content after recruitment and before the first working day, and with direct communication pathway and data exchange to the new workplace. This means that the new employee can help to “hit” the new workplace on a running basis. The module is created by using the many options SuccessFactors already offers in terms of language, GDPR and mobile support. There is thus plenty of opportunity to have differentiated courses in different countries/regions in different languages.

In addition, the module provides a solution for what is rarely talked about when the topic falls on onboarding – namely offboarding. What is the process when the employee leaves the company? Here lies both an interest in the employee having a positive perception of the former workplace, but also an opportunity to get unfiltered feedback on the organization. This process can also be set up and it enables the establishment of meetings with the offboardee regarding feedback and experiences, orchestration of knowledge transferring, keeping track of and handing in the company’s belongings and, not least, inform about the employee’s parting.

Although the module can stand alone, it is, in my opinion, most interesting in combination with recruitment or employee central and even better, both. In this case, it is an obvious gain that can be established relatively quickly and cheaply. Send a message and we’ll have a chat.

And that little draught beer? I feel like I’m ready to order the somewhat heavier strawberry daiquiri.