The key to a successful employee induction is a great on-boarding experience. Simple yet efficient, this process helps make a warm impact on your employers and retain excellent performers in the long run.
Tweet
Gen X (or Generation X are the people born between the mid-1960s and the early 1980s) have mostly already started their careers and are in their mid-life career wise as compared to the new young adults who have just taken a foot in the industry. Gen Xers are those who had working parents in their childhoods, because of wars, recession and many more reasons. It was because of this that they learnt to be free, independent, and have a set of goals or rules in their work ethic.
According to research they occupy 60% of the current workforce, engaging them is crucial for any organization’s fate. Gen Xers are ridiculed to be lax and lazy, as they do not have the same mindset as that of the generation before or after them. But in this stage where the employees who followed a hierarchical management are retiring and innocent, doe-eyed adults who know nothing of the company are entering, Gen X is the perfect employee to hire. But to recruit Gen X, you need to follow certain ways to have a strongly retained employee: Gen Xers prefer on-boarding programs that incorporate self-guided processes. So, designing the Induction Program which is comprehensive and yet interesting to Gen X is exceedingly essential.
Here are 5 things to do before building a particular on-boarding program that will ensure your employees have high-performance productivity and engagement:
Tweet
- Creating a Positive Atmosphere
Seeing that Gen X is approaching their 40s–50s, they would shift more into roles that allow them to lead. Born in the era where children had to be independent from a young age, they learnt to be pragmatic and cynical of adults. It makes sense for Gen X to lean more towards development and mobility. But they won’t hesitate to leave a job where they don’t feel valued or feel any room to grow skill wise.
Gen Xers are those who create and take nothing in return just work flexibility and freedom with their work, examples of such are the creators of Google, YouTube and Amazon. There is a simple approach in keeping a Gen X in the company and that is making sure they get as many projects to develop as possible to keep them satiated.
2. Designing Content Gen X Wants
According to Deborah Masten, HR Director for Plano, Gen X can’t be led by examples but interactions. They want to know what’s expected of them, and they want accurate and timely feedback. A systematic on-boarding process can plan out A to Z of a project to help both the employees and the employers. It can be done by systematic planning using any good on-boarding processes. ICE-Cube Induction Framework is one such framework that can help you in scoping out how, when and what to deliver to the new hires.
3. Make Learning Fun and Interactive
Make sure you don’t go bland in the on-boarding of Gen X; it is essential to not make them lose interest in you. Incorporate a modern portal that includes videos and gamified learning to make the process more interactive. Avoid monotonous presentations from obstructing fun on-boarding experience. Gen Cers maybe in their 40s, but they sure are tech savvy.
4. Go Mobile
Gen Xers love to work, develop and are happy to see their projects execute perfectly. This is the main difference of them from the previous generation, their ability to work with the Internet. Gen X can work from anywhere, anytime: and being shackled is their biggest pet peeve.
Gen Xers are self-reliant and thus if given the opportunity they can develop their own skill sets by applying their creativity and resources given to them by managers.
5. Appreciations & Rewards
Gen Xers have established a settled state in their life by working and have families as a priority. Flexibility makes sense from their perspective to spend time outside work. To recruit, retain and motivate Gen X, appealing to their needed work-life balance is a must. By giving them remote creative control over projects, giving immediate rewards and a good relationship with the team and managers are few ways of successful on-boarding of Gen X.
Given that 72% of companies have a bring your own device (BYOD) policy and allow employees to bring their own devices to work, Gen X has a higher chance of control over their schedules, decisions, responsibilities and creative freedom. The onboarding is a win-win for both the hir
Tweet
By Isha Repal, Content Writer at QuoDeck
QuoDeck 