Onboarding employees with Kanban

• Problems

• Kanban for onboarding

• Defining onboarding workflow steps

• Create and manage task cards

• The role of WIP limits in adaptation

• Visualization and monitoring of the adaptation process

• Kanban onboarding

• Overcoming Potential Obstacles

• Conclusion

Companies help new employees adapt to their roles and corporate culture through onboarding (adaptation).

It involves filling in forms, conducting briefings, coordinating stereotypical training and assigning first tasks.

If well done it gives the employees the leeway in which they can optimally and readily adapt to a new working environment.

This is why Kanban is suitable in the onboarding process given the effectiveness it has when it comes to task management. Kanban boards can represent onboarding milestones and help the companies to optimize the flow of work, to identify the possible work front log jams, and to speed up new hires onboard process.

Thus, it can be stated that Kanban is a valuable effective approach towards enhancing the onboarding process as it positively affects the employee’s indoctrination within a company.

Problems

It is as follows that many organizations encounter challenges in the process of employee onboarding, thus determining the efficiency of the process and the feelings of the new worker.

Here are some typical difficulties:

• Time-consuming: Documents, orientation and other activities that are on any onboarding process take time hence affect organizational productivity.

• Inconsistent processes: New hires are thus likely to produce mixed results since there is no strict orientation left that would help reduce knowledge or skills gaps.

• Lack of Engagement: If the onboarding experience is not positive they tend to feel isolated or even abandon ship and this is not good for motivation or retention.

• Task overload can slow down an employee's onboarding.

• Feedback loops. New hires can react to a number of challenges such as having diverse expectations and unclear performance feedback.

Kanban for onboarding

It supports prototypes because, like everything mentioned so far, kanban can be used for onboarding. If there are new hire tasks, define them as best as possible in order to try and make them as tailored as possible.

This may include some paper work, training programs, introduction to the members of your team, your first tasks among others.

Kanban board setup

• Set up a kanban board. Onboarding may not easily be mapped to traditional process stages such as To Do, In Progress or Done. On the other hand, employ onboarding phases which include; Orientation, Training, Internship or Project Assignment. And a ‘new employee’ is made more conspicuous in their progress in the organization.

• Set WIP limits for each stage. This limits the newbie's workload and helps them focus.

• Place the task cards in the appropriate columns. When a new employee is onboarding, they move tasks across the board.

Defining onboarding workflow steps

Effective Kanban onboarding requires a thoughtful process.

Typical workflow:

• Orientation. In this strategy the new hire should be oriented on the organizational culture, the values and expectations of the company.

• Documentation. To signings, acquire new hires’ identification, completed contracts, tax forms, policy acknowledgements and the like.

• Training: In this phase, the new employee is formally taught something and is taught to make use of learning modules online or any other module.

• Mentorship, internship. An employee, for instance, gets close attention and counsel from a particular person who is his or her mentor.

• Integration includes assigning initial tasks, organizing new employees into teams, and helping them work.

• Feedback and Evaluation: Another way is to have check-ups to talk about some problems, about the developments, and about the results as well can help new hires to accustom.

Kanban cards move from left to right as they are executed.

Create and manage task cards

• According to the view of Kanban, we have one thing called task cards. These cards are depicting new hiring challenges.

• For every task card, the following need to be captured: a description, due date and resources or contacts.

Working with task cards

For Kanban adaptation, therefore, task card management is needed. “Orientation” though not all encompassing is part of the first steps that are taken during the onboarding process. In the organization, new employees hand over cards as an indication that they have achieved certain tasks.

The role of WIP limits in adaptation

Therefore, constraints are the key to onboarding. Reducing the number of active tasks within a day reduces your work list and also gives all your concentration towards achieving these tasks.

WIP limits decline the new employees’ opportunity to be flooded with the amount of work. So that you can minimize your cognitive load, when one task is being assigned it will solely be about that assignment.

WIP limits also mean that bottlenecks are easily noticed and can therefore be addressed appropriately. A buildup of tasks at a particular stage means that there is an issue.

Visualization and monitoring of the adaptation process

Some areas where things can be tracked using Kanban include onboarding. The board displays new employees and managers’ goals and achievements.

In the process of onboarding, new hires are able to see and even better understand the current tasks through the use of kanban by moving cards. One of the benefits prevents the identification of the tasks that have been done, those that are in progress, and those that are still in dreams while showing where there is a congestion.

Kanban onboarding

A software technology firm is seeking to recruit a software engineer. Kanban for customization:

• "Company Orientation" is the header of the “Tasks” column. Welcome the new employee and give him or her the necessary information needed about the company’s culture, organizational structure, rules and regulation.

• Documentation: Tax returns, benefits, signing for insurance and other such procedure.

• Training: To the Training column, the following options are provided, security, software development lifecycle, and enterprise tool and software training.

• Mentorship: a column with internship tasks.

• Integration: Where, “Development environment setup” is categorized under integration and “First coding task” is also categorized under integration.

• Feedback and Evaluation: Even such cards as “Weekly meeting with the manager” mean reviews as they are considered as recurring cards.

New software engineers move task cards as they go through onboarding.

Overcoming Potential Obstacles

Kanban for onboarding may have some drawbacks. Here's how to contact them:

• Resistance to Change: This might work well in the theoretical framework but in practice, team members may resist a new system. Open discussion, benefits, and training make engagement possible.

• Misinterpretation of WIP Limits: While others will regard freezing the number of ongoing projects as a speed constraint. A concentration on how these constraints enhance quality and concentration should be rather than the result.

• Overcomplicating: Do not make the boards overcrowded or overly complex as this may be very hard to understand by new employees. Make the board easy and straight to the point, only highlighting core tasks which are associated with onboarding.

• Lack of Engagement: Engaging onboarding can really help to get the new hires motivated. The highly recommended type of training is an interactive training or engaging in team building.

• Inconsistent Feedback: But this is something that must be done on a regular basis. Give feedbacks and assistance through continuous assessment and monitoring of the progress of students through progress review or meetings.

Conclusion

Applying the principles of kanban positively impact onboarding processes’ transparency, tasks assignments, and employees’ engagement. Onboarding can be easily monitored through the card which is moved through the workflow steps depicted on the board and this is important to the new hires and managers.

Work In Progress limits keep the work from getting out of hand and enables one to work on one thing at a time. This visually structured approach is much effective when it comes to on boarding as it will enhance the probability of new employees assimilation into the organization.