Successful Onboarding for Every DISC Personality

When we hear the term “onboarding,” we tend to think of a basic orientation and some training. To give new employees the tools they need in order to be successful in their job, however, onboarding needs to be a broader set of experiences, including: providing information, acquiring skills, building relationships and connections, and learning the cultural norms of the organization.

Why do you need onboarding?

Obviously, each of these activities takes time, money, and energy. While some people might find these unnecessary, there are three main reasons to develop effective onboarding plans:

• Employee retention – Your actions speak volumes to new hires, and the effort of integrating them into their new role tells them just how important they are. Plus, you worked hard to attract them, now do your best to keep them!
• Customer satisfaction – A properly prepared team of new employees can hit the ground running and keep the customer on the top of their list. If they are spending time trying to figure out which software platform to use, they can’t effectively help the customer.
• Rework – Not doing the job properly the first time quickly cuts into profits. These failures are often at the intersection of skills, connections, and information. Even having one of these legs missing can jeopardize quality and on-time delivery.

Why onboarding needs to be customized based on personality?

Onboarding can be for one person at a time or for 400 people over 6 weeks. In either case, there are key learnings from the four DISC personality styles that will strengthen your onboarding plan. You will have to adapt these suggestions to your specific situation in order to deliver the best new hire experience.

Chances are you used the DISC hiring assessment, so that information can help create a successful onboarding process. The DISC report is based upon four primary personality styles: Dominant, Influential, Steady, and Compliant. While we are all different, the combination of these four styles helps us understand and generally predict our behavior, manage interactions, and improve relationships. Onboarding is the beginning of your company’s relationship with the new hire. Let’s look at a summary of the general characteristics and approaches for onboarding each of the DISC styles:

• Dominant– The key points for onboarding this personality is to keep it “bottom-line” focused and provide opportunities for them to feel in control of their own onboarding process.
• Influential– It’s important to make this personality style feel welcome and accepted. They crave connection and approval, so provide time to allow them to express their ideas and engage with others.
• Steady – This style doesn’t like change, and a new job is automatically stressful to them. Give them structure and a plan for their onboarding on the first day.
• Compliant – These new hires love information and logic. Know that they will ask a lot of questions and you should have additional resources for them to explore on their own.

Learn how to successfully onboard each personality with a free eBook “Successful Onboarding Plans for Every Personality Style” with an included Checklist for Successful Onboarding.