Onboarding Success: Transform Your Organisation's Onboarding Experience with The ECD.

The Emotional Culture Deck can be used to stimulate meaningful discussions among leaders. Asking the question, "How do you want people to feel and not feel when they join your organisation?" can profoundly impact defining an effective onboarding strategy.

Here's why this question is so powerful:

1. Encourages empathy: By asking this question, leaders are prompted to put themselves in the shoes of new employees, fostering an empathetic mindset. They'll start to appreciate the emotional needs of their people and create a welcoming onboarding process that caters to those needs.

2. Prioritises emotional well-being: This question makes it clear that emotions count in our workplace. It underscores the importance of emotional well-being. Leaders who understand the significance of emotional well-being are more likely to create a positive work environment that supports employee engagement and satisfaction.

3. Clarifies expectations: The question encourages leaders to articulate the emotions they want to evoke in new employees. This clarity helps set expectations for both the organization and the employees, ensuring a better alignment of values, culture, and work practices.

4. Promotes open communication: Talking about emotions can be a bit tricky, but asking this question gets the ball rolling. It helps create an open atmosphere where everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts.

5. Drives cultural alignment: By identifying the desired emotional culture, leaders can work together to establish a cohesive onboarding strategy that aligns with the organization's values, mission, and vision. This ensures new employees quickly integrate into the company culture and feel a sense of belonging.

6. Enhances employee retention: When leaders prioritize the emotional well-being of new employees, they are more likely to feel supported and valued, leading to increased job satisfaction, performance, and employee retention rates.

7. Supports diversity and inclusion: By acknowledging the emotions they want to avoid, leaders can work towards creating an inclusive environment that supports employees from different backgrounds and experiences, fostering a diverse and thriving workplace.

ECD Activity

Here's an activity for exploring the emotions that might hold your people and teams back.

Use the ECD to answer this question: How do you want people to feel and not feel when they join your organisation?

• Step 1: Select the three black and three white ECD cards you want your people to feel and not feel when they join your team or organisation.
• Step 2: Ask each person to describe why they selected those six cards.
• Step 3: List three-five actions you can take to help your people experience the desired emotions and manage the undesired emotions when they join your team.

Asking "How do you want people to feel and not feel when they join your organization?" helps leaders in creating an emotionally intelligent onboarding strategy that fosters empathy, prioritises emotional well-being, clarifies expectations, promotes open communication, drives cultural alignment, enhances employee retention, and supports diversity and inclusion. By addressing these critical aspects, leaders can lay the foundation for a successful onboarding experience and a thriving organisational culture.