Finding Your Feet in the New Job: How Onboarding Can Support the Integration of Newcomers

• In Event: Learning in the Workplace

Abstract

In the course of changing employers, new hires strive for professional and social integration and try to fit into the new cultural environment. To support this process of organizational socialization and to promote the professional development of newcomers, employers offer onboarding practices. Guideline-based interviews are used to examine the extent to which new employees experience these onboarding practices as conducive to their start with the new employer. Initial results show that, in addition to formalized onboarding practices, participants identify a number of other factors that have helped them to get started. Moreover, the participants are well aware that they are a decisive factor for the success of organizational socialization.

Authors

• Stefanie Zutavern, University of Mannheim

• Juergen Seifried, University of Mannheim