NeoGrowth, an NBFC, which specialises in lending loans to small businesses and SMEs, has a programme, New Hire Connect ‘4-3-2’, that emphasises on a smooth, standardised and seamless onboarding and initial journey for a new hire, not only at the head office but across all locations and roles pan India.
Under this programme, the HR team connects with each new hire towards the 4th day, 3rd week and 2nd month from the date of joining, with a structured questionnaire as per the days spent in the organisation.
For instance, towards the 5th day, feedback taken covers aspects, such as whether laptop/desktop, ID handover, team introduction and so on, happened on time. Towards week four, it focuses on areas, such as whether the introductory meeting with skip-level manager has taken place, whether there is role clarity, whether review meetings are being conducted, and so on.
“Putting in place a formal way to better connect with employees was something we thought is the need of the hour. Before this, our attrition rate was on the higher side and this programme has helped us reduce it. It has helped us get instant feedback on our on-boarding processes and save time as we do not have to review them frequently.”
Arun Kumar Nayyar, CEO, NeoGrowth
This ‘4-3-2’ connect has helped the firm to continuously improve the on-boarding journey and gather feedback on corrective and preventive actions, for areas such as corporate and functional induction, role clarity, job satisfaction, work culture, office infrastructure and hygiene, and learning and development. For any gaps observed, corrective actions are planned in consultation with the concerned function heads/supervisors and tracked to closure.
“Putting in place a formal way to better connect with employees was something we thought is the need of the hour. Before this, our attrition rate was on the higher side and this programme has helped us reduce it. It has helped us get instant feedback on our on-boarding processes and save time as we do not have to review them frequently,” reveals Arun Kumar Nayyar, CEO, NeoGrowth.
NeoGrowth has implemented a number of other HR programmes focusing on the on-boarding process in the last three years. Although the Company has a small workforce of 800 employees, it is very much focused in terms of giving a great start to its people.
HR Mitra
An HR practice in place since 2018, it involves the NeoGrowth HR acting as a ‘Mitra’ (which means friend) to ensure that the new hires are in regular touch till the time they join. Here, the HR department engages with the prospective employee 30 days, 15 days and one day prior to the joining date to assist with any kind of query or support. As per Nayyar, this initiative has not only helped them establish good relations with their prospective employees but also understand them better. It has also helped reduce the number of last-minute drop-out rates.
NeoBuddy
This programme was modified and re-launched in December 2020 for sales/ field executives, and extended to other functions and roles till the senior-manager level employees from mid of January 2021. Here, an experienced employee who knows the processes and the culture of the Company is assigned as a buddy to a new hire. The buddy acts as a go-to person for any queries or issues on product, policy and processes. This helps the new hires understand the work culture and ensures that they do not feel left out or out of place. Buddy mapping is done as part of the pre-joining process itself, so that on day one of joining itself the new hires are made aware of their Neo Buddy.
For the senior buddies, it is an opportunity to showcase their readiness to nurture and take up responsibility for the next level. “It acts as a good opportunity for the buddies to show mentorship and leadership skills, which can help them move into larger roles in the future,” mentions Nayyar.
Prarambh (corporate induction)
Prarambh is a programme that aims to familiarise the new hire with the values, management team, overall structure, and working of the organisation. It informs them about the operating rhythm of key departments, which helps with the all-round harmonisation of various teams at NeoGrowth. Prarambh enables a new hire to understand and take pride in the culture and the purpose of the organisation.
“Various workshops are held under this programme which are executed virtually, where the management and other functional heads participate and get to know the new hires,” says Nayyar.
Gurukul (functional induction)
Gurukul is conducted for new hires for business functions, such as sales, renewals, collections, credit and customer service, where the role involves frequent customer interaction. These functions account for almost three-fourth of the Company’s manpower. Gurukul is designed to be more specific to the product features, processes, applications, tools, and policies related to the respective departments.
Gurukul is a two-day intervention and is conducted within a week of joining. An online certification test is conducted at the end of Day-2 of Gurukul, which needs to be cleared, mandatorily. Post completion, a digital certificate is sent as an auto-mailer. The practice of conducting functional induction has been in place since 2018, while the programme was christened ‘Gurukul’ only in 2020 along with the felicitation of digital certificate.
“The evaluation under this programme is very role specific. Failure in this test means the person requires retraining, which is conducted by our in-house L&D team,” explains Nayyar.
Nayyar believes that the aforementioned HR interventions and programmes have really helped improve the productivity level of the employees as well as the attrition rate. “More than the quantitative aspects, we measure our HR processes on qualitative aspects. I can say that the productivity level of our sales team has increased by 30 per cent over the last three years,” concludes Nayyar.
1 Comment
Good initiative