The value of paying for onboarding “classes” to go out annually

If your organization is big enough that you onboard new employees in groups going through the same initial orientation and training together, then you have the opportunity to support them continuing that interdepartmental bond.

This is an uncommon fringe benefit, but it’s especially relevant to candidates as part of the hiring process if you are promoting your organization offering a great onboarding experience. It sends a message that you care about them not only making but also maintaining strong, career-enhancing connections at the organization. This will be valuable to a lot of candidates, and especially to the motivated kinds of candidates that you likely want to accept your offer.

Very often those employees will have connected on a deeper than expected level since they were all going through the same uncertainty and vulnerability together and could really empathize with each other.

Many times, they’ll naturally find each other and stay together, but you can boost the likelihood by officially endorsing it. This is a fun bonding time and makes it clear that the company cares about their joining and what was probably most memorable about starting...the people they started with.

Generally, these groups will diverge throughout the organization. Done at scale, this also sets up some powerful informal networks that can break down interdepartmental barriers and create serendipitous connections that unlock opportunities for the organization.

You’d need to be all-in for this next idea, but an expensive variation is to pay for the employees to go on a trip together, and with this option, they don’t necessarily have to have been onboarded together. You can send, for example, all employees hitting their 10th anniversary to a Caribbean island together.