Overview
Our client, a global manufacturer of lighting solutions, recently moved their financial services team to India. This resulted in redundancies in North America and Europe and recruitment of new staff in India. Our involvement in this process was to onboard the new recruits and to ensure that the workload is effectively handed over.
Our Role
In partnership with the corporate finance faculty, we developed a highly engaging and interactive onboarding programme. The participants were new in their role and new to the company. They needed an in-depth introduction to the organisational culture, strategy and values, training on the financial process and systems and support throughout the handover process.
The onboarding of each cohort took 5 months. The first month included an intensive induction with workshops, on-the-job learning, journal writing and a buddy system. They then travelled over to North America or Europe to shadow their counterparts for 3 months before returning for a refresher workshop to embed their learning and to take action for future success.
Our initial focus was to design the end-to-end process in collaboration with the faculty lead. This ensured that the recruits would receive a comprehensive and well structured experience. We also designed a buddy system which ensured that those who were new to the company had a support system to assist them throughout the process.
The workshops that were developed covered:
- Company strategy, culture and values
- Project management
- Networking
- Persuasion and influencing
- Cultural awareness
- Change management
- Managing conflict
Company specific workshops on financial systems and processes were also developed internally to complete the programme.
Outcome
Engaged and equipped financial professionals
The implementation of the onboarding programmes enabled the effective transition of the workload from the financial professionals in North America and Europe to the new recruits in India.
There was a relatively high potential for conflict in this process due to the amount of redundancies. However the onboarding enabled them to tackle challenges quickly and appropriately.
The guidance on cultural awareness and networking were particularly beneficial as they enabled the financial professionals in India to be sufficiently prepared to work alongside their counterparts in other countries. This led to the development of an additional workshop for those in Europe and North America to ensure that all parties were prepared for the experience.
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