The ATD Excellence in Practice Awards recognize individual practices across the full scope of talent development. A new category this year is onboarding—practices focused on helping new employees acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and behaviors to become effective, contributing members in their organizations.

One of this year’s ATD Excellence in Practice Award winner is the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases NIAID), based in Bethesda, Maryland.

Challenge

Retention became a big issue at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Twenty-two percent of staff turnover occurs within the first 45 days of employment. The organization’s aging workforce (23 percent of the supervisors in the organization’s largest scientific area was eligible to retire) and the tenuous commitment of its younger employees (Millennials are 15 percent of the workforce) also increased pressure to provide a solution.

Competition with similar medical research organizations to retain top talent was also a concern. The agency also expected its new employees to quickly adapt and begin producing results, but provided little support during their first year of employment.

Solution

NIAID developed, Navigating NIAID, a new employee onboarding program to address the retention issue. The program increases engagement and productivity, and creates an organizational culture that recognizes onboarding as more than a tool for accomplishing administrative tasks, but also as a platform to introduce the value of interpersonal network development, the use of early career support, the importance of cultural mastery, and strategy immersion.

The program provides new employees with tools and resources to navigate milestones within their first year. Its content, organized in an online platform, provides self-directed experiences for the new employee, and is organized so that supervisors and peer partners also receive timely information and support. The online platform breaks down the new employee’s first week—as well as first 30, 60, 90, and 180 days—into tasks, activities, and organizational information. An emphasis is also placed on helping new employees build interpersonal networks, which in turn fosters engagement.

Results

In a post-event evaluation, 94 percent of attendees agreed that the program helped them identify how their work area contributes to the organization’s mission and 94 percent believe that what they learned will benefit their work unit.