Keeping the frogs in the wheelbarrow: how virtual onboarding creates positive team-enabling cultures

Abstract

IntroductionThe post-COVID-19 great resignation puts both employee retention and the onboarding of employees in the spotlight. In an effort to maintain workforce levels, healthcare leaders are turning their attention to both recruitment (ie, bringing new frogs into the wheelbarrow) and practices that create positive, team-enabling, cultures (ie, keeping frogs in the wheelbarrow).MethodsIn this paper, we illustrate our experience in building an employee onboarding programme as an efficient mechanism not only to immerse new professionals into existing teams but also to improve workplace culture and reduce team turnover. Key to its effectiveness, and in contrast with traditional large-scale culture change programmes, is that our programme provided a local cultural context via videos of our existing workforce in action.ResultsThis online experience, primed new joiners in cultural norms, helping them navigate critical early period of socialisation into their new environment.