Onboarding Helps Everyone Get on Board


Teams Work Together to Enable Frictionless Selling


OSG isn’t like other companies. That’s evident in lots of ways. The collaborative foundation of the firm encourages cross-team brainstorming and support in a variety of interactions. It is perhaps most apparent – and most essential – when it comes to onboarding new hires.


According to BambooHR, nearly one-third of employees leave their new jobs within the first six months. Of that group, 68% take off in the first three months. That’s a costly proposition, as it can cost between 90% and 200% of an annual salary to replace an employee. As OSG leadership looked at its aggressive growth goals and its commitment to a cohesive culture, it knew its onboarding process needed to be as modern, innovative, and data driven as the rest of its initiatives. It needed to look forward and aid its new staff in doing so too. In less than a year, a new onboarding process was built to train 30 salespeople who are joining OSG as it expands, and introduce them to the OSG way of thinking – which includes working across departments and opening doors for one another. These are hires who are both collaborative and competitive, who are hungry and are ready to build something new. “Selling is a team sport,” believes Patrick Flanigan, senior vice president of strategic marketing


at OSG. Everyone who joins the company is put on a team from their first day, and that team is crucial for supporting each other as they get up to speed. In fact, all new hires at OSG report for their first day of work on specific strategic days of the month. That way they are all starting together – like everyone showing up for their first day in an MBA program. That group becomes a cohort, which moves through the onboarding process together. They have a Slack channel for asking each other questions they might not want to ask their new manager. “Being in a cohort is critical to success and feeling confident,” says Ashley Philipps, vice president of commercial effectiveness. Those cohorts create


camaraderie that will last through employees’ tenure at the company, says Philipps, who oversees the cross-functional onboarding process. Her team is purposeful about which people are paired in cohorts so they have a cross- section of backgrounds as well


as professional and industry experiences and are thus able to best support one another. That information is gleaned starting in the recruiting process. “We think about, ‘Where will this person flourish in terms of personality fit?’” Philipps says.


They are encouraged to role-play and practice with one another. More than three-quarters of the population has a fear of public speaking (“glossophobia,” it’s called) and selling is essentially public speaking, Philipps points out. Practicing in front of a cohort is intended to make salespeople comfortable by the time they are presenting in front of their clients. They will have already anticipated objections and will understand how the conversation may go. This kind of on-the-job training is what employees want. According to a BambooHR student, 76% of respondents look for this kind of practical training in onboarding – significantly higher than the desire for a review of company policies and benefits. Those new hires also reported wanting a mentor, which OSG makes available to those who are new to the company. “The cohort is meant not only to make sure you have friendly faces when you’re new to an organization, but it is going to make you comfortable in the organization,” she says. “It also creates people who want to stay. It anchors people to a team.”


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