Onboarding Helps Everyone Get on Board


Technology is fueling everything at OSG as it transforms to a digital- first company – and onboarding is no exception. The role-based onboarding supports different ways in which adults learn best. (You won’t be thrown a bunch of PowerPoints and told to read them and figure it out, Philipps promises.) “It is a modern support system for technology sales,” Flanigan says. “There is really an opportunity to grow your career here, and we have created the system around it so you can do your best work.” “OSG is an established company with all the things you need to do your job right away, but also what we’re doing in the market is brand new,” Philipps adds. “It’s really cool. For someone who loves sales and client success, you couldn’t ask for a better situation.”


Because the onboarding process at OSG is intentional, Philipps says the company is not having the conversations that happen elsewhere, where the sales or client success department doesn’t feel marketing understands them, and vice versa. Instead, teams are aligned with a common goal. Commercial professionals are trained to be better communicators and understand what their colleagues need from them and how best to deliver it.


“We are very thoughtful about what we push and when we push it and how we push it to the fields,” she says. “That’s one of the things I appreciate most about the commercial team. We are all seen as one. It is not about the different departments and what you ‘own.’ It is about what you can do together to support the client.”


ASHLEY PHILIPPS, VICE PRESIDENT OF COMMERCIAL EFFECTIVENESS AT OSG, PRESENTING TO THE OSG COMMERCIAL TEAM AT KICK-OFF.


New hires get coaching from their manager, and that coaching is based on skills; but, again, that doesn’t happen in a static environment. The onboarding process includes activities like building pipeline and designing account plans and territory plans. “As you are learning the skill, you are applying it to something practical that you can continually use,” Philipps says. People are given information for prospecting and then the tools to make it happen so that they have something practical that they can continually use – rather than a hypothetical for training purposes only.


The idea of the OSG onboarding


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process is that it creates a foundation, but isn’t a once-and- done scenario. Teams are taught what they need for their jobs. And they continue to learn on the job as the days, weeks, and months go by. Both Flanigan and Philipps joined OSG less than a year ago, so that’s not yet enough time to have seen a cohort graduate from the onboarding program. But based on the feedback from participants, it has been successful. “Taking this accelerated approach, I’m very confident in what we’ve built and designed,” Philipps says. Cohorts will stay connected and will be able to support each other over time –


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