Scaling With Purpose Kit: Developing a Purpose-Focused Onboarding Process

**SPEAKER_1** (0:03)
The Bliss Business Podcast, the show about empathy, connection, and consciousness in business. Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Company, your paid search, social media, and programmatic ad experts.

**Stephen Skash** (0:17)
Welcome back to The Bliss Business Podcast series, Scaling With Purpose. These are our quick listen podcast shows where we explore how to embed purpose into every level of your organization. I'm Stephen Skash here with Tulio Siragusa and Ash Maher. Hey, guys.

**Ash Maher** (0:34)
Hello.

**Tulio Siragusa** (0:35)
Let's do this.

**Stephen Skash** (0:37)
Let's do it. So today we're diving into developing a purpose-focused onboarding process. So we'll share some actionable tips to help ensure that new employees feel deeply connected to your company's vision from day one. Let's get started. Kick us off, Ash.

**Ash Maher** (0:54)
So onboarding is such a critical phase in the employee's journey. It's the first real impression they have of your company. Not only are they going to understand their role for the company, but at the same time, they're going to understand how they fit into the bigger picture. So it's such a well-structured onboarding process sets the employee up with a good start. They're going to get what they know what they need to do, but also they know that they're a part of a bigger alignment, a bigger purpose.

**Tulio Siragusa** (1:21)
And you know what? It's not just words. There are studies today that show that employees who feel connected to their company's purpose are one, more engaged, two, more productive, and three, they're more likely to stay in the long run, which is probably the biggest challenges the organization have, you know, keeping employees engaged, keeping them productive, keeping them from quiet quitting, and staying long term. So there are studies that show when employees are connected to the purpose, these things improve. And purpose isn't just something you talk about in the interview. So it's not like, let's check that off. You know, we talked about it. It really needs to be woven into the experience from the moment someone goes through the process of being in an interview all the way to the moment that they join the organization. And so without that connection, then new employees might struggle, might have a hard time seeing how their work aligns with the company's mission. And that's not a good feeling, you know, especially when someone just joined an organization. So it's important that during the onboarding, there's a difference made in their experience.
There's a bridge that's built to essentially eliminate the gap between their individual contribution and the organization's broader vision. That's the key thing. You're bridging the gap between these two, and the onboarding is critical to doing it correctly. And you've got to highlight, again, the purpose and make it part of the fabric of why they're here, sort of thing.

**Stephen Skash** (2:56)
Yeah, I think most people, when they think about onboarding, and they're thinking about training a lot of times, okay, we've got to get through this manual or something like that and all these steps. But it's really, the key here is about culture building. So this is an opportunity to embed purpose as part of the employee's identity within the organization. So you're ensuring that you've got alignment from the start. So let's dive into some strategies to make that onboarding process purpose-driven. Ash, take us through some practical steps here.

**Ash Maher** (3:30)
Absolutely. Well, step one is start with a purpose-driven welcome, okay? Begin the onboarding process by sharing the purpose in an authentic way. This could be a video from the CEO welcoming the new hire to the team, sharing a story about how everything started, and just bringing people up to speak to the culture and what we're all about. Step two is connect the person's role to purpose early. In the first few days, take time to show new hires how their specific roles actually contribute to the big picture. For example, let's just take the financial advising role.
When you know that you're helping people with their financial situation, well, that's something that's purposeful, right? We're trying to help as many people as possible. When you're doing this role, and let's just say it's a branding position, you positioning us in a way that helps us connect with people that need that help is the higher purpose. Versus just saying, hey, you're posting on social media, that's your job. Go ahead and do that, right? So, but yeah, that means that you really want to connect that person early to the bigger picture, not just so much, hey, you're just doing this job. No, your job is actually helping us help more individuals or whatever your North Star is.