As attrition rates grew during the pandemic, Katie Kelly and Cem Canikoglu spotted an opportunity. The two saw a pattern of onboarding inconsistencies, plus a lack of face time and daily coaching, and linked their observations to new hires feeling disconnected to their work and the company.

Kelly, Director, NA, Sales Talent for P&G, and Canikoglu, Senior Director, HR, US Sales for P&G, suggested a new approach — streamlining the process for hires so everyone had the same experience. That started with welcome materials, such as a pre-boarding checklist, to kickstart a connection to the company before their first day on the job. Next? Managers were given the responsibility to develop new hires, with coaching and skill-development a high priority. 

The result? A reduction in attrition by 50%. 

“We have room to grow. But I feel more confident now that the new hires that we are bringing in will have a better chance of succeeding in this company and feeling this amazing experience that they were looking for,” says Canikoglu.

You can hear more from both Kelly and Canikoglu, two of our 2023 P&G Signal Innovators, in the video below or read our lightly edited transcript.

TRANSCRIPT

Katie Kelly
We’re a company of great managers, and we’re known for our terrific onboarding. But as the standards have shifted, so must we.

Cem Canikoglu
At the end of this project by now, we are now taking down the attrition by half.

Kelly
New hires were having an inconsistent onboarding experience. And so it varied from manager to manager, how they were being on boarded to the company. Our attrition went up over a pandemic. And it went up significantly above our baseline.

Canikoglu
They were having less than an ideal experience as to how the onboarded to the company, as well as how they felt connected to their work.

Kelly
We also found that our managers weren’t getting invested in from a capability standpoint to upskill and keep them relevant with some of the changes that were occurring as a result of the pandemic.

Canikoglu
So we saw the disconnect between what we thought we were doing well, versus what they perceived. So that disconnect was very obvious in our conversations, and that was kind of the highlight of the sessions we did.

Kelly
One of the ways that we believe that we can give that connectedness or sense of belonging to the P&G community to the new hires is through this new hire experience.

Canikoglu
I had a personal and amazing onboarding experience when I was a new hire. They didn’t have that. So we came up with this idea of, can we bring them into what we call a New Hire Summit, make them see each other share experiences.

Kelly
We did that by branding it with six elements bucketed into three parts. So it’s how we’re going to support our new hires, how we’re going to support our managers, and how we’re gonna support pairs.

Canikoglu
We wanted something that can turn into a management system that will sustain they’ll be here next year, and the next year, that will give us this foundation to build from. It’s a management system that can run without having a speed team or intervention every year.

Kelly

So the framework that we decided to bring to life even further through the new hire experience was the P&G Plus Me Employee Value Equation.

Canikoglu
We quickly realized that we have to elevate the expectations and standards of our new hire experience, end to end.

Kelly
What I’m most proud of, as I celebrate my 30th year with P&G is the work that I’ve been able to touch in the past 18 months of developing our new hires, is knowing that I’m developing the future leaders of the company.

Canikoglu
At the end of this project by now we are now taking down the attrition by half. So we are still not perfect. We have room to grow. But I feel more confident now that the new hires that we are bringing in will have a better chance of succeeding in this company and feeling this amazing experience that they were looking for.