3. Problem Statement
A new college graduate starting work on
the IBM Dublin, OH campus needs a way to
easily ramp up because there currently
seems to be no process or procedures for
acclimating college new hires to the
campus.
4. Most obvious solutions for this
problem?
1. Connections coach – assign new hires a
“mentor” who answers questions (exists)
2. New hire checklist (does not exist) – one for
manager of new hire and one for the new hire
3. Dublin campus orientation class (does not exist)
4. Manager new-hire onboarding training for Dublin
(does not exist)
5. New hire video
6. New hire website
7. Manager ensures phone is set up for employee
5. Add, remove or modify from
those obvious solutions?
1. New hire lunch & learns
2. New hire website with professional, written instructions for
all set up
3. Book of knowledge
4. Gook of instructions
5. New hire roundtables – ask the expert
6. New hire shares – where new hires get together and share
experiences getting set up
7. New hire social activities: special after-hours social events
for new hires
8. Formal class walking new hires through Dublin set up
processes and procedures
9. Books on tape that the employee can listen to on the
way to and from work
6. How would a 5-year-old child
solve the problem?
1. Hold new hire’s hand and walk her/him through everything
2. Make up and play a game
3. Watch a cartoon
4. Take it apart and put it back together
5. Ask “why” 10,000 times
6. Drop it on the ground or throw it to see if it breaks, then put it back together
7. A new hire fairy princess would transform mice into men to do all of the set up work
8. Sprinkle fairy dust on it
9. A five year old can make anything and solve all problems using a cardboard box, duck
tape, scissors, crayons and markers
10. Discuss it over cookies and milk
11. Discuss it over a warm bath
12. Laugh a lot
13. Dive in and splash around
14. Make up a song about it
15. Hum and talk out loud to him/herself through the problem
16. Employ techniques from “How to Train Your Dragon” – “How to Train Your New Hire”
7. How would I solve the problem
if I had an unlimited budget?
1. Create a Dublin campus orientation class (does not exist)
2. Develop a cartoon or video explaining everything a new
hire needs to do to get acclimated to the campus
3. Give each new hire a personal attendant whose only
focus is helping the new hire acclimate (no other job but
that)
4. Create a website with the video/cartoon and checklist
5. Professional, written instructions – a new hire guide or
book
6. Throw a new hire party where we eat, drink and set up
our workplace!
7. All of the above
8. Solve the problem without
spending any money
1. Everything costs money. Time is money,
and every solution takes at least time.
2. Least expensive options:
1. Checklists for managers of new hires and
new hires
2. Connections coach
3. W3 wiki for Dublin new hires
4. Informal management “training” for
onboarding new hires
9. How would you solve this problem if
you had control over the laws of nature
(think invisibility, teleportation, etc.)?
1. A digital download (like with a wire from one person to
another) of the brain of someone who has been here
awhile to the new hire – a download while the new hire
sleeps
2. A Force-like intuitive transport of information to the new
hire
3. A non-harmful lightning bolt of knowledge
4. Divine intervention
5. Assign the new hire a “onboarding angel”
6. Sit the person in a knowledge transfer chair hooked up to
electrodes that transmit needed information (I’m thinking
of something that looks like an electric chair BUT transfers
knowledge instead of executing someone)
11. My three ideas
The most practical idea (one that could
be easily implemented): new hire
checklists for manager and employee
The most disruptive idea (one that would
make a huge impact, regardless of how
feasible or affordable it is): Dublin new hire
video or cartoon
My favorite idea: Throw a new hire party
and eat, drink and set up the workplace
