| dc.description.abstract | For this Capstone, we conducted a theory-based formative process evaluation of the onboarding program at MANA Nutritive Aid Products Incorporated. With its headquarters in Matthews, NC, and its manufacturing facility in Fitzgerald, GA, MANA is a nonprofit firm that supplies ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) to global food aid organizations. The problem of practice for our Capstone was that there had not been a formal evaluation of MANA’s onboarding program, and the leadership team did not think that their onboarding program was effective due to the high turnover of new hires in less than 90 days.
We built a theoretical framework from the extant literature to conduct the evaluation, including eight onboarding content areas and three timing stages. The content areas consisted of rules and policies, politics, performance proficiency, language, organizational goals and values, people, history, and future prospects. The timing stages included the anticipatory stage (pre-entry), the encounter stage (the first 90 days on the job), and the transformation stage (months four through 12). The questions that guided this project included the following:
• Q1. To what extent does MANA’s current onboarding program reflect the eight onboarding content areas that the extant research literature indicates make up an effective approach?
• Q2. To what extent does MANA’s current onboarding program reflect the structural and timing elements associated with an effective program in the extant literature?
We conducted document reviews and semi-structured interviews to investigate these questions. Our analysis led us to conclude that MANA has partially implemented an onboarding program for its hourly paid manufacturing personnel that reflects the eight content areas and timing elements the extant literature indicates make up an effective approach. Drawing on the findings and the extant literature, we recommended that MANA take the following actions:
• Create an onboarding buddy program;
• Build realistic job previews;
• Construct a structured supervisor meeting framework over the first year of employment; and
• “Sweat the small stuff” by taking eight actions that, while seemingly basic, emerged from the literature as elements to assist in the identity construction of newcomers at little cost to the firm. | |
