From Rice Fields To Buddy Lunches: What My Peace Corps Service Taught Me About the New Employee Experience (Part 2)
Part 2: The importance of language and mission.
This is part two of a three part series on onboarding and the new employee experience. If you’re following along, in Part 1 we covered the importance of communal eating and having a good guide. Now, we’ll dive in deeper into the connection between language and cultural integration, and the importance of aligning your personal and professional missions.
Truth #3: Learn the Language to Fully Integrate
Being able to communicate in Thai was a challenge that left me feeling at times frustrated, inept, and misunderstood. Knowing how difficult the Thai language was to learn, the Peace Corps instructors focused on the language that would make us the most successful in our new roles and culture. This meant teaching us how to address important people (very useful in Thailand’s hierarchical society), how to be polite, how to express appreciation, and how to say our lunch tasted great!
The importance of language was two-fold: it helped me make a good impression and it gave me invaluable clues about my new environment. Fortunately for me, when I met the mayor of the town I was able to wai (Thai gesture of greeting) him correctly and greet him with the proper pronoun taan. Had I not, I would have offended him and made the others in our group uncomfortable. Mastering this basic aspect of the language and culture earned me a place in the mayor’s heart forever.
Learning the nuances of the language also taught me that the mayor and most Thais would never be on time, since I only learned the word for “on time” (“prom”) in the context of “not on time.” This deeper level of communication in turn led to the understanding that life in Thailand — at least in the countryside — was slower and more relaxed; my evolving grasp of the local dialect helped me realize how important it was for this goal-oriented New Yorker to adapt to her new home’s slower-paced reality.
In the corporate world, new employees are worried about mis-steps due to their ability (or lack thereof) to “speak the lingo.” For this reason, it’s important to train new employees in your jargon, such as company acronyms, places, and other popular –isms. Unfortunately, many managers — and even buddies — neglect this “training” due to a perception that the hire is already proficient in this area. This is consistent with data my company Yoi has collected, which works with clients to engage their new hires. We’ve found that managers think their hires are “good” in the area of cultural adaptation” 22% more often than the hires themselves do, a critical gap in perception that can be an indicator of turnover.
What to do: Go beyond sharing a list of common acronyms. Assign someone to sit down and walk your new hires through your company’s jargon. It will not only create a bonding experience for your two employees, but it will lead to much richer, more contextualized learning for your new hire.
In addition, don’t forget to list out all the key portals, resources, and tools a new employee will need to be successful in their job. In my work, I’ve found many companies forget to do this. It’s all well and good to tell them to go to Jira, but be prepared — they may not know if that’s a person or a software system you’re referring to. (I can vouch for that as I came to a software company after being called “Jenjira” for two years in Thailand.)
Truth #4: Missions Matter
I’ll never forget the day in Thailand when I experienced my first major “ah ha” moment about the Thai educational system. I was teaching my 4th grade class when a student informed me (with great trepidation) that classes were being cancelled again in order for the students to clean the school. At the rural Thai school where I worked, the janitorial staff consisted of only one elderly lady and the students. It was the students’ responsibility to make sure the school looked respectable and, unfortunately, they hadn’t been doing an adequate job. Hence, the principal felt it necessary to cancel class until the entire school was properly cleaned.
Previously, classes had been canceled for Thai dance practice, tree planting, boy scouts’ activities, community service, Buddhist mediation, etc. This latest cancellation made clear to me that the Thai education system was more focused on creating upstanding Thai Buddhist citizens than critically thinking, English-speaking employees able to compete in the global job market (at least in my village). My prior failure to articulate — and identify — what in effect was the school’s core mission had left me disjointed and disconnected for much longer than necessary. When I finally “got it,” many other parts of my job fell into place and I was able to see why I’d stalled out in my initial efforts to connect with my students and fellow teachers. My personal mission and my employer’s mission were not in sync. My realization of this disconnect between my mission and theirs enabled me to move forward with a new, more productive approach.
Organizations spend massive amounts of time, energy, and money creating their mission, vision, and values, yet many forget to share this fundamental information with their new hires. Or if it is shared, it’s given mere lip service and presented in uninspired fashion via PowerPoint or the company website. If organizations don’t properly communicate their own north star to each new hire, it’s highly unlikely they’ll be able to harness the new employee’s full energy and potential. In fact, Yoi has found that new hires who left were 4x more likely to rate their understanding of the mission, vision, and strategy low* than hires who stayed with the company.
What to do: Share your mission, vision, and values early on and clearly with your new hire, and ask them to reflect on how it resonates with their own personal mission, vision and values. Then instruct them to set up time with their buddy or manager to discuss disconnects which may have arisen during this process. Provide your new hire with talking points and probing questions for use with their manager/buddy, such as “how do you explain our mission and vision to clients, to friends, to family?” and “can you share examples of where you see our mission and vision lived out?” This will help the new hire make a good first impression and will ensure the conversation is rich, deep, and meaningful.
*Based on new employee responses to the question “How well do you understand the company’s mission, vision, and strategy?” (1–5 scale)
Enjoy reading? Click the little heart below to spread the love, and “follow” to be notified when Part 3 (on friendship) is out on Thursday. Interested in learning how Yoi helps assimilate and enculturate new employees? Request a demo here.
Jennifer is the Lead Content Writer and consultant for Yoi Corp, an employee success platform that uses behavioral science and decision-making algorithms to drive workforce performance and engagement. At Yoi, she uses her background in employee engagement, strengths-based coaching, and culture change to help enterprises create exceptional experiences for their new hires.
