"In my last role, I noticed a pattern with newly-hired project managers. During the interview process, they would show so much promise and enthusiasm for the role. However, two to four weeks into the job and they would drop off, some of them leaving with little to no notice. Our organization was very lean, and the CEO didn't feel the need to employ an HR specialist. So, once new hires were let out into the wild, they felt completely on their own. I proposed an onboarding program to leadership through which we would be able to closely work with new hires during the critical first 90 days with the company. As one of the veteran PMs, I volunteered to pilot this program. This meant that they would create a new position for me.
At first, leadership was resistant because this meant that I wouldn't be able to handle new clients in the pipeline. To persuade my superiors, I gathered some numbers from the human resources industry to prove how well onboarding programs work for employee retention. Further, I visualized the onboarding workflow to show them how committed I was to the process. I then emphasized that in order for us to scale, we have to capitalize on workers like me. The organization should care more about how I can train others to be as effective as I am. This not only shows our processes are repeatable but also that there is upward mobility within the company. In the end, we were able to hire two new project managers in my place and they stayed in the role even after I left."
