Onboarding of junior executives

The need for well-qualified and suitable managers is great. In addition to SAP itself, there are a large number of consulting companies that sell SAP software under license, implement it, provide advice on it, and offer support for it. A good manager can contribute significantly to the success of a company. For this reason, the start into such a leadership role in particular should be accompanied in the best possible way. It is a question of integrating a junior executive well into the company and retaining him or her in the long term.

The onboarding process

After a junior executive has been found in a suitable selection process, this person should go through a defined onboarding process. This process should be adapted to the respective role that the junior executive is to take on. It makes a difference whether the person is someone who has already gained leadership experience or has no leadership experience. It is important that the process is not rigidly defined, but individually tailored to the corresponding new junior executive. For this purpose, supplementary coaching is conceivable, in which external and appropriately qualified consultants help the junior executives to find their way through reflection and to exploit and utilize their potential.

In everyday professional practice, junior managers are often thrown into their new role or task too quickly and are given no support or only brief support. Not infrequently, such an approach fails. Be it that the junior executive resigns and gives up or that there is disruption (resignations, disagreements) among the subordinate employees. These disruptions can have a negative impact on the entire work process.

A successful onboarding process, on the other hand, has many positive effects for the company. The company's management philosophy can be communicated effectively. The junior executive feels valued and seen. Uncertainties and doubts of the new manager can be addressed and dealt with promptly. Through the process, the junior executive can be brought up to the required expectations in a targeted manner. Regular feedback should be provided for this purpose.

In this context, the junior manager should be given the opportunity to reflect on his or her actions in an accompanying consultation process. One of the purposes of an accompanying consultation is to receive, understand and accept feedback and to be able to draw conclusions from it for leadership actions.

Accompanying junior managers

The team that trains the junior manager should also be involved in the onboarding process, for example through feedback meetings or individual discussions. In this way, emerging problems and misunderstandings can be identified early on and dealt with before major upheavals or reactions from employees can occur.

The question often arises as to how long an onboarding process should take. The duration of such a process is influenced by the experience the junior executive brings with him. Experience shows that an onboarding process takes at least six months, because experience must be gained, discussed, utilized and implemented in everyday life. After the first six months, the junior executive should continue to have access to individual support as needed. The support should be available at a low threshold.

The human factor

In SAP consulting companies, managers face a multitude of demands. Managers often perform several roles in parallel. They lead teams with a high degree of diversity, in an environment of internationalization, enormous performance and cost pressure, and ever shorter project durations.

It is not uncommon for junior managers to be overwhelmed in their first few months. Especially in the consulting industry, the demands on the autonomy of employees are very high. If conflicts arise with the new manager, the employees quickly become resistant to the manager, change within the company or leave the company. Consequently, a well-designed onboarding process is crucial not only for a junior executive personally, but for the company's success as a whole. That is why investing in an individual onboarding process is worthwhile.