Human Resources Management - Onboarding

As noted in HR Part 1, while Human Resources Management does not appear on either the ACC or CLOC maturity models, legal operations roles typically direct some human resources functions beyond direct reports management, either within ops or in collaboration with human resources. 

 You will gain insight if there is work for you in this area during your own onboarding process. In one of my legal ops roles, onboarding by corporate HR went without hitch from the verbal offer, to the offer letter, to my arrival and orientation morning of day one.  On day one I had all of the equipment and company documentation I needed to do my job, and a well-defined schedule for typical trainings and introductions.  In two of my jobs issues in my onboarding process led to projects aiming for new legal hires to be onboarded more smoothly.

When the company and your department are prepared for your arrival, you feel welcomed and supported to get the job done.  It reaffirms the rightness of your decision to join the company and sustains your eagerness to proceed.  When there are hitches in the process, naturally one might take pause to think, “Did I make the right move?”  Over the years I have observed in exit interviews that initial impressions made during the onboarding process come up quite frequently, even when a person has been with the company for many years. 

For these reasons Ops in a Box, Legal Edition includes a three page onboarding checklist which I have used and refined across 3 legal operations positions, as well as a (shorter) off-boarding checklist and a template for a legal operations-focused welcome email.  The welcome email template, by the way, is also a good starting point for a work-from- home guidance email.