Which onboarding practices do HR-employees and newcomers view as important, and how do onboarding practices contribute to workplace socialisation?
Master thesis
Permanent lenke
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3082189Utgivelsesdato
2023Metadata
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- Studentoppgaver (SV-NHS) [545]
Sammendrag
The purpose of this master’s thesis was to explore onboarding and workplacesocialisation in Norwegian organisations. Furthermore, the study aims to research howonboarding can affect the workplace socialisation for the newcomer. The research question is“Which onboarding practices do HR-employees and newcomers view as important, and howdo onboarding practices contribute to workplace socialisation?” To answer the question, thisstudy uses a qualitative research design with 6 Norwegian-based companies, which formedsix individual cases. The chosen method for data collection was through semi-structured indepth interviews with one HR-employee and one newcomer in each case. These interviewswere transcribed and analysed using a thematic analysis approach.The results from the thematic analysis were highlighted in the findings and analysischapter. Furthermore, the results were grouped together into main findings in the discussionchapter and concluded in the conclusion. The four main categories of findings were 1)onboarding, 2) workplace socialisation, 3) sample differences, and 4) employer branding. Theresearch showed that some of the most important onboarding practices for HR-employees andnewcomers were the use of mentors, social gatherings, digitalised tools for learning, initialcourses, and graduate programs. Many of the respondents also mentioned that the onboardingprocess should already start in the recruitment process, rather than in the preboarding phase.This helps the newcomer to become more familiar with the organisation's values and culture,allowing him/her to get an initial insight into their new workplace as early as possible. Themajority of the respondents thought of workplace socialisation as a vital part of theonboarding process. Furthermore, multiple of the onboarding practices used by theorganisations in this sample indicated a positive effect on workplace socialisation. The use ofsocial mentors and inviting the newcomer to social gatherings during their preboarding phaseis something the respondents mentioned as a great help in their workplace socialisation.