How To Level Up Your Employee Onboarding ft. Ashley Cox

Uriah
Hello there! Thanks so much for joining me on the podcast today. I'm glad that you are tuning in. I had a great conversation with Ashley Cocks, and I'm excited for you to hear it. We just met recently, but I can tell that we are going to stay connected and hopefully collaborate in the future. Ashley Cocks is the founder and CEO of Sprout HR, a boutique HR consulting firm that educates and empowers women owned businesses on how to hire and lead profitable, sustainable, impactful teams with confidence, ease, and fun. We talked a lot about making things fun and easy, so I think you'll enjoy that. At Sprout HR, Ashley and her team focus on values based hiring, compassionate and intentional leadership, and amplifying impact. They revolutionize the do it yourself mindset to one of exponential growth. Hiring the right people the right way scales business and electrifies the bottom line, making women run companies thrive. She's a certified HR professional with over 16 years of experience, and she's worked with businesses nationwide from local brick and mortars to online agencies and even multimillion dollar national and international companies. Very cool. She was a top recruiter and leadership expert for J Crew and Kroger, where she hired and developed everyone from the newest hourly employees to C suite level executives. There's a ton of great tips in this conversation I had with Ashley on improving the onboarding process, and I hope you love it. Ashley, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for taking the time.

Ashley
Thanks so much for having me here, Uriah. I'm so excited to be here today.

Uriah
That's great. I think one of the best things about having a podcast, honestly, is being able to be connected to and meet interesting, fun people like yourself. So I love it.

Ashley
It's great. Same. I know whenever I come across folks that I'm like, Wait, who is this? I want to know more about this person. So I'm excited to have encountered you and productive therapist and been listening to your podcast and just enjoying the episodes and the message that you're sharing with group therapy practice owners.

Uriah
Thank you so much. So we were talking before we hit record that even though we do different things, our interests and our mission really overlaps in terms of helping business owners thrive and build a team and delegate effectively to that team. So that's so cool that we both are on the same mission in a sense, right?

Ashley
Yes, absolutely. And I think there's not a lot of resources out there for folks that really focus on the depth and the breadth at which we both go in our work. And I think that that's such a key part of growing a successful, sustainable, profitable practice that just cannot be ignored, right?

Uriah
So true. In almost every single call that I have with my coaching clients and also with the group practices and the therapists that we support, I think the most difficult thing is always comes back to people, hiring, managing people. I think that's been my experience. Everybody wants to learn about marketing and about all kinds of different aspects of growing a private practice, but the hardest part seems to be dealing with people. Is that your experience, too?

Ashley
A hundred %. And I have this saying that anywhere there's more than one person working together, there's always going to be challenges.

Uriah
It's funny. I listened to a couple of podcasts recently that were interviews with solo entrepreneurs, people who have a business that is basically just them. And in one case, this person was making about, I think, $1.75 million a year with a few freelancers. And I found myself thinking, Oh, that sounds nice. But I still love having a team. I wouldn't trade my team for anything.

Ashley
Yeah. I think there's pros and cons to both. And you have to know yourself really well and what your desires are and what your goals are. And a lot of the people that we enjoy working with are ones who want to have that team. They want to build the culture that maybe they never experienced working for someone else or the culture that they say, Hey, we can do better. And I think that's so beautiful because it's humans taking care of humans at the end of the day.

Uriah
That's cool. I love it. So before we jump into talking about employee onboarding, it would be awesome just to hear a little bit about your story, if that's okay, about how you got into this work and how you started Sprout HR. That would be awesome for the audience and for myself.

Ashley
For sure. I actually started off in corporate and I... It's so funny. When people ask me, Did you go into HR? I'm like, No, I totally fell into HR. I think that's been very historically a trend for many, many years is that people get... They observe this certain skill set and they say, Oh, well, you would be a great HR person. And so when I was a manager, just starting off after college, I very much was into the hiring and training and developing people. And that got noticed. I got invited to come and join HR. I spent about 10 years in corporate HR, so working for really large companies like Kroger and J. C ru, and got to experience so many amazing facets of HR in large Fortune 500, Fortune 25 companies. That gave me such a great foundation for the work that I do today. I always knew that I wanted to branch out on my own, and it just was a timing thing for me. So my husband got a promotion and we moved to a new state. And I said, you know what? Instead of continuing to go for new jobs, why don't I just build something myself? Which is probably a lot like so many people who start businesses. Why don't I just build this thing myself? And if he gets moved again, then I can just take it with me. So I started Sprout HR in July of 2016. So it'll be seven years this year. And it was HR in my own way. And I loved that freedom and that opportunity to be able to take what I learned in corporate HR and say, Okay, what do small businesses need? Sub 50 employees, that's who we specialize with. And so what do these individuals need when they're hiring their first person? What do they need when they're starting to add a few new team members? Where's that sticking point where it felt easy hiring one person, but now it's starting to feel a little more complicated. And how can we help to bridge that gap and really make sure that people feel supported and confident in growing their team and that they're not just taking a bandaid approach, but that we're being super intentional, that we're purposefully hiring each individual to support the practice or the business, whatever it may be, in a way that's going to be sustainable. And I think that's so important is because there's so many people out there who are just like, Hire, hire, hire. And then when you get into it, you've hired a whole bunch of people that maybe aren't in rules that make sense. They're not doing work that makes sense. And so it all comes back to what's the purpose? What are we trying to do here? What's our big vision, our big goal? That's the work that we really love to do the most at Sprout HR.

Uriah
Fantastic. I'm so glad that there are people like you that get excited about things like human resources.

Ashley
I'm a total HR nerd for sure! That's so wonderful. When I saw your head nerd job title, I was like, Oh, I am going to get along with Uriah just fine.

Uriah
You can call yourself Head HR Nerd if you want!

Ashley
That totally works. Totally head HR nerd. I always tell people, I'm like, Listen, I love the things that are absolutely crushing you in your business, so let me just help you because it doesn't have to be this hard or this scary or this uncertain.

Uriah
What a value proposition that is. I love the things that you hate. We should work together. That's so cool. So much to unpack there. But you say on your website, this sentence, growing a team should be fun and easy. Tell me what you mean by that. And is that possible?

Ashley
Yes. Well, I wouldn't put it on my website if it wasn't possible because I definitely believe in being honest. It will at times be harder in the beginning than it will once we get certain things in place. And I think that that's the part that people, they struggle with. Well, it's not fun and easy right off the bat, or it doesn't feel fun and easy right off the bat because I don't know what I don't know. I'm scared. There's a lot of fear. There's a lot of vulnerability in hiring employees and bringing strangers into the business that you've grown with your blood, your sweat, your tears, your passion. And I get that. And there are incredible people out there who are going to come alongside you and make your business, make your practice even better that you don't even know yet. And so some of it is debunking some myths, making sure that we're understanding some things that are going to be good mindset refrains. People have a lot of really funky mindset things that they bring to the table when they're hiring. And one of them is always, Well, if you want it done right, you just got to do it yourself.

Ashley
And I'm like, Okay, listen, I promise you there's someone out there who can do this better than you? So that's the fun part. It's like, we're going to joke about things. I'm going to bring things to light that say, Listen, I know this is what you believe. I know this is what our society or our culture wants us to believe. And here's how it can be different. Let me show you. And so it gets to be fun. It gets to be light. It gets to be easy because we simplify everything. One of the things I find business owners do a lot, notoriously, in all areas of business is we tend to overcomplicate things. And I'm sure that you've seen this yourself as well, right? Definitely. Yeah.

Uriah
I think it's a human thing.

Ashley
It's the human condition. Yeah, it is. And it's just about let's strip away all the unnecessary stuff that we're trying to fill the process with and make sure that we're focusing on the things that are going to get us the results, get us the information we need, make sure that we are not spending excess amount of time on things that we don't need to be worrying about or thinking about or doing. And so as we're building that process, it gets to be fun. It gets to be easy.

Uriah
I think my favorite part about hiring is the excitement that I feel when I find the right person, an amazing person who I have a sense and I know is smarter than me in some ways and better at certain things than I am and is going to elevate the team and help us reach our goals. And also, I just like finding people that are fun to work with, too. For sure. Speaking about that fun part. And I think that's why that phrase on your website stuck out to me because literally you can't see this, but on my wall behind my computer, I have two Post it notes. One says make it fun and one says let it be easy.

Ashley
Oh, my gosh.

Uriah
I am all about that.

Ashley
I love it. Well, and that's the thing. A lot of times go into the hiring process, it's something that's been foisted upon us. This is awful. I don't want to do this. People are digging their heels into the sand and they're making it harder. But what if we thought, Wow, on the other side of this process or this work or whatever, what if there was that amazing right hand person who was going to support me in unbelievable ways? And they were going to take this work off my plate, or they were going to add something to this practice that we don't already have. And how exciting would that be? And how fun would that feel? And yeah, I could talk about this all day long because I get so gigged up hiring amazing people because they actually do exist, I promise.

Uriah
Oh, 100 %. We hired three really great new people for the productive therapist team this year so far, and it's made such a huge difference. I feel like we're on a roll. It's great.

Ashley
Yeah, for sure. And people, there's a lot of commentary out right now that says like, oh, nobody wants to work, nobody wants to apply for these jobs and this, that, and the other. But I'm consistently with our clients seeing not one amazing candidate, but multiple amazing candidates. They're not hiring just one person at a time. They're hiring two and three and four and five because they're like, I just have all of these amazing applicants. That's a good problem to have. Yeah, it's a very good problem. And that's what happens when we put a lot of intentionality behind it. We don't just copy and paste some job description that we see online and say, oh, okay, well, that must be it. I know our conversation is onboarding today. That's where onboarding begins. It begins by making sure you've got the right person on your team in the right role doing the right tasks.

Uriah
Absolutely. And that's a whole another topic that's really, really important. But let's say the people listening to this, you found the right person and you're ready to hire them. And actually, just take a step back real quick. One thing I heard you saying that's really important to insert here is that it sounds like you're saying once you simplify this process and you've done it more than once, it gets to be fun. It gets to be easy because you know what you're doing. And that extends to post hiring, which we call onboarding. And so I'm actually curious, I'm sure you've heard a lot of stories, and I'm wondering, what are some of the common mistakes that small business owners make when they're onboarding new people? So they're excited, they found the right person, they're ready for day one, or the prep for day one. And what are some of the things that they do that just make it more challenging or just less fun?

Ashley
Yeah. Well, this is the make it or break it moment, right? This is where all the hard work and time and energy and money that you've invested in the hiring process really starts to come to fruition. And I think a lot of times, something that people don't realize is that one in four new hires quit within their first 90 days. And that elevates or amplifies the need for proper onboarding because they're quitting because they're not getting the right start with the company. The job isn't what they thought it was going to be. So again, going back to that job description, are we putting the right content, the right information out there for people to say, Oh, this is the job for me. I want to do this in this practice in this way because it's not just about the tasks, but it's the culture around that. It's what are we creating and inviting people to be a part of. And we have to start there. So I think the biggest mistake is that we're not telling people the right job first. And then once we're in the onboarding process, there's a few things that I see come up very frequently. First would be taking a wing it approach or a fly by the seat of my pants. So I'm so excited. I have this new therapist, they're joining my practice, and I didn't plan anything. I just figured we'd chitchat on day one and just take it from there. And that is the worst thing that you can do, probably, because everybody wants to feel like that their employer took the time and put the effort in to make sure that they got off on the right foot so that they could be the very best team member that they can. And they can't be the best that they can be unless we are prepared as employers to welcome them with a lot of intention. More than.

Uriah
Just the winged approach. I like that.

Ashley
Yes. We need a plan. And you don't have to know everything. You don't have to have everything planned out, but at least have an idea of this is our general agenda for today, for this week, I'm going to start passing these things off to you. I usually tell people, plan it out in those first 90 day chunks. What's the most important thing to know in the first 30 days, in the second 30 days, and in the third 30 days? And that will give you some structure that you can actually follow and say, okay, they don't have to know this right away, but they definitely need to know it when they've been here at least 60 days. Wing it approach, definitely not a good thing. Another one would be what I like to call the fire hose effect or the spray and pray. Let me hire somebody and then try to tell them my entire business all in the first 30 minutes that they're here. And that never works. The best way to overwhelm a new hire is to try to give them too much information too quickly. That's again, using that 30, 60, 90 day outline is going to help you to self manage.

Ashley
And I know we get excited. Oh, my God, we have help. It's the best thing ever in the whole world. And I want you to know everything so that you can just hit the ground running and get to work. But the best way to have somebody hitting the brick wall instead of hitting the ground running is to give them too much information too quickly.

Uriah
So how would somebody who is likely to do that or has been doing that, how would you advise them to change that and spread that information out over more than just fire hose for 60 minutes on day one?

Ashley
Yeah, for sure. I think it's important for us to have regular, more frequent meetings with our new hires right from the get go. A lot of people are like, Oh, well, I don't want to handhold people. This isn't handholding. This is onboarding, and this is what's required. Because even though they might be an expert in their area, whether it's a therapist or it's a clinical director or it's an administrative assistant, they're not an expert in your business, in your practices, your policies, your procedures. The three favorite piece of all HR people, practices, policies, procedures. Oh, yes. So we have to slow down and take the time to allow that learning to actually take place because we can't learn if all we're doing is listening. We have to be engaged in that process. And so first it might be, okay, I'm sitting here and I need to tell the person what needs to be done. Then we're going to sit together and I'm going to show you, or I'm going to have another team member show you what we do. And then I'm going to let you go on your own and I'm going to follow up with you and we're going to have some questions. We're going to have some time to have conversation so that you can say, Hey, this part was missing, or I didn't really understand how we got from A to B. There was something there that just didn't click. And so that training process, that onboarding can take place over several weeks. But I think that it's one of those things we have to have self awareness. I generally stay away from statements like always, never, must, whatever. But I will say that every single leader has to have a high degree of self awareness because that's where we say, did I do too much? Did I give too much? Do I need to pull back? We have to be able to be emotionally aware of how people are receiving and interacting with us as leaders so that we can also judge our approach based on how they're receiving the information as well.

Uriah
That's a good point. And everyone is so different. Some people might like more and more information. If you don't give them enough, they might want more structure even. And then some people might be very, very overwhelmed by that. But I think it has to be the right amount. Well, one thing that occurs to me is that whenever somebody is hiring, whenever a business is hiring somebody and then onboarding them and training them, it requires a lot from whoever is the point person for that. I don't know if you see this, too, but it seems to me that a lot of therapists don't clear enough space, create enough time to spend that, like you're saying, with the person so that they can really be successful. That seems really important to me. And it seems to always take more than you think it should even.

Ashley
Yeah, just go ahead and 3 X whatever you think it's going to take. It's true. It's true. And one thing I think that gets a lot of folks in trouble is that they wait too long to hire the help they need. And I'm sure you've seen this, too. And it's one of those things that it is scary. It is a financial investment. You do worry about, am I going to be able to make payroll? Am I going to be able to keep my practice running? Am I going to be able to make all the bills? And that is very normal. So please, first of all, expect that. If you're listening, expect that you're going to feel like you're losing your mind some days. And know that when you bring that help on, you do need to have that space and that time in order to onboard them properly. And I think that the more time you can spend with someone on the front end, the less challenges, the less frustration, the less problems, the less turnover, aka people leaving is going to happen on the back end. So back to that statistic, one in four people leave in the first 90 days. The first 90 days are the most crucial. Absolutely.

Uriah
So it sounds like you're saying that one of the biggest benefits of doing onboarding well is employee retention, or that's at least one of them.

Ashley
Yeah. Yes, absolutely. Employee retention is so huge. And even thinking about, okay, so one in four people leave, whatever big deal, I'll hire somebody else. But the reality is that the Society for Human Resource Management, which is an organization that I'm a part of, it's the largest HR organization in the world, did a study in the past couple of years and found that today, in 2023, it is costing on average, between six and nine months of an employee's salary in order to replace them.

Uriah
Oh, my goodness.

Ashley
That's huge. That's huge. And we don't have that money as small businesses to just go around and waste. Fortune 500 companies have billions of dollars. Sure, they've got a little bit more of a playing room there, but they're also not trying to throw a bunch of money away because they're losing employees. And when.

Uriah
You're zero to 50, you can't afford to lose people because of your own processes not being.

Ashley
Good enough. And it's 100 % something that can be remedied. So here's where we talk about like, oh, this is out of my control. This is out of my control. Inflation in the country is out of my control. Okay, great. And we can control that by doing proper onboarding to keep our people so that we're not spending money unnecessarily. You save time. Think about how long it takes you to go through the hiring process. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. And if you're already running full steam ahead and you probably should have hired somebody a little sooner and now you're losing somebody, that time just compounds. And now you're working 14 days a week. So money, time, resources, losing momentum. I think that's another thing that people don't really think about when we talk about turnover or losing our team members is we've built momentum to a certain extent and now what do we do with it? Where do we send it? Do you have to send out more referrals than you really want to be sending out? Because that's money leaving your practice. So I think we talk about momentum a lot is really important.

Uriah
Yeah. And with a group practice, hiring therapists, it might be easier in other industries, but when we hire a therapist and give them clients, and let's say we fill them to the maximum of their caseload, that is not easy. If that person leaves, it is, I don't know, 6 to 9 months sounds accurate and maybe even longer to get a new therapist and to fill them to the same capacity. I've done that many times. I've had a group practice for almost eight years now and productive therapist for just a little over five. Definitely, I think employee retention has been one of the most challenging things. I work really hard on it because I want people to love being here. I noticed that my businesses, both of them have benefited incredibly from the people who have been there the longest. You just take a look at what they've contributed, even from top line revenue to culture to all the other things and institutional knowledge and all those wonderful things.

Ashley
Yeah. And so it's almost cutting your nose off to spite your face, right? When we say, Well, it's fine. They can leave if they don't like it here. It's like, Don't you actually want your people to enjoy being here and also help you build something together? Because most people are leaving jobs because they aren't finding fulfillment. They're not feeling like they're able to contribute in meaningful ways. They're not doing work that feels valued and appreciated. And so when we can fill in the gaps using the onboarding process, using culture, using team development, all the things, all the tools that we have at our disposal, that's when people are like, I love working here because I feel seen, valued, respected. I feel part of something bigger. And that's become even more prevalent in the last few years since the pandemic and all the things that came with that is that people realized, Oh, I don't have to work at a soul draining job, and there are better options out there, and I'm going to go look for those. And we have the opportunity to scoop them up and say, you know what? You come here because we're going to make sure you feel appreciated.

Uriah
Tell me if you agree with this. I think there's no better recruiter than a happy employee.

Ashley
Oh, my gosh, 100 %. Referrals are some of the best recruits that you will ever have. Because also, if you're working, especially on a small team, if you've got five or 10 or 25 people, those people don't want to work with people that aren't pulling their weight. Definitely. Right? And they don't want to work with people that are crabby to be around or who aren't team players or aren't at the same level or better than they are. So your best employees are definitely going to come from referrals and personal relationships.

Uriah
And not a lot of people love their job. You hear about more people who are unhappy at work than people who are like, My job, my manager, amazing. And let me tell you a story about that.

Ashley
That's unusual. And when they're upset, they tell 50 times more people than when they're happy, right? Oh, yes.

Uriah
Most definitely, that is true. So I have to ask you a question as we're talking about onboarding. I am the head nerd here, so I'm always curious about technology and tools and various different things that can be used for different aspects of the business. Is there anything that you recommend in terms of tools or systems for that matter that make the onboarding more efficient and easy?

Ashley
Honestly, I'm an old school gal when it comes to tools and technology. I think the more that we can keep things simplified, the better it is for everyone. I think that having a good project management tool is really helpful because that helps everybody have one hub where things can be shared, projects can be expounded upon, tasks can be delegated. Here at Sprout HR, we personally use Asana and love it. We have clients that also use Monday. Com. They use, I'm trying to think of some of the other ones, Airtable. But whatever you're doing, I recommend keeping your tech stack super, super slim because the more places we add or the more technology we add, the more places there is to go and look for stuff, to access resources and things that we need, which means that it's going to take you longer to train somebody and it's going to take them longer to find the tools that they need. I know a lot of our group practice owners use simple practice, they use intake queue, they use some of these tools that are specific to group practice owners. So I definitely say, choose one system and try to stick with it. We do have a couple of other tools that we use. All of our documentation is created in Google, so sheets, docs, slides, everything that Google has to offer. So it's nice to be able to say, I'm going to link this in Asana. I want you to go to this folder and do all of these training modules. So it creates a really streamlined, efficient process. And then our day to day chitter chatter happens over on Slack where we're talking about things, we're brainstorming, we're following up on stuff. But anything that happens in Slack that has an action item associated with it goes straight into Asana. So that way we're not losing that connection, that balls aren't being dropped, that things aren't falling through the cracks. But that's pretty much our tech stack. That's how we do training onboarding. That's how we communicate with our team. That's how we delegate tasks. And I like that I can go in there and I can see everything that's happening at one glance instead of having to go person to person and say, Okay, what's going on with this? And what's happening here? And it's going to streamline things for you as the leader as well. So that way you can keep a pulse on your practice and what's.

Uriah
Happening without feeling like you're micromanaging or you're hovering or you're annoying people by checking in and following up on things. I like that. So use a project management tool of some sort, whatever you like. And it sounds like you're saying it's a good idea to have a set list of tasks that you do every time for that position. Let's say it's a new therapist coming into the practice, and then you can just assign those to them and then connect them with whatever Google.

Ashley
Docs you have where the rest of the policies and procedures live. Those two would probably be enough, right? Yeah, absolutely. Again, going back to over complicating things, you really don't have to overcomplicate. What I would rather you do instead of having some sophisticated, brand new flashy training program is to just have it documented. And that's where we get into trouble a lot is that our processes aren't documented, our policies aren't documented, our procedures aren't documented. So when somebody needs something, you are sitting there side by side with them having to go through every step when we could create tools that allow them to be self sufficient, allows them to be independent in their work much more quickly. And so then you become if you have a nuance or you have a question that's not answered within this container of resources and training tools that now we're having higher level conversations, we're having more important conversations. We're building momentum instead of saying, Well, you just have to rely on me 24 7 until you figure it all out. That's a much better pathway. Definitely. For sure. One of the best compliments...

Uriah
Well, I can think of two, but one of the best compliments that I ever get is from new hires, specifically for productive therapists, where they get into the onboarding process and they say something along the lines of, This is so organized. This is so easy to follow and understand. I'm like, Yes, yes. We've done our job. It took a lot of intention and a.

Ashley
Lot of building to get there. It doesn't just happen overnight either, right? We recently just made.

Uriah
A change that's been really good actually, because we have a lot of training that we put the virtual assistants through so they can really be up to speed with working with mental health practices. There's a lot to do. And we had it broken down by weeks, the first 3 to 4 weeks, do these tasks in this week, etc. And then we actually decided to break it down by day. So at least the first seven days is very specific about what you do on day one, two, three, etc. And that works nicely because it gives them really clear parameters of what success looks like on day 1, day two, and on. So that's been really good.

Ashley
And that makes so much sense because the thing is, if you don't know what game you're playing, you're not going to be able to win. If you don't know what the target looks like, you'll never be able to hit it. And so our job as leaders, as employers, is to tell the people what the game is and how.

Uriah
To play it and what the target looks like so that we can all win together. That's so true. I always ask people after I do the first one hour training, I ask them if they're still excited about the job. And if after everything I just shared with you, are you still excited about this position? And I want.

Ashley
Them to immediately say yes. And if they don't, then we have something to talk about. But yeah, I like that. I love it. It's such a great question. It's such a great question. And I think we get to make... Here we go. We're going to go into this again, right? We get to make this fun. I actually just read of a company earlier today, actually, called pepper comm. And it's a New York based PR agency. And one of the components that they have in their onboarding is that everybody goes and takes a comedy class. I thought that's really good. So fun. It really breaks down walls right from the get go. And another company also does something similar. They have their onboarding process includes an improv class, which made me think back to the episode with Figs O' Sullivan, where he was talking about like, I'm great with improv. And he was talking about how I love to come into the moment and solve the problem. And that's a great way to build problem solving skills with your team, where you never get to say, Oh, I don't have an answer. It's yes and we're building on things. We're brainstorming together, we're creating together. And I know the executive director of that company said something along the lines of, Connections happen when we're our most authentic selves. So if we can build an opportunity to be our most authentic selves into the onboarding process, we're going to create better connections. And people are going to feel more a part of the team more quickly, and they're not going to leave in those first 90 days.

Uriah
I bet you a lot of businesses don't insert those types of things and they don't realize the missed opportunity to do so. For some reason, I was thinking about one of my friends named Kurt, and he's got a group practice, and he's a very unique individual. He's got a great sense of humor. And in the hiring process, he asks people, What are your three worst concerts you've ever been to? So it's like an unusual assessment question. But that made me think about asking you, it occurs to me that in the onboarding process, that can be also a good time for people to opt out. If they realize this is not the job I thought it was, or this is actually not going to be great for me, it would be nice for them to have an off ramp. I don't know if that relates to my question actually. But my question is this, from what you were saying, are there any other examples of quirky or fun or interesting things that people have put in the onboarding process, whether it's about qualifying your hires or not?

Ashley
Sure. Well, I definitely think the pepper comm is probably the most fun thing that I've ever read. But I think that there's a lot of cool things that you can do. You can have virtual team dinners if your whole team is dispersed. I know a lot of times we talk about having an in person meeting or an in person team dinner, but you can also do that virtually. Send out some Uber Eats gift cards to everybody on the team. Invite everybody. Let's have a meal together. It's not business. We're talking casual. We're talking about our pets and our kids and our hobbies and the things that we love outside of work because I think that's an important part, especially with remote teams that they don't get. They don't get that same bonding experience that in person teams do. And I know a lot of group practices have moved to fully remote since the pandemic happened. So this is something I think is very top of mind for a lot of practice owners where they're thinking, but how do I create what we had in person when we're virtual? And it doesn't have to be cheesy team building things. We can do things that people actually will enjoy coming to. Even just starting meetings by asking folks, what was one thing you really love from onboarding this week? If you're onboarding multiple people, if you're in a team meeting and you're welcoming a new hire to the team, tell us something you learned in onboarding this week. I'd love to know what you're seeing from your seat because one of my managers when I worked at J. Krew said, You've got the freshest eyes on the team right now, and we want to know the good, the bad and the ugly. And they would have me share every meeting, every week, what are you learning? What are you seeing? What do you think could be improved? What a cool way to make someone feel so welcomed and important in your organization. We want your feedback. And I always remember that as being such an important part of my career journey as an employee was that somebody actually cared what I, the new girl on the team, thought, what I saw, what ideas I had, how I could help contribute in a more impactful way. So those are some of the ways I think that people have made onboarding really cool.

Uriah
Also elevates and empowers them in that position of being the new person, which is a good thing.

Ashley
And it can be totally scary, but I think the way that you hold space for it as the leader and as the team makes all the difference.

Uriah
It does. One that comes to mind, and then we can move on is I remember reading the book Delivering Happiness by Tony Shea, who was the founder of Zappos. And they're world renowned for their culture and their own thing. Cool things that they do. But one thing stuck out, and I never implemented this, but they would actually offer people after... I think it was about the first week of onboarding, they would offer them something like $2,000 to leave. Basically, they're saying, How much do you want this job? How excited are you about working here? If $2,000 would convince you to leave, then that's probably a good idea. And they did that for a couple of years, I think. And it was very successful.

Ashley
And that ties back into what you were saying earlier about giving people an out. And I always tell people the hiring process is where you also have the opportunity to say, This is a two way street. We have to see if you're a good fit for us. But you also should be asking me questions and judging if this is a good fit for you. And so I always give people the out right from the beginning and encourage our clients to offer people that opportunity to be out. And that's what those regular meetings when you have new hires are so important about. Are you still enjoying this? Is this the job that you thought it was going to be? Is this the culture that you thought you signed up for? What do you love? What are you not loving? And I think that our best onboarding building skills, I think that sounds a little strange, but we're going to go with it. But it comes from asking questions. It comes from saying, tell us the good, the bad and the ugly. What's going well with onboarding? What's not working? What are you getting? What are you not getting that you need? How do we improve this? Because every time you hire someone, you have a chance to make the onboarding process even that much better. But you got to get the feedback first.

Uriah
That's so cool. You won't know if you don't ask because people won't.

Ashley
Tell you. No, absolutely. Especially not the new guy.

Uriah
Right. That's so true. So I'm pretty sure that people are listening to this episode and thinking, this is amazing. I want to work with Ashley. I want to work with Sprout HR. So can you tell folks how they could do that and what you have to offer?

Ashley
Yeah, absolutely. So we would love to have you if you are interested in having us take all the awful things that you hate doing off your plate and making them more fun and easy. We do educate and train and teach you how to do these things in your own practice so that you can be self sufficient and not rely on outsourced HR forever and ever and ever. But you can find us, I figured, the best way to say it is fraudhr. C o everywhere you go. And so if you're interested in connecting with us, that's our website, that's our Facebook, our Instagram, LinkedIn, we're in all the places as usual. And I think one of the tools that you can take away that is really super helpful is SproutHR. C o I was trying to think of the URL that goes with it. But our hiring roadmap is a really amazing tool, Sprouthr. C o roadmap. I think that's a really great place to start. It'll get you set off on the right foot. It has some onboarding details in there, some next steps for you to be able to really make this whole experience end to end.

Uriah
Yeah, I just downloaded the hiring roadmap, so I'm excited to dig into that. And I would recommend that everybody check that out because who doesn't need some guidance on hiring and onboarding? We all do. Even if you've been doing this for a while, there's absolutely things you can do to make it more efficient, more fun and easy to stick with the theme of this episode.

Ashley
That's right. I love it because it gets to be fun and easy.

Uriah
That's so cool. Well, thank you so much for your time and for being here. This is a fun conversation, and I know people are going to get a lot of value out of this, and I'm sure we'll stay connected.

Ashley
Absolutely. Thanks so much again for having me, Uriah, and thank you to the Productive Therapist community for listening to our episode today!