In a terrific example of synchronicity, it seems that Annette Clancy, Shawn Callahan, and I were all thinking about the importance of belonging in organizations last week.

Shawn offers the perspective that belonging is, at it’s core, an act of social learning. He offers the idea of induction as the first step to belonging:

I have been asking people, “How long after starting here did you feel you really knew the organisation and job you were doing?” Most people said it took them 12-18 months in a large organisation to really feel on top on things. Staff induction, therefore, needs to be more gradual and unfold over time as we experience the organisation we’ve joined. We need a slower and longer-term approach, one that better balances intellectual and emotional learning.

He starts with right spirit and my only gripe is that his first year induction plan is still too HR procedure-focused…and only focused on the first year. Great retention strategies involve an element of helping individuals evolve their own sense of belonging. Else, like anything, what was once new and exciting becomes stale and unimpressive. It’s a good beginning model, though, and should get the mental gears turning as to how to build on it and encourage joiners to truly belong.