The Experience Before the Experience: 3 Things Disney Can Teach Us About Worldclass Onboarding

You’ve drunk the Kool-Aid.  You put down your deposit, and you’re now trying to figure out how to schedule dining reservations 180 days out. And, despite how much everyone has told you about FastPasses, you are still a little confused about how and when you are supposed to book them, which ones are first tier and which ones are second tier, and really, which rides are worth getting a FastPast for. There are so many choices and decisions to navigate as you embark on your first trip to Disney World!

Such was my experience as we spent the spring planning for our first trip since the late 80s when I was a kid, to take our six and three year old on the most magical trip to be taken at their age.

I admit, I got so confused, I just turned all the planning over to my husband.

And I realized, the experience of planning for a trip to Disney World is much like the experience of being hired for a job and waiting in anticipation- and sometimes utter confusion- about how it is all going to go down and play out for your new gig.

But Disney has the experience before the experience figured out.  And with that, here are some tips I think we can all learn from Disney as we seek to create a world-class experience for our new hires before they even enter the park… I mean office.

1. You gotta have an app. The My Disney Experience app helps you navigate and store all the decisions that need to be made for your trip.  Schedule dining, FastPasses and have the confirmation number to your hotel all in one place.  Confused about which FastPasses to get? Well take a look at the wait times on all rides at any given point in any day through the app.  Realize your kid is too short to ride Splash Mountain through the app?  No worries, ditch a FastPass for that ride in favor of another one.

The tax paperwork, contact information and election options for benefits for a new hire are much like the choices for Disney World.  Plentiful and often overwhelming. To onboard a new hire effectively with all the choices this day in age, you’ve got to go digital with it and facilitate it through technology. Find the equivalent of the My Disney Experience app and allow your customer- aka your new hire- to get all the information needed to get all of the decisions out of the way.  Then it is all sent to you so that when they walk through the gates, they are ready for the magic.

2. The magic band is a must. Magic bands, which are the ticket to everything in Disney World- your resort room key, your credit card, your ticket into the parks, etc.- arrives at your doorstep (customized to the color of your choice) about a month before your trip.

To have seen my kids’ excitement over the arrival of those bands, you would have thought their arrival was the actual arrival at Disney World itself.

Are you sending any unique and customized swag to your new hires before they start to get them excited about their experience with your company?  It doesn’t have to be expensive (the magic bands are just plastic), but it needs to be unique to your company and something that creates excitement.

3. Pick up their bags for them. If you travel by plane to Disney, luggage tags will arrive for you in the mail before your trip.  You simply slip the luggage tags on before you check it with your airline, then you forget about the luggage.  Arrive at the airport, and there is no need to go to baggage claim.  Hop on the Disney Express bus that takes you in the comfort of air conditioning and TVs promoting the magic (and sales pitch) of Disney to your hotel, jet off to the parks, and when you return to your room, your luggage is waiting there for you.

We often exhaust and or turn new hires off on day one because there isn’t a sense of ease taking place prior or during arrival.  Their computer isn’t set-up, the phone isn’t either, and neither is their email address.  Get the details set-up so that not a thought has to be given to them during arrival, so that people can be whisked off to the park- or to hitting the ground running on meaningful stuff, instead of their bags- day one.

Disney was full of magic, and well, utter exhaustion.  But overall, Disney teaches us that is all about the customer experience. Your employees, old and new, are customers, are you creating experiences that treat them like one?

What do you do to create a world-class new hire experience?

 

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