TiER1 Performance The onboarding journey at Paycor demonstrates what investing in your people can do for them and the strategy of the organization. As a provider of HR software and online payroll services, they not only help clients create meaningful employee experiences, they live it themselves. New hires to the Paycor Sales Team experience this firsthand as they go through Paycor’s eight-week onboarding program, The Ascent.
From Day 1, new hires feel inspired to start the journey—even though the company’s product line requires learning an extensive breadth of product knowledge. Paycor’s immersive approach to onboarding allows new hires to jump into the sales process, building relationships and completing meaningful work as early as Week 1.
This reimagined experience launched in 2018 as a response to the company’s strategic focus on growth. The Sales Team partnered with the Learning and Performance Team, led by Mark Wilson, VP of Organizational Development and Learning, to empower new sellers to achieve sustainable, consistent growth and serve even more clients.
“Our goal was to design a hands-on program built around our sales process. We’re now delivering learning at the right time and creating space for new sellers to apply it in the field quickly.” – Mark Wilson, VP of Organizational Development & Learning
TiER1 Performance partnered with Paycor to design The Ascent, an immersive onboarding experience that empowers new sales hires to activate growth from day one. The program’s impact won a 2019 Gold Brandon Hall Award for Excellence in Learning and a 2019 Silver Brandon Hall Award for Excellence in Sales Performance. These awards celebrate Paycor’s innovative approach to learning, performance, and culture activation.
Ascent is designed with a blend of preboarding activities, instructor-led orientation, observation, mentorship, role-playing, real-time feedback, gamification, and immediate application of the information. New hires complete the immersive journey with a cohort of peers. They are guided with a one-stop portal and build muscle in the habits needed to meet the company’s strategic goals. New sellers finish onboarding having not only built team relationships, but also having established their first clients—accelerating time to proficiency.
Knowledge is critical to success; so is practical experience. By timing the information over a cadence of eight weeks, new hires perform activities that intentionally focus on conveying institutional knowledge while also facilitating real-world application of knowledge. This accelerates the transition into the new role, since new hires gain experience with the software, technologies, and activities they’ll need on a daily basis.
Recognizing the importance of outside support throughout the onboarding journey, Paycor empowers managers and mentors to provide feedback every step of the way. There’s built-in accountability to ensure new sellers are equipped to complete assignments. Tapping into their competitive side, new hires earn badges in four competency areas and check their progress against other team members on a digital leaderboard.
Many new members of the team are located remotely and often work from home. The onboarding experience ensures that every new hire, no matter their location, is connected to the team and given day-to-day visibility into the culture and colleagues who are modeling best practices that are integral to success.
With an organization as successful as Paycor, they know that both tactical elements and their client-centered values are important to realize their growth strategy. A great culture is at the heart of the company. Ascent builds those elements into the experience.
Onboarding success hinges on the relationships and experiences that are facilitated. The integration of technology is critical to create a consistent experience as the company grows. The “home base” for the entire onboarding experience is housed in an online portal and supported by a comprehensive OneNote guide. In addition, it has created transparency to metrics that weren’t available in the past.
Within the first six months of launching the program, Paycor saw a triple increase in new hires meeting their sales quota by the time they finished onboarding. They also found that individuals who scored top marks in the program activities are now leading the pack in meeting sales quotas, supporting Paycor’s growth.
“We’re thrilled with how this program is launching new sellers’ success at Paycor, while also allowing us to continue to activate our growth strategy.” – Scott Rudy, Chief Sales Officer
The Ascent experience is designed to elevate new hires throughout their career. That it does—and the true value is in the excited, engaged, and productive employees who are living out Paycor’s mission, vision, and growth strategy.
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