Based on its research of new director onboarding practices, Russell Reynolds suggests boards enhance the effectiveness of their director onboarding by: (i) tailoring the process to meet the specific needs of different directors, (ii) themselves leading the process (in lieu of the process being led by the Corporate Secretary or other senior executives), (iii) broadening the pool of company (board and management) leaders with whom new directors meet, (iv) considering a board mentoring program, and (v) providing direct performance feedback to new directors 6 – 12 months after their appointment.
The post includes this informative benchmarking data on current onboarding practices based on the firm's Spring 2018 survey of 161 new directors, 20% of whom were first-time directors:
- 58% of new directors experienced a "standard" rather than customized onboarding program; 18% had no formal onboarding. Less than half had an onboarding process relative to a specific board committee.
- The Corporate Secretary most commonly leads the onboarding process, followed by the CEO. The board's lead independent director, non-executive chair, and Nom/Gov committee are the least likely to lead the process.
- 24% of new directors didn't meet with the lead director, 17% didn't meet with the non-executive chair, 27% didn't meet with board committee chairs, 36% didn't meet with the CHRO, and 53% didn't meet with the Internal Audit head, during their onboarding process before the first board meeting.
- Just 6% of new directors were paired with a tenured director-mentor.