How to use RACI to Onboard New Employees

The lag time it takes for a new employee to figure out their role can be painful for their manager and others on the team (and painful for them!) There is a better way to get them up to speed – using RACI from the beginning of the onboarding process can cut that lag time in half.

How can RACI help you quickly get new people on your team working effectively? First, it’s helpful to review "Why a RACI is Different than a Job Description." In this blog, we say that a RACI Matrix is like a post-it note – it’s not designed to “stick” as permanently as a job description. There are 2 key differences:

• • A RACI is typically project-based, and often involves the work you do horizontally with people from other areas. Many job descriptions include the phrase, “other duties as assigned”. These horizontal projects often fall into that “other duties” category and they are typically fluid.
    
    
  • A job description tells you about your own work, but not how you relate to others on the team. Who has authority? Who can you turn to for expertise? Who needs to know when you accomplish something? A RACI places you in the context of the team, and describes your relationships.

So, what are the steps to create a RACI for a new employee?

1. 1. Select 6-8 key tasks that the individual is Responsible for (these ultimately are deliverables they will need to produce (if they are an R) or oversee (if they are an R-Prime).
   2. For each of these key tasks, describe the roles “around” them – who has the A to approve or oversee the work? Who should be consulted, the C’s? Who should be informed about the work, the I’s?
   3. Share this RACI with the current team to achieve buy-in on the role, especially if it is a new role on the team. Will some of the work be taken away from other team members? How much authority to make decisions do you want the new person in the role to have?
   4. Once the team is aligned, share the RACI with your new hire and talk them through it.

Consciously talking through the RELATIONSHIPS as well as the job itself, will speed up your new employee’s confidence and the way they join the team. To read more about this, see, “Onboarding with RACI: Help New Employees Join the Team” and for a special template to help you onboard new employees, click for a New Employee RACI Template.

In Dave Ramsey’s book, “Build a Business You Love”, he talks about developing Key Results Areas (KRA) for each new employee, defining “what winning looks like in the role you’re filling.” These key results are usually connected to the “R” deliverables that employee is responsible for. In a sales role, this may be as simple as defining the number of sales you expect. For a nurse coordinator, it might be ensuring that a patient has moved successfully through the entire pre-op checklist of requirements to be ready for surgery. Consider developing a KRA for each new employee, connected to both their job description and their RACI.

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