First day, lasting impression: How Autodesk’s employee onboarding program sets new Autodeskers up for success

I’ve been with Autodesk for five years and am home-based (remote) in Mystic, Connecticut. In my current role as Senior Manager, Global Talent Attraction & Employee Onboarding, I lead a newly formed team that encompasses Employer Brand, Diversity Partnerships and Programs, and Employee Onboarding.

Our Global Employee Onboarding team is a mighty team of four – three program managers and myself – responsible for facilitating our New Employee Orientation program, or NEO. The program has been carefully crafted for new Autodeskers to learn about the company, answer questions, find resources, and build valuable connections – from the very first day!

During NEO, new Autodeskers familiarize themselves with Autodesk’s Impact, Culture, and Diversity & Belonging. They also hear personal stories from colleagues and leaders from various parts of the business. With interactive games, guest speakers, and hands-on learning, NEO provides new hires with a solid foundation of enterprise and corporate-level information to help guide them in their first weeks with Autodesk.

From core values to lasting connections

Over the course of three half-days, new employees engage in a series of experiences and activities, which are centered around our four Cs: Core, Company, Culture, and Connection. We are deliberate about the order in which we deliver information, making it conducive to the learning styles of many.

• Day 1 (“Core”): We demo many of our most used employee resources, like our intranet, company directory, and Workday. We also take an in-depth look at how we are organized as a company. This provides a lot of information and systems that are most ideally learned early on in a new hire’s journey.

• Day 2 (“Company”): We go into our brand, fun facts, and impact at Autodesk, pulling back the curtain on how we are bringing the company’s mission and vision to life through action.

• Day 3 (“Culture and Connection”): We focus on our “people intent,” Culture Code, Diversity & Belonging, and mentorship program. By Day 3, new hires are feeling more comfortable with our systems and each other, allowing us to bring our company culture to the forefront of an engaging dialogue.

While I don’t necessarily have a favorite part of NEO, because I think every puzzle piece truly brings together the full picture, I do think Day 3 always hits a sweet spot. It’s a nice blend of sharing how incredible our culture is and actually seeing it in action with our new hires through Culture Code activities. Seeing new employees, fresh to the company, interacting with and truly embodying that code is something special.

I also really appreciate the act of having guest speakers each day. We have such an incredibly vibrant and humble community of experts and storytellers, and it’s always super interesting to hear their perspectives and journeys with Autodesk! From senior leaders to members of our employee resource groups to employees invested in impact, the global onboarding community of storytellers who take time out of their busy days to support the program always leaves an imprint on new employees.

Shaping our onboarding experience around the globe

We are so fortunate to have absolute rockstars leading our program in AMER, EMEA, and APAC – representing each of our geos and bringing their own personal style to our NEO sessions. Think of these three as your Autodesk besties!

• Courtney Steed is our AMER Program Manager based in Eugene, Oregon. She is a high-energy facilitator and inclusive leader for our US, CAN, and LATAM employees.
  
  
• Eunice Yee is our APAC Program Manager located in Singapore. Eunice is a veteran Autodesker, previously working as an Executive Assistant within the Worldwide Marketing org. Eunice is a PowerPoint whiz and incredible at engaging new employees with gamification and thoughtfulness in NEO delivery.
  
  
• Sinead Kular is our EMEA Program Manager based in Ireland. While Sinead is relatively new to Autodesk, she came to us with 10+ years of Learning & Development experience and has never missed a beat in guiding employees through essential education and providing a fun approachable NEO environment for all.

All three program managers facilitate NEO on a biweekly basis and are responsible for leading additional projects that support our program’s success and agility. They also manage our geo-based community Slack channels, a special place for new employees to stay connected with each other after NEO ends.

We are very proud that the feedback we receive about NEO is almost always positive! And any constructive feedback is taken very seriously. We host a quarterly “feedback forum” as a team to do an in-depth analysis of our survey feedback to make improvements to the program.

Taking employee onboarding to new heights

When it comes to the future of NEO, there’s so much to look forward to! I think we’ve built a solid foundation and we’re still building our house so to speak. NEO is the core program of enterprise-level onboarding, and we have the opportunity to really extend that learning and engagement with new hires from offer acceptance well into their first year with us.

We are eager to continue to make connections and build our new hire community AND our internal Autodesk onboarding community to consistently improve the employee experience. We are doing a lot of work on continued learning and solving for any friction points new employees might experience early on in their time with us. Partnering with teams across HR, Marketing, and beyond has been tremendously helpful.

The future of New Employee Orientation is bright! We are definitely at a place where we can test new ways of working and aren’t afraid to switch things up. We are following the company’s lead on hybrid, flexible work, and I can imagine a hybrid NEO experience will come to life sometime next year.

Ready to shape the world and your future? Join us at Autodesk!