Director Onboarding and the Foundations of Respect

Increased demands on public company directors have created significant challenges for corporate boards. Qualified individuals are serving on fewer boards, as directors and corporate executives face increasing constraints on their public company board service. There is a need for new independent director candidates, and there is also a steep learning curve for incoming directors, particularly those who are not industry insiders and those who are new to public company board service. Accordingly, onboarding new directors is becoming a more extensive and significant undertaking than it has been in the past. At the same time, the onboarding process is increasingly important to the success of the board in fulfilling its oversight role.

As board service becomes a more complicated and demanding task, and as boards continue to improve their diversity, the director onboarding process should be reimagined. It is no longer sufficient for onboarding to consist solely of a traditional orientation session. Onboarding should be understood as the integration of incoming directors into a well-functioning board, and as a process that now takes place within the larger context of the unprecedented diversification of directors in background, expertise, and outlook. The work of a board today is so wide-ranging, and boards themselves so carefully composed, that a company cannot afford a long introductory period in which new directors are not productive and valued members of the team. The result of successful onboarding is that a new director becomes a meaningful contributor to the work of the board from the beginning of his or her term, even while learning the about the company and its business. This is important not only to enable the company to benefit from the new director’s efforts as soon as possible, but also to set the right tone in the boardroom. Effective onboarding will produce board members who merit, and receive, the immediate respect and attention of their new colleagues.

Areas of Focus