Onboarding Manager

Johnson Controls, a global leader in thermal management, mission-critical building systems, energy efficiency, and decarbonization, helps customers use energy more productively, reduce carbon emissions, and operate with the precision and resilience required in rapidly expanding industries such as data centers, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, advanced manufacturing, and higher education.  

For more than 140 years, Johnson Controls has delivered performance where it really matters. Backed by advanced technology, lifecycle services and an industry-leading field organization, we elevate customer performance, turn goals into real-world results and help move society forward. 

Role Overview (Mission & Scope) 

The Manager, Onboarding is the enterprise owner for Johnson Controls’ onboarding strategy, standards, and operating model, treating onboarding as a scalable HR product that accelerates day-one readiness and time to productivity while minimizing waste and variability. The role ensures consistent, efficient, and high-impact onboarding experiences for all new hires, with particular focus on field-based and other critical talent segments. 

This leader designs and governs the end-to-end onboarding ecosystem—from immediate pre-boarding through the first several months—ensuring processes, tools, content, and learning experiences are simple, effective, and clearly owned. The role operates with enterprise scope though starting with and primarily focused on Americas, partnering closely with HRBPs, business leaders, IT, HR Operations, Benefits, and other enabling teams to ensure readiness for new hires, hiring managers, and HR colleagues. 

Enterprise Behavior Model 

This role must model and embed Johnson Controls’ Winning Behaviors as the “how”: 

We Focus on What Matters — We deliver for our customers by going to Gemba and listening to our colleagues, understanding and prioritizing what will have the greatest impact, and making sound decisions where the work happens.​ 

We Win as One Team — We seek and value different perspectives, collaborate across teams, treat each other with respect, recognize team member contributions, and empower our colleagues closest to the customer.  

We Own the Outcome — We take accountability, translate strategy into actions, and remove obstacles for our colleagues to deliver results that win with customers the right way, with safety and integrity first.​ 

We Improve Everyday — We seek and speak the truth with humility, get to root causes of problems, and take action with urgency to best serve our customers by learning, adapting, innovating, and supporting our colleagues’ growth.​ 

Key Leadership Attributes 

1) Product mindset with operational discipline: Designs onboarding as an enterprise product with clear customer and stakeholder needs (new hire, manager, HR), defined use cases, simple workflows, ownership, and success measures; balances standardization with required local flexibility. 

2) Enterprise influence without authority: Shapes decisions across HR COEs, regions, and functions through clarity, credibility, data, and strong partnership; aligns diverse stakeholders to common onboarding outcomes. 

3) Process excellence and waste reduction: Applies lean thinking to identify friction, duplication, and delays in onboarding; drives efficiency, cycle-time reduction, and role clarity without sacrificing quality or experience. 

4) Change leadership in a global, frontline environment: Implements onboarding solutions at scale across geographies, cultures, and role types; builds adoption through simplicity, enablement, and hiring manager standard work. 

5) Systems and tool integration mindset: Ensures onboarding processes are tightly integrated with core HR systems, IT tools, and learning platforms; translates requirements into practical, usable solutions. 

6) Builder of capability and enablement: Creates clear guidance, toolkits, learning, and communications that enable hiring managers, HRBPs, and HR Operations to execute onboarding effectively and consistently. 

Key Accountabilities 

A) Enterprise onboarding strategy & roadmap: Own and evolve the global onboarding strategy, defining scope (pre-boarding through first months), guiding principles, target experiences, and phased rollout aligned to enterprise priorities and critical roles/talent pools. 

B) Onboarding standard work & governance: Define the “rules of the road” for onboarding—required elements, decision rights, handoffs, ownership, service levels, and escalation paths; establish governance to ensure consistency, quality, and compliance. 

C) Pre-boarding and day-one readiness: Partner across functions to ensure all foundational requirements (systems access, equipment, benefits, compliance activities, safety, core learning) are ready by day one, with particular focus on field-based and operational roles. 

D) Core onboarding tools and collateral (non–job-specific): Design and maintain enterprise onboarding learning experiences that build connection, safety, culture, values, and enterprise knowledge over the first several months, distinct from role-specific training. 

E) Tool and platform enablement: Partner with IT, HR Operations, and Learning to ensure onboarding tools and platforms support efficient execution (automation, task management, communications, learning access) for new hires, managers, and HR. 

F) Stakeholder partnership & integration: Serve as the central integrator across HRBPs, business leaders, Talent, Total Rewards, IT, and Operations to ensure onboarding processes connect seamlessly with hire, transfer, and internal mobility workflows. 

G) Measurement, insights, and continuous improvement: Define and track success metrics (e.g., time to productivity, completion, cycle time, manager satisfaction, early retention); use insights to continuously refine onboarding experiences and standard work. 

Knowledge & Experience Required 

Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree in Human Resources, Organizational Development, Business, or related field preferred, with 10+ years progressive experience, including: 

• Designing and scaling onboarding or workforce learning or enablement programs in a global organization with significant frontline or field-based populations 

• Building enterprise HR processes using a product and standard work mindset 

• Partnering across HR COEs, HR Operations, IT, and business leadership 

• Driving process efficiency, simplification, and user-centered design 

• Implementing change at scale across diverse geographies and role types 

Strongly preferred: 

• Experience applying lean or continuous improvement principles to HR processes 

• Experience integrating onboarding with HR systems, workflow tools, and learning platforms 

• Demonstrated success improving early productivity, readiness, or retention outcomes 

12-Month Expectations for Success (Role Scorecard — Year 1) 

By 12 months, this leader has built the foundation and delivered early enterprise wins: 

Enterprise onboarding strategy established 

Published global onboarding strategy, principles, scope, and success measures aligned to critical talent needs. 

Standard work defined for pre-boarding and early onboarding 

Clear, role-based onboarding workflows with defined ownership across HR, managers, and enabling teams. 

Critical roles prioritized 

Segmentation and rollout plan focused first on field-based and other critical talent populations. 

Core onboarding experience launched or refreshed 

Enterprise onboarding content and learning pathways deployed for the first days and months. 

Measurement framework in place 

Baseline metrics established for readiness, cycle time, completion, and early experience quality. 

24-Month Expectations for Success (Role Scorecard — Year 2) 

By 24 months, this leader has scaled and embedded onboarding into enterprise operating cadence: 

Consistent, scalable onboarding model 

Standardized onboarding processes deployed globally with clear localization guardrails and sustainability. 

Onboarding embedded in talent system lifecycle