Ever have an new employee who just doesn’t “get it”?

Bringing on a new employee is both an art and a science. Too many employers leave too much up to chance and hope that a newly hired employee “with experience” will dig through all your manuals, learn all the ins-and-outs of the business and on-board themselves.

Franchises have the right idea. Most of them won’t let you even interact with a customer until you have gone to days or even weeks of training first. You learn about the company, the culture, the systems, the vision and the objectives of the company before they let you talk to a potential client and confuse them or risk a bad online review.

Unfortunately, many small businesses don’t have the manpower, the resources or the time to provide this to their employees. As a result, there can be a higher turn-over rate on new hires, frustrated customers and lost opportunities.

All this on top of trying to limit a potential confusion a new employee might have on procedural guidelines, rules, protocol, and what they can or should expect from their manager. It is important that a new employee understands where they are making an impact in the business and how their efforts affect the rest of the team. They need to have clear objectives given and a simple protocol for asking for feedback in a timely manner when a specific desired result doesn’t happen. While performance statistics give one result, an employee has the right to feedback each time a desired result isn’t occurring so they can either modify their verbiage, their approach, or be more prepared to handle a situation they are impacting in a more effective way in the future.

These modifications in communication or approach could be from handling an upset customer, giving a potential client accurate valuable information and attempting to convert them into an appointment, closing a sale, or unscrambling a challenging potentially frustrating situation that has evolved.

The key thing to know is that not everyone has the same set of experiences and beliefs or training that you do, so when they do a task a certain way, it may achieve the desired result, and it may not be the path you might have taken to get there.

Allowing periodic “check-ins” or Instant Performance Adjustments (IPA’s) from your team can help prevent a lag in performance, minimize how far off track a result is before it is corrected and provide more needed feedback to a new employee. To do that, you need clear guidelines and expectations on many levels and have to let go of the idea that your employees should have known specific concepts. One of the ways to get compliance is to ask the employee “What do they think would be a good way to approach something that you see as a challenge?’ and be open to listen to their ideas.

Employees are not mind-readers and neither are you. Communication – frequently and timely is the key. If they are given a project to complete, they should be given a deadline and the opportunity to let you know in advance BEFORE THE DEADLINE, if there is a chance it might not be done, or if there is confusion on how to do it.

To allow this communication the structure to occur, you need to set aside time to allow them to communicate so they aren’t feeling like they are interrupting you or being annoying. Schedule this time in your appointment book to be available for IPA's.

Just as they don’t want to only hear you, as an employer complaining about everything, you also don’t want to hear the employee constantly complaining. Turn conversations around. There is a phrase “Train don’t Complain”. It goes both ways.

When employees know they have a forum or an outlet to express concerns, they are less likely to complain to another employee who can’t do anything about it, or that might add fuel to their fire. The goal is to teach employees to take responsibility for learning their jobs well and for taking the appropriate actions such that the desired results are more likely to happen.

If you find you have an employee who only likes to complain to other employees or insists on doing things their way and not getting the proper results, it may be time to release them. Set clear expectations, document successes and feedback and empower your team!

Employees who justify their mistakes or excuses can ruin the fun and the momentum for the team. A consistent underperformer can crush the energy of a business and the top performers will begin to resent the employee who is “taking advantage” of the boss or the circumstances.

Keep the expectations of the team clear and acknowledge those who are making it happen and quickly correct and “adjust the behavior” of those who are not “on-board”. Understand that not everyone will hear everything the “first” time and may need to have things repeated. Make sure they understand what you mean when you say you want a certain result. Before you get angry, take a moment to look where you might not have explained your objectives or given enough training for them to fulfill your desires. Not everyone learns the same way. Some people can follow a manual, some need hands-on training and some need every little detail and possibility explained before they will move ahead on a project. Remember appreciation goes a long way!

For further information about improving the health of your organization or having a Discovery call to determine how to go about implementing this concept within your business, contact Dr. Randall LaFrom at THE DENTIST ADVANTAGE.

[email protected] or 408-390-7283