Are You Prepared For Your Next New Employee?

It’s challenging enough to attract and hire great employees, but that’s often only half the battle. What can be even more challenging is getting them to stay with your organization. In a talent attraction study  by Indeed.com, they found that “65% of people look at new jobs again within 91 days of being hired.” So, what can you do to get new employees to stay with you? There are plenty of things an employer can to keep new staff on board, happy, and productive.

Before The First Day

The process of getting employees to stay with your organization begins before the employee’s first day at work. Imagine if an employee showed up, eager and excited to get to work, but didn’t have the tools needed to do her job? What if the employee’s manager wasn’t there to great her and her fellow co-workers were at a loss for what the new person should be doing?  Obviously, this would leave a horrendous first impression that would stick with the employee during her time with the organization, even if it’s just a short time. 

How do you avoid the situation detailed above?  Preparation!  It’s imperative that the manager consider what the new employee will need before she starts. Where will she sit?  Does she need a computer? If so, what software does the computer need to have? What training will she need and what’s the plan to make sure she gets it? Who will she need to meet? Who are the key people that will contribute towards her success, in addition to her manager? Does she have a job description and is it up-to-date? Who can be assigned to help mentor and coach her? How does her role fit into the team? All these questions and more need to be decided before the new employee shows up for work.  To neglect this preparation is inviting the employee to leave before she even starts working for the organization.

On the First Day

On the first day, make sure the new employee gets a warm welcome to the team. It’s a good idea to have a checklist handy to cover everything the employee needs to know, even the simple things like pointing out where the restrooms are located. Having a checklist not only helps a manager to cover all key points of information, but it also helps to ensure that an organization has a consistent way of acclimating new staff to the organization. Does your organization have a checklist? If not, then take the initiative to create one! Talk with other staff who have joined the organization within the past several months. Ask them what they wish they had been told on their first day at work. Use their feedback to help you create your checklist.

On the first day, managers should set clear expectations and let their new staff how they will be held accountable for results. The manager can go over the employee’s job description with the new staff member, line by line, checking for feedback and comprehension to make sure the new staff member fully understands what is expect of her. And if it’s not in the job description, the manager should explain how the employee’s performance will be measured.  It’s only fair. Most people want to know how they will be perceived to be doing good work. Maybe it’s a certain number of widgets completed per hour.  Maybe it’s projects completed within deadlines. Maybe it’s how well the project get completed within budget. Whatever the performance expectations are, they should be shared by the manager with the employee.

Once the manager has met with the employee, it’s time for the employee to meet her co-workers and learn their roles and responsibilities, and how the new employee will be interacting with them. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but it need to happen. No one wants to spend their first day surrounded by strangers. The manager can make introductions. Or, if the team is up for it, the manager encourage the process by giving the new person a list of staff members to meet on the first day. However, this should not be done unless all the co-workers are notified in advance and are willing to meet and introduce themselves to the new team member.

30-60-90 Day Milestones

Some managers feel that if they have given the new employee everything she needs on the first day, she will be just fine. And since she’s a smart person, she will most likely “figure it out.” At least that’s what the manager hopes will happen. However, hope is not a strategy. To ensure the successful transition from new employees to fully functioning employee requires careful and deliberate planning. The manager should be able to detail levels of performance for the new employee at 30, 60, and 90-day intervals. The manager should also plan to sit down with the employee at those intervals to see how things are going. Does the employee feel she is getting the support she needs to do her job? Does the employee feel she is making progress? Does she see herself making a meaningful contribution? Also, the manager should take this time to provide feedback on how the manager perceives the employee is doing. It’s really unfair to the employee if the manager doesn’t feel the employee is on track for success and neglects to share his thoughts and concerns, especially if after an introductory period the manager wants to terminate the employee for poor performance.--

You’ll notice there has been a lot of emphasis on the manager doing his part to help the employee. That’s because as the old saying goes, “people don’t tend to leave companies, they leave managers.” The employee’s direct supervisor will undoubtedly have the biggest impact on whether the employee chooses to continue to be employed by the organization. And yes, it’s true that managers often have a lot to be responsible for (production, schedules, budgets, customer service, etc.), often more than the manager believes he or she can handle. However, taking care of staff, especially new staff, should be one of the manager’s highest priorities, and not merely an afterthought, only taking action when it’s convenient for the manager to do so. It should not be delegated to those people in HR, or to the new person’s co-workers. 

In summary, first impressions really are lasting impressions. If a new employee feels welcome and set up for success, there’s a good chance that person will enjoy a long and prosperous relationship with the company. If the first few days are a chaotic series of unfortunate events, leaving the employee feeling lost and confused, it won’t be long before that person is looking to jump ship. It’s that simple. In fact, you might say a lot of this is common sense. The trick is to make it common practice in your organization.

Comments Welcome

I welcome comments below regarding what others have done to help new staff members to be successful when they first join the organization. What are your best practices?

Kevin Panet is a Human Resources professional with over 20 years of experience. He has a MS in Human Resources Management, a BS in Business Administration and a AAS in Information Systems Management. He also holds advanced nationally-recognized HR certifications from the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) and the Human Resources Certification Institute (HRCI).  He has served in a diverse assortment of industries, including banking, insurance, manufacturing, hospitality, non-profit, aerospace, and the U.S. Air Force. He currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with his wife and two and a half dogs. In his spare time he enjoys hiking, photography, and support several veterans organizations. He can be reached at [email protected]