No one has a bigger impact on a new employee’s impact to the business than the manager who recruited them. Here are some of my tips on how to set your new starters up to succeed.
Investing time in the induction process brings your new employees up to speed faster, which means they’re more quickly and efficiently able to make a contribution to your business. Effective on-boarding also dramatically reduces failure rates and increases employee engagement and retention.
The starting point is to take care of the “on-boarding basics” – such as the essential paperwork, compliance training, office space, support, and technology. Most firms do these elements effectively – the real work begins with the integration of new starters into the business.
Understand the challenges
Starting a new role can be difficult whatever the level of experience of the new employee. Even experienced professionals can struggle as they are unfamiliar with the business, don’t understand the company culture and aren’t fully aware of how things really work. New team members have to learn a lot and may be feeling quite vulnerable, even when they seem outwardly confident.
Managers need to get involved
Managers have a vested interest in on-boarding their new team members effectively. They need to invest time and energy in coaching, check-in with them regularly and be ready to intervene if necessary. This can help the new hire to secure some early wins, which can help to boost their confidence as well as their credibility within the firm, and increase the likelihood of ultimate success.
Integrate them into the team
It is important for new team members to build effective working relationships with their peers. The arrival of a new employee should be communicated prior to their start date so that the existing team understands who the new person is and what they are coming in to do.
Once they join, a team meal out or social get-together is a good investment as it helps to connect them with others in the team, in a more relaxed setting.
Outside of the new hire’s immediate team, there are likely to be other stakeholders who will be critical to their success in the job. A good manager will take the time to set up introductory meetings with key stakeholders so that the new recruit gets connected with the right people from the start.
Give them direction
From the beginning, a manager should explain to the new hire what the expectations of the role are and set some key objectives for the first 100 days. The new recruit should be clear on what they need to do, how they should be doing it and what the purpose of the role is within the context of the wider business
Jo Byrd is HR Director, for current vacancies please check the careers page, or for anything else HR related contact Jo by emailing HR@randall-payne.co.uk or call 01242 776000.
