Is Your New Hire On Board – Or Overboard?

Across the nation, one out of four employees will quit their jobs this year – and the average company will spend three times their annual salary to replace them. Particularly in small business this “turnover treadmill” can be the difference between a profitable company and one that’s on the verge of closing.

There are literally dozens of programs on hiring, but how often does anyone work on the other side – keeping the employee that’s been hired?

Let’s assume you’ve done a great job hiring the new employee – after all, you wouldn’t hire someone you didn’t feel was right. Yet, often, within six months to a year, either they’ve left or they haven’t worked out the way you expected. In either case, you’re right back where you started, except for the loss of time, salary paid, benefits paid, unemployment, and, most importantly, lost opportunity.

The problem can occur in several areas, but the one which tends to be most devastating is when we never get the employee truly “on board.” If we’ve hired the wrong person, the quicker we find out, the better. But it is most often the case that we just threw the new hire into the work without adequate preparation – even if we think we’ve explained everything.

Large corporations have entire Human Resources departments to handle these issues. What can you as a small business person do?

1) Make the process of bringing the new employee on-board a planned activity even before the hire is made. Much of this is pretty straightforward:

a. What documents do you need from the employee?

b. What needs to be filled out for payroll, benefits, etc.?

2) Create a simple “employee reference” for incoming employees. What goes into it? Everything you believe the employee will need, early in their time with you:

a. Hours of operation and/or work.

b. Who to call list for information on a variety of issues.

c. Lunch and break times.

d. Sick and vacation policies.

e. Benefits summary and eligibility.

3) Create a job description for this employee. Don’t rely on the last occupant of the position to do this or to “just fill them in” on things. The likelihood is that something will be lost in the translation. Experienced employees sometimes know things so well they fail to think about passing them on.

In addition, it is vital the employee have the basic duties and expectations in writing so they can refer back to them.

4) Think through the “technical knowledge” this person will need to know about your company and develop a written plan for them to attain it.

Many times, small business owners have described to me how they “put the new hire out in the operation” for some time to “learn the ropes.” The problem with this is neither the new hire, nor the people they are working with, have a solid idea of what it is they need to learn. They will learn something, certainly, but will it be what they need in their planned role?

A little time planning this “introduction” can make it 100% more effective. Both the new hire and the people they are working with will understand what they need to come away with and what the objectives of their experience are.

5) Finally, plan to do frequent reviews during the first six months. At first these might be a weekly conversation about what they are learning and what questions they have. After the first conversation, these would be the responsibility of their immediate manager, but if the owner made the hire, the first one should be with him/her.

After a few weeks, go to monthly reviews including feedback on their performance and the expectations ahead. By the end of six months, not only will you have a better grounded employee, but one who is comfortable talking about expectations that might be difficult for them.

While simplified for the purposes of this article, the process described includes the elements of the most successful on-boarding programs available. As always, the devil is in the details; so you might want to consider some further study of the topic to maximize its effectiveness.