Management Guide #1 - Onboarding Your Employees

General topics are all well and good but I have decided to make some posts more in the vein of management guides in an attempt to transfer some of my hard-won knowledge to anyone it may benefit. I don’t know everything and always strive to learn more so this isn’t me saying that I have all of the answers. This is me highlighting what I do know so hopefully some of you may skip these steps and get straight into good practices. I’ve made some of these mistakes before through ignorance but it doesn’t mean you have to!

 

 

I always like to say that how we start something influences how we finish with it. That is always the case be it with client relationships, practice for sports, or onboarding employees. With this thought in mind, the following aims to provide you a guide for how to onboard your employees as a manager.

Presumably, you were involved in the hiring of this new employee or you had the ultimate say and approved them. Hopefully you had the chance to interview this person as well. Regardless, the first step happens before the employee’s first day.

You’ve got to plan ahead and there are probably many things that you need to do which will largely be the same no matter which corporation you work in. Will the employee have computer access? Are they office-based or remote? Will they know how to sign in when they get their equipment? What equipment should they have? Do they know the dress code? Are there any office or company standards that they should be aware of before day one? These are some examples of questions that you will want to address before your new employee even arrives.

On day one, there are likely a myriad of concerns for the employee. This is the first time they are meeting everyone on the team. This is a day where they may not know what to expect and that could be causing anxiety (if you can alleviate some of that beforehand, all the better!). In most companies, getting through HR-mandated and compliance-type material will be first. Often, if you have HR, they will probably be the first to meet with your employee and they likely have some of their own onboarding materials that are more general and tuned to the company rather than for the role in question. This could take anywhere from thirty minutes to two or three hours. But whenever that is done, you need to make it a priority that you meet with this employee face-to-face or via video if that is not possible.

In that first meeting you need to establish a couple of things and clarify some others. Here is a template for how I approach this:

• (Re-) Introductions. Ask about their day and some friendly conversation to ease them in.
• Explain any nuance of the role that they now need to know in greater detail and be aware of early.
• Set your expectations of them and explain how you manage.
• Allow them a chance to state their expectations for you and your company.
• Explain how you like to give and receive feedback. Verify if this approach would work for them and tailor your approach to the employee's needs. (Think about both the positive and constructive)
• Outline next steps for the day, week, and point to any onboarding plans or materials.

This will have a tremendous impact on making the employee feel welcomed and you have to make time for this. They are a priority. Period.

You may also notice that some of the items in the list are more about how the employee thinks or feels about you and their preferences. This is purposeful.

Above all, you need a good professional relationship with this person and if you’re taking a dictatorial stance in that, the relationship will fail sooner or later. But if you’re open to adjusting as they should be, then your relationship will thrive and your trust with this person is built from a very early stage. That all leads to business efficiencies, a better work environment, and contributes to the bottom-line in many ways that are tangible and intangible. Again, being kind in business is not a weakness.

How often do you have one on ones with your existing employees? Weekly? Bi-weekly? Monthly? Think about how you want to phase this schedule in with your new employee. My recommendation is to put on the calendar a weekly touch base between the two of you where you get feedback on their onboarding so that you may improve the process in the future and also to see how their week is going and be apprised of any difficulties which may require your intervention. As you get more comfortable with each other and the employee proceeds through onboarding you can gradually scale back the frequency of these meetings and make it so that their nature conforms more to the existing one on ones you have with others. (Important side note: the “status check” one on ones, while important in their own way, better not be the only type of one on one you have with people or you will miss out on so many important details!).

Onboarding employees properly is a lot of work. You will want to not only set aside time for the above, but I would highly recommend leaving a lot of open calendar space to answer questions your employee may have and to figure in on any onboarding assignments they may have as well. Don’t be an absentee leader.

To take us on a bit of a (warranted) tangent, don’t use the excuse of not having enough time. If you are a people leader then guess what? Your first responsibility is to the people under you and no one else. No excuses. Bob wants a paper from you? Yes, that’s important but nothing should be more important than your people. If you have an untenable schedule because of work commitments in your role then you need to look into renegotiating that if you can. Don’t let your scheduling issues sour someone and result in costly turnover for your organization. People are the biggest resources that a company has. Don’t waste your people because of something that’s ultimately less important in the long-run.

At some point, your employee will get close to finishing onboarding. Whether by law or by practice, your company likely has a probationary period which essentially means that you can, no-questions-asked, fire this person at any time if it’s not working out. It’s kind of like an insurance policy for companies so they don’t get stuck with bad hires. I’d like to play through two scenarios surrounding this with the probationary period date in mind: one where they move on and become a regular employee and another where you have to let them go.

First, let’s talk about firing during the probationary period. Please, please, please don’t let any issues go unresolved, let it get to a few days before the probationary period end date, and then fire the employee. I can’t tell you how bad a look that is as an employer. If someone is struggling or not meeting standards, this should not be a surprise to them throughout this period and you can use your weekly one on ones to talk about performance in this vein. Your goal there, by the way, should be to help the employee improve if possible and not to bury them further. It’s your hire – stand behind them. If you’ve tried your best, they have too (or they haven’t), and things still aren’t working out, that’s when you cut this person loose but it won’t be a surprise when you do and that is critical. And remember: they’re judging you as much as you are judging them during this period so what you say and do matters greatly. Just because you have hierarchal seniority does not mean that you are all-powerful.

If the probationary period is going really well then don’t be shy to let your new employee know. Figure out how you want to celebrate their successes in ways that wouldn’t make them uncomfortable (not everyone likes public praise or even values it – appreciate them in ways they value). Definitely give feedback on things that can be improved but if they’re, for example, doing 80% of what they should and that is great for you, don’t spend 80% of your time talking about their 20% they could improve on. That just makes them think you fixate on the negative and will undercut your message that they are doing well. Make sure they understand what they need to improve and that they can ask you questions if something about that is unclear or if they would like your advice on how to go about improving.

And on the topic of doing well, please realize that “doing well” doesn’t mean doing things exactly as you would do them. People need to be able to learn and make mistakes to find their own style and comfort. Figure out ahead of time which are the critical mistakes and which are those they can learn from, and distinguish these appropriately and with emotional intelligence when you are having these conversations. These people are under tremendous pressure to perform and prove themselves so don’t make this an even harder period on them than it needs to be.

Ultimately, if you don’t experience big problems, your employee is still a culture fit, and you’ve gotten through onboarding and the probationary period (there may or may not be a review at the end of it), then…congratulations – you have yourself a good employee! Now your duty is to help them improve so you may all grow and win together.