Everyone will like to hire people who are ready to “hit the ground running” from as early as possible. Getting peak performance from your new employees is possible, so long as you put in place the right structures at the beginning of each new employee relationship.
By paying attention to how your employees are received on Day One and ensuring thereafter that they are given the right tools, resources and education to succeed you can significantly enhance their ability to “hit the ground running” in the very early days of their work in your organization.
Here are some important ingredients for a successful on-boarding and induction process:
#1: Establish Protocols for Day One Readiness:
Day One Readiness refers to all the things that need to be in place to ensure that the new employee is able to settle into work on the very first day at work.
Protocols for Day One Readiness will consist of a checklist of things that should be in place – for example: Letter of Appointment and Acceptance, ID Cards, Complimentary Cards, Computer, Password, email address, log-in credentials to computer applications, a workstation, office stationery, etc.
#2: Create an Induction Plan:
As a small business you cannot do an induction training the way large institutions can, because you are typically hiring one or two persons at a time.
Rather than Induction Training, do an Induction Mentoring. Create a detailed induction plan with the list of the most important things you will like the new employees to learn – general stuff about the organization and more detailed stuff about the specific job the person will be doing.
Set timelines for the learning to take place and assign internal mentors who will be responsible for implementing.
#3: Get Everyone Involved:
If after running your business for a couple of years, you are still the only one that can carry out an induction mentoring for new employees then there is a problem.
You should get everyone involved in mentoring new employees. Assign topics for them to teach or discuss with the new employee.
This teaches very important leadership skills to all your employees, and helps the new employee to build relationships with her new colleagues.
#4: Measure Learning:
During the course of the induction, check with the new employee that he/she is learning and understands some of the topics he/she is being taught by the rest of the team.
Make corrections and adjustments as you go along and continue to track progress and learning based on your induction plan.
#5: Stretch and Challenge:
Ensure that you give some challenging assignments to the new employee while the induction is going on.
This will help you test the resilience and character of your new hire, and help her appreciate that it is really “hard work” that she is at your organization to do.
#6: Background Checks:
If there is anything that business owners must establish as a firm culture it is background checks.
To create a culture of professionalism and ensure that small businesses are not re-cycling the same set of under-productive or even criminal employees, it is important to carry out background checks.
It is the lack of background checks that gives employees the latitude to quit one job and jump to the other without giving their employers proper notice.
If no one carries out background checks then small business owners will continue to struggle to ensure that employees manage their exits professionally.
You should carry out background checks on the educational qualifications of your employees, their residential addresses, their past employers as stated on the CVs they submitted and request professional and personal references/guarantors as the case may be.
When organizations create disciplined systems for on-boarding and induction, they help new hires to acclimatize and learn faster about the organization.
This helps them to be more productive, ensures that the organization continues to run seamlessly while a new employee is being introduced and finally positions your organization as one with a strong culture and brand in the minds of your new and existing employees.
