How to Effectively Manage New Hires in 2021
Onboarding new employees can mean the difference between someone who feels welcome and stays with your company for decades, and a confused and underappreciated worker who leaves after a few months.
How much does it cost a company to hire someone? The Society for Human Resource Management estimates it costs companies around $4,129 per new hire and takes around 42 days to fill a position. The last thing you want to do is spend all that time and money to hire someone only to have them not feel engaged.
Learn how to manage new hires and make them feel part of the team from day one. Here are some tips for effectively managing new hires in the current work climate:
Prepare Them Before Onboarding
Once a candidate accepts your job offer, your work at managing them begins. You should prepare them for the process they’ll go through. Explain what training is like, how long it might take and any special preparations they need to make.
If training is online, make sure they know how to access everything. Offer to meet with them via Zoom if they don’t understand the process.
Use Video Tools
With more workers staying at home, training may be completely remote. Using video recordings helps tremendously. You can also arrange Zoom meetings to go over any particulars not covered in more general onboarding materials.
The more intuitive you can make at-home training, the better employees will respond. By removing the stress from the first days of a new job, you create happier staff. Happy workers are more likely to remain engaged and productive.
Match Them With a Buddy
Give them a point of contact in the company to mentor them through the first few weeks. Ideally, the person you pair them with has done their job in the past. They should be able to easily answer specific questions about tasks and offer advice on shortcuts and best practices.
Seek people who are outgoing and friendly. You want a mentor to show new employees where the lunch area is, talk to them about breaks and introduce them to new co-workers. A guide lets the person enter the company already knowing one person and makes them feel more at ease.
Watch for Bad Hires
No matter how diligent you are, there may be occasions when you hire someone who isn’t a good fit for your company. Train managers to watch for red flags.
According to a recent survey by CareerBuilder, bad hires negatively impact businesses in multiple ways. Employers estimate bad hires may cost more than $18,700 over a year and harm employee morale and productivity.
Open Lines of Communication
New hires aren’t loyal to your company yet. They don’t have much time invested, and other than a paycheck, they have little reason to remain. Make sure they feel comfortable expressing concerns and asking questions.
Treat new hires the way you would want to be treated if it were your first few days on the job. Make sure everything is ready for them and they feel a vital part of the team.
Create Virtual Gatherings
With the work landscape changing and more people completing tasks remotely, your new employees may feel a bit isolated. Some people don’t enjoy working from home. Seek solutions that cover everyone’s needs, such as flex time — some can work from home, others can stay in the office and some can be fully virtual.
Whenever you have in-person gatherings or meetings, use technology to include workers who aren’t in the office with you. Also, take an interest in them. If you know your new hire loves dogs, ask about their pet or if they’ve done any recent volunteer work with rescue centers.
Share Task Calendars
Use a project management tool everyone on the team can access. When you have workers both in-office and at home, and perhaps all over the globe, a task calendar ensures things get done in a timely manner.
Calendars and project management tools reduce the risk of work being completed twice or not at all. It allows everyone on the team to feel in the know about progress. There are many cloud-based tools you can use, such as Basecamp, Asana and ClickUp.
Talk About Short- and Long-Term Goals
Most people grow excited at the prospect of a new position. They enter the company with ideas about how they’ll work their way up and what they can bring to the table, and they’re likely excited over new opportunities.
Spend time talking to each new hire about their long- and short-term goals with the company. Where do they see themselves in a year? What about five years? Have a frank conversation about what you do and don’t have available and what the perks of working for your brand are.
Talk to them about the steps needed to reach their goals. If they want to work their way into management and this requires an associate’s degree, explain the tuition match program you have and the ways you support employees as they strive to better themselves and reach higher levels in the company.
Care About Your Staff
The key to finding and keeping great people is treating them with respect. You may not be able to compete with the pay levels of a huge corporation, but you have other things you can offer new hires, such as a family-like atmosphere, time off to pursue causes they care about and perks huge corporations don’t offer.
Let your new hires know you care. Make sure they feel at home in your company. Figure out what their dreams are and help them reach for the sky. Their success helps ensure your success.
This guest post was authored by Eleanor Hecks
Eleanor Hecks is editor-in-chief at Designerly Magazine. She was the creative director at a digital marketing agency before becoming a full-time freelance designer. Eleanor lives in Philly with her husband and pup, Bear.
