The New Hire Process
October 22, 2018
Getting Started
While many times hiring a new staff member means bringing in a person with prior knowledge and experience of the job you have hired them to do, they will still need help learning the daily routine of your office culture and operations. However, you may be hiring someone with little to no work experience up to this point. Perhaps they’re a new college graduate, an employee coming out of a large position change, or even someone simply moving into a higher position who needs a bit of help figuring out how to go about what they are expected to do day-to-day. This brings us to the point that best shows a need for a comprehensive new hire process; no one, unless they are moving positions internally, will truly understand the expectations for the position and company culture from day one.
Day One
Bringing on a new employee and simply walking them through a basic “welcome to the company” process is only the first step to familiarizing them with working within your organization’s normal operations. Place yourself in a situation where someone simply lays out what it is you’re supposed to have done by 5:00 pm, without a hint of direction as to how to get the job done. What resources do you have available to help you? You might get a bit frustrated and it’s going to take you awhile to get into a flow. While every new employee will have growing pains (let’s face it, all of us need some time to adjust to a new work environment), an effective new hire process can keep this growing time to a minimum.
The Process
While every company is different and therefore requiring slightly different approaches to a new hire process to be truly successful, be prepared for some trial and error in finding what works best for your organization. Here are a few core pieces that can help create a solid foundation to start from:
- Solidify your culture: before they even start, the new hire should have a very comfortable idea of what your organization believes and upholds. Every company is different in this regard, and helping them understand what they represent when they walk through your doors makes the transition much easier.
- What is expected of them: no two companies function exactly alike, so it’s important to make sure an employee understands exactly what they are expected to accomplish while at work. Place yourself in their shoes; there is no better way to upset an employee than to get on to them about not completing a task they never knew was their responsibility in the first place.
- Their resources: this is a new employee, and they will have questions, so make sure you provide them with contacts that can answer questions for them along with resources to make their job easier. Don’t forget to be thorough, what may come naturally to you and your long-time employees may be completely foreign to a new hire.
Final Thoughts
To wrap things up, if used effectively, your new hire process can help pave the way to success from day one for both your employees and your company. Don’t let it consist of a walk-through of the office, hellos to the team, some basic job info and then a smile and “go get them!” While those things might be important to building a successful sense of the team, a new hire process at the end of the day is a process focused on the new employee and how to bring them into your office’s environment, culture and day-to-day activities, as quickly and efficiently as possible. Do some serious thinking about how you can best set up your new hires to succeed and you will see your efforts repaid.
IBTX and You
Know how you would like your new hire process to work, understand the steps to take to get it there but just not sure where to start? Come talk to us. At IBTX, we understand how important your new hire process is and we are available to help. With extensive backgrounds in the employment process and human resources, our dedicated team of HR consultants can provide your company with as much or as little support as you need. Whether that means simply helping you find the right place to start, guidance in how to take your process to the next level, or even constructing a unique process for you. We are happy to custom-tailor an HR strategy that best fits you and your organization’s needs, no matter how unique they may be.
Posted by Nicole Lozano in Blog, Human Resources