Start

How to Get Them Started

To bring the best out of your new employee, apply performance management techniques to their orientation.

You may have hired a top performer, but if you botch the employee orientation too badly, you may well lose them. On the other hand, if you hired an average performer only, effective performance management techniques can increase your chances of building a productive team member.

Job Description

Now, this is your responsibility. You know what the job is supposed to produce in the way of results. Depending on the previous person who held the position you are filling, you may or may not have a good job description in place.

If the previous person was fired for incompetence, chances are there is no job description of any value. Even if there is one that looks OK, you’d better examine it carefully and bring it up-to-date.

Of course, if this is a brand new position that no-one has held before, you have to start from scratch with the job description.

The point is that, if the newly hired person is going to have any chance of hitting the ground running, he had better have a pretty good road map. Click here to see how to do this.

Orienting New People

Sometimes it can be very daunting for a new person in your organisation to find their way around. This is not only to do with the actual operation of their new post, but also all the other procedures, facilities and policies of the operation.

You need to assign someone to look after the new person. This should not be you. It should be another in the company, preferably on the same level as the new person. Their job is to show them around and answer all those “silly” questions they may be embarrassed to ask you.

It all falls under the heading of; “How are things done around here?”

If you don’t do this, the new person may lose a lot of potentially productive time trying to figure out how they put in an expense claim, or order supplies for their work.

See this and how to ensure that people who exit your team leave behind a proper Job Write-Up: Get Them Started Right