You’re understaffed and everyone is maxxed out. You finally find a good candidate to fill the vacancy. They start and you breath a sigh of relief now that the post filled and the pressure is relieved. You leave them to get on with things but quickly realise they are not quite what you thought they would be and they realise the Company isn’t quite what they expected. Things don’t quite work out and you find yourselves back to square 1. Does this sound familiar?
I am amazed that this scenario often happens and unwittingly, staff are set up to fail rather than succeed. In order to give a new member of staff the best chance of success you need to map out their first few months so both you and they know what to expect and what ‘good’ looks like in their role. They need to know their priorities for each month, what the outputs of each task are and how they are measured. This way you can ensure that yours and their expectations are met. Management needs to take the time to mentor and ‘buddy’ them so they can ‘learn the ropes’ and settle into their new role and environment as seamlessly and quickly as possible. In a larger organisation there is usually a formalised induction process (although this can be very HR heavy rather than role specific) but in SMEs this is often lacking.
This is a perfect example of one of my favourite expressions: “Slow down to speed up”. Spend the time at the start getting it right to ensure you and your business moves forward faster in the mid to long run. Invest time in hiring the right staff (if you cut corners or take the cheapest route, you usually end up with a compromise) and then invest time in getting them settled in and up to speed to reap the benefits later on.
Staff attraction and retention is a huge issue for business at the moment. It’s a candidates market so getting it right is crucial. However, hiring the right person is just the start of the process. So how good is your induction process and what other tips do you have?