Most people find that when they begin a new job for the first time, they are introduced to a few people, handed some binders, perhaps given some training in the products, and then are pushed right into their jobs to start working. It is a rare and special company that does a good job onboarding new team members. Here are some suggestions on how to do it a little better.

You have decided to hire someone. They will start working for you in three weeks. Have you done everything you can do to provide them with every possible advantage before you hand them ten projects and slap them on the back saying, “Good luck, and welcome aboard!” ?

There are some steps you can take to help a new employee, and yourself, make the most of their first few days in the office:

1. Ignore your perfectionism
2. Recognize the Four Competencies
3. Provide the Four Gifts of Management

Ignore Your Perfectionism

Your new employees are going through a process of learning and change. They are under stress, and that stress will continue until they reach a level of competency where they feel more comfortable. You are unlikely to see the best that they have to offer until you have moved them far enough along to have a chance to perform. Anything you can do to accelerate the process is helpful. Do not allow perfectionism to drive you to throw your hands up in disgust and not even try because there is not enough money, time, or people to get the job done right. Just try to get any part of the job done.

This does not have to be perfect. It, like most things in business, can be very, very messy and still be a good thing. Remember that most managers do very little - often nothing at all.

Pay Attention to the Four Competencies

Know your people and be aware of what they are going through.

New employees are in the first of the Four Competencies. They may be experiencing some anxiety over being in a new job. Some will experience more than others. But currently, they do not know what it is they do not know.

I once had a teacher in high school named Fred Veal. He worked for decades as a high school science teacher. I asked him once about ten years after I had graduated how he was able to stand teaching a rowdy bunch of ingrates like us for so many years without losing his mind.

Fred Veal said,

“I don’t view myself as a teacher. Teachers in high schools always fail more than they succeed. They try to make sure kids learn a certain amount, and it doesn’t work because the kids don’t want to learn. Those sorts of people are perfectionists and they usually quit in the first few years. Instead, I view myself as a reducer of ignorance. If I can even make a dent in a child’s ignorance, I have succeeded.”

The first step to take with any new hire is to reduce their ignorance about their own ignorance. Take them from boldly going where everyone has gone before (and failed) to having some doubts and reaching out for guidance as quickly as possible.

Be aware when the new employee reaches that second competency level of conscious incompetence. You will need to ensure there is a support mechanism in place of some kind to help manage disappointment, disillusionment, and fear.

Provide the Four Gifts of Management

There are four gifts that any manager has to give their employees:

1. Hiring
2. Training
3. Motivation
4. Development

You have already hired the person, so the first gift is given. The next gift is training. That doesn’t mean that you have to be the trainer, but it does mean that you need to make arrangements for training despite your limited resources.

Here are some suggestions:

• Team Training. How about getting your team in room off-line for one or two days to review what they already know and help the new person find out what it is they do not know? You can assign a different hour to a different topic, and each person on your team can train a topic for which they have a particular talent.
• Peer Training. You could sit the new hire in the conference room to receive the training all day long, but then have one of your people visit them every hour on the hour with different topics and material to review until everything is covered.
• On-line Training. Most companies have some on-line training available today. Can you get them access to this training and let them take it?
• New Hire Handbook. You could create a handbook for new hires to review the steps they need to take to be set up in all of the systems that exist and to help them find all of the resources available to to them. You don’t have to write the book yourself. Have a new hire document where to go to get a badge to get into the building, how to get access to the network, and how to reserve a parking place. The book will quickly grow if you have each new hire hand it to the next new hire and have them edit the document as they try to follow the directions. In a team that is quickly growing, this is a technique that I have seen used very successfully.

The next gift you have to give is motivation. Your new hire will need attention from someone. Make sure that someone is checking on them regularly. It is best if that person has a natural ability to motivate and encourage.

Development is the last gift. Teach the employee how to give this gift to themselves and work with them as an accountability partner to see that they are progressing. After they are through the initial pains of onboarding to your team, meet with them and have them decide which direction they will strike out in next to reduce ignorance for themselves, and have them set dates by which they will achieve each step to form a plan. Follow up on the plan with them regularly.

Development can also mean something else. Unfortunately, there are situations where the greatest gift a manager has to give to an employee is free time to find a new job so that they can be successful - somewhere else. When hiring, training, and motivation all fail, then only a few possibilities remain. They are unwilling to do the job to your liking, or they are unable to do the job. You’ve trained, so it isn’t skill. You have paid attention to their journey through the Four Competencies. You’ve tried motivating them by setting goals with them and measuring how well they are doing. You have given feedback. It’s not working, so they have to go.

I would advise any manager to keep an open mind about their employees’ potential for success right up to the very last. Hold out hope for them, and view every step you take as a last ditch effort to turn things around if they are not going well. But don’t wait too long to make up your mind and take action. It is cruel to leave someone in a position where they are failing no matter how badly they need the paycheck.

Don’t Do it All Yourself

You are not a one man training department. Do not try to do everything yourself. Weeks before your new hire arrives, gather your entire team and run through a checklist of onboarding activities that need to take place and be scheduled. Delegate everything out to your folks beyond the initial greeting and your regular meetings with the person. If you are a skilled trainer, then sure, do some of the training yourself.

However, keep in mind that everyone on your team deserves to have you to train, motivate, and develop them as well, and they will welcome the opportunity to step into your shoes, reduce your burden, and show you that they are capable of more than what you have them do every day.

Delegating the training of new hires and onboarding activities also pulls a team together. With everyone working on a single, unified objective, your team may realize benefits that they do not normally enjoy working on their projects separately from one another with a common boss. A new hire is a huge opportunity for everyone. Do not pass it up.