Some new employees are productive starting day one. Others take days, or even weeks, to get up to speed. Since the ramp-up varies, Google decided to find ways managers could help their new employees more quickly be productive.
The research team eventually developed a list of five simple onboarding tips for managers. Instead of creating a comprehensive process (because few people willingly embrace a comprehensive process), they emailed five reminder tips to managers one day before a new employee’s first day.
Here’s the list:
- Match the new employee with a peer “buddy.”
- Help the new employee build a social network.
- Schedule a monthly check-in for the new employee’s first six months.
- Encourage open dialogue.
- Meet the new employee on their first day.
Does helping a new employee feel welcome and valued sound obvious? Sure. So does scheduling regular check-ins. So does meeting a new employee on their first day (can’t get more obvious than that) to talk about roles and responsibilities.
Yet some managers didn’t always do the simple stuff, even though the managers who followed that advice got their new hires up to speed a month faster (in Google terms, about 25 percent faster) than those who did not.
Why didn’t some managers meet with new employees on their first day to talk about roles and responsibilities, and to set the expectation stage for the next few months? Mostly because they were “too busy.”
But if you think about new employees as an investment, which they are, then you can never be too busy to spend a little time ensuring that investment generates a return as quickly as possible — especially if you’re a small-business owner and that investment comes out of your pocket.
And make sure you not only explain the roles and responsibilities of the job, but why the job matters.
Here’s how:
Explain how the job creates value.
No matter what business you’re in, one or two things truly drive results. Quality. Or service. Or being the low-cost provider. Or creating a genuine sense of community. Plenty of other aspects are important, but for every business, one or two are absolutely make-or-break.
Start there.
Then connect that to the employee. Explain how they will create value. Explain how their job helps your business create a measurable competitive advantage. In short, draw a clear connection between the employee’s efforts and your company’s main purpose.
Every boss tells new employees what to do, but few take the time to explain why, even though why sets the stage for everything else.
2. Outline internal and external customers.
No job exists in a vacuum. Understanding the needs of every constituent helps define not just the job, but also the way it should be done — and, again, why it matters.
Take time to explain how the employee will create value for the business while serving all of their internal and external customers. Achieving that balance is often tricky, so don’t assume new employees will eventually figure it out on their own. (Nor should they have to figure it out on their own.)
In the process, you’ll tick one of the Google onboarding boxes by helping the employee begin to build a social network.
3. Set short-term goals, and set the stage for a feedback loop.
Early on, the shorter-term the better. That way the employee can start building a sense of momentum. That way they get to feel they’ve hit the ground running. That way they can tangibly see how their job creates value, and how their job affects external and internal customers.
That way you can start giving constructive feedback right away — because early feedback is vital.
Which gives your subsequent monthly onboarding check-ins a better sense of purpose than, “Hey, how are things going so far?”
4. Tell the new employee why you hired them.
Every employee is hired for one or two specific reasons, but often those reasons get lost in the fluff of the typical “identify an (impossibly) well-rounded person” interview process.
Take the time to tell new employees why they were hired: not just to fill a role, or to meet a need, but because of what they can do: the specific skills, experience, attitude, and work ethic that person brings to your team. Take the time to describe how excited you are to see what a difference their skills and attributes will make. (Research shows early praise — even unjustified praise — can make a significant difference in an employee’s long-term success.)
Do that, and you implicitly connect the dots between the individual, their job, and how that job creates value. Do that, and you implicitly connect the dots between internal and external customers.
Do that, and you explicitly recognize and praise a new employee on their first day.
Which immediately sets a great tone.
Which helps the new employee get up to speed a lot faster.