How to Ruin a New Hire

Last newsletter, I asked if you had a comprehensive onboarding program for hiring. The responses were split about 50/50 between yes and no. So, let’s spend a few minutes talking about why an onboarding program is an important part of keeping and training a new hire so the experience isn’t a ruin for them–or for you.

Many of us have no recent experience joining a new team or company and can easily forget what that feels like. There are a lot of emotions that can bubble up with change. Understanding those emotions can help manage a person’s outlook and satisfaction with their decision. 

If you want to ruin your new hire, be sure to ignore this advice:

Tell them they made a wonderful decision

The ‘welcome, we are glad you are here’ moments should start before their first day. It can be as simple as a phone call from the members of the leadership team to say ‘Welcome to our office.’ 

It could be a generous box of desirable swag to help them bond with the brand. If they are an administrative hire, a beautiful basket of their own office supplies and goodies can help delight them on the first day.

Keep internal communication going

In any team, there are usually several people that get involved with onboarding. The challenge is to keep a flow of communication between them. Nothing can be more embarrassing than looking like the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.

With good organization and communication, the onboarding team can see which steps still need to be taken, know which ones are completed, and know who completed them. There are many online tools to assist with this. Slack, Trello, Evernote, Monday and so many more. Pick the one that works for you.

Have your onboarding act together

The creation of your onboarding process needs to be thorough, yet not overwhelming. Accountability and expectations should be built in. If people are confused, that’s on you! Build the process, involve all stakeholders, implement flawlessly and hyper-communicate everything.

In my team, I have several headings for tasks.

•   Paperwork – there are 46 items in my paperwork section. (Examples: Policy and Procedure Manual, Testimonial video, all team and brokerage agreements, alarm codes,  office orientation, etc.
•   Welcome to the Team | Meeting with your Coach or Mentor – There are 30 items on this list. Examples: Meet with Coach or Mentor, Team CRM,  Team Listing and Buyer presentations, staging, marketing plans, etc.
•   How-to Documents & Videos– There are 18 items on this list. Examples: copier instructions, phone instructions, training on CRM, Coffee & Kitchen instructions, etc.
•   Company Culture – There are 7 items included Examples: Mission Statement, Vision, town Halls, weekly meetings, etc.
•   Assorted Items –tracking their first few month’s activities. Example: new leads, buyers they are working with, contracts written, etc.

All of our clients are provided onboarding templates for staff and a separate one for new sales hires. 

Remember, if your new hire feels unwelcome or confused, you will likely ruin their experience (and possibly have to hire someone new again soon). Is it time for you to experience our coaching? Be sure to reach out.