How to Make New Staff Members Feel Part of the Organisation
About the Authors:
NEIL FLANAGAN and JARVIS FINGER
World-renowned business strategists and authors of several international best-selling books on management. Neil is a sought-after keynote, conference and motivational speaker and Jarvis is the award-winning founder and editor of Australia's best known magazine for school administrators.
For new employees, those early days in your organisation can be more of a test of survival than a time of growth and development. Often new staff members are thrown into the workplace and expected to succeed with little support and it’s no wonder many of them become disillusioned.
How newcomers progress depends on many variables, but research shows that the help they receive in the early days from management and colleagues makes all the difference...
1. Begin the familiarisation process immediately
Instigate procedures which will enable new staff members to become familiar with important features of the organisation and its administration. For example, newcomers should:
undertake a guided tour of the company, particularly those areas with which they will have most contact, such as the office, staff facilities, reprographics room, storeroom.
meet formally and socially with staff colleagues, especially those with whom they will be working closely.
read relevant documents, such as staff handbook, policy guidelines, safety instructions, annual report, and the like.
be briefed on procedures, including office or factory routine, record-keeping, assessment, channels of communication, committee structures, and staff development.
Such activity best takes place before the newcomer officially takes up duty in the organisation.
2. Create a supportive atmosphere.
What is needed are managers and experienced staff members with a commitment to being available to help newcomers as needed. Those who unite to meet the needs of beginners develop in that process structures of collegiality and collaboration that will also serve the organisation in other ways. Foster a warm climate of support.
3. Explain the job.
Outline the exact work to be done and how the work fits into the overall activities of the workplace. Do not make it sound too difficult at first and don’t overburden the new arrival with information and rules. Provide tasks that at first are readily accomplished to ease the recent arrival into the new job.
4. Appoint a mentor.
An experienced employee who is asked to serve as mentor or buddy for the new arrival provides the newcomer with friendship and open access to a colleague’s expertise.
Consider the support the mentor can provide:
Teaching the newcomer about the job through coaching, conversations and demonstrations.
Guiding the newcomer through the unwritten rules of the organisation and in recognising group norms.
Advising about the quality of expected work and the nuances of company policies and procedures.
Counselling the newcomer if stressed, lonely or in conflict with others.
Sponsoring or giving stature to the newcomer in negotiations with others.
Role modelling by providing an image of the effective professional or worker to which the newcomer can aspire.
Validating over time the newcomer’s goals and aspirations.
Protecting the new arrival by being a buffer to the hazards of the company.
Motivating by providing feedback and encouragement.
Communicating openly with the newcomer so that all the other behaviours can be effective.
5. Schedule visits to other areas of the workplace.
Once the employee has established reference points as to what it is like to be a worker in your organisation, then structured visits to other departments can be scheduled to enable the newcomer to observe how experienced employees handle specific issues and tasks.
6. Visit the newcomer’s workplace regularly.
Practical advice from experienced colleagues during the early days is best based on the newcomer’s own experience. Therefore, arrange for regular visits with the aim of helping and working alongside, rather than judging or inspecting, the new employee. Give genuine feedback.
7. Provide assistance in identified areas of need.
Research reveals that beginning employees commonly face similar problems in a new work environment. Work with your newcomers to pinpoint and remediate their specific areas of need, whether they be personal or professional.
8. Make them feel important.
Most newcomers feel uneasy, nervous and out-of-place at first. Take time to greet them personally on their first day. Show an interest in them. Make them feel the company genuinely needs them. Ask questions and invite questions. Be sincere.
9. Provide opportunities for review and discussion.
Show interest in the employee’s progress through, firstly, formal sessions to review progress and to address concerns and, secondly, through informal discussions in a relaxed setting. Be generous with your comments, supportive, honest and sensitive, and let newcomers know their efforts are appreciated.
Management Memo
First impressions are the lasting ones. The induction and orientation period is an emotionally charged time for the new employee and those early experiences imprint lasting memories.
G.F.O'Shea, 'Induction and orientation'
Just about Everything a Manager Needs to Know
By Neil Flanagan and Jarvis Finger
Related Articles
The art of having a difficult conversation is not something that necessarily fits within the Kiwi culture.