Everyday, or at least every week, organizations have new joiners coming on board who have gone through the recruitment process – from the lengthy to the bizarre. Generally the first day is spent knowing people, identifying work spaces, receiving hardware and settling other administrative and general queries.
It is imperative that one provides the new joiner quick and well directed joining process – and this is what most organizations do. But is this enough?
Well laid instructions, processes and procedures, be it in the form of handouts, organized interactions or one-to-one meetings can quickly make the new joiner feel comfortable and at home. This is what every organization should aspire to do. After all, it is only then that the employee can actually focus on what he was hired to do in the first place – WORK.
Good organizations interact with prospective employees even before their joining date to sort out their requirements and administrative hassles so that they are at peace of mind when they finally join on the given date. However, there is scope of doing more.
When an employee comes from a different organization or even if he is a fresher and this is his first job, he carries tremendous potential to add value to the organization. He has ideas not only regarding his domain knowledge but can also improve/change processes that have been written on stone and followed since ages in the new organization. But is there a system in place to accept, validate and implement these ideas? Most often than not, the answer is no!
This is where a good organization is different from the not so good ones.
They encourage people to share their ideas and concerns and acknowledge them for it. Then they sieve through them to separate the ones that are implementable and add value to the system and finally implement them for the benefit of all.
This not only optimizes the value add from new joiners but also acts as motivators for their employees, who feel accepted and get involved in the functioning of the organization.
The key to this is to tap and extract ideas from the new joiners immediately after they are boarded. Given time to settle down, they will imperatively go with the flow and accept processes and procedures of the organization instead of trying to change them. They will know who the top boss is and what are his pet projects and hence dare not disturb or disrupt them. After settling in, they will not have the time, energy or intent to challenge or change things that have already been written in stone.
Here is a check list to help organizations benefit from the new joiners immediately instead:
Interact: interact with candidates who have been offered a position even before they report to join. Try and find out any special requirements that they might have. Help them to settle in especially if they are relocating from a different geography.
Near to the joining date: get all administrative and hardware issues solved. It is a crime to hire someone and then waste the first two days of work because he does not know where he is supposed to sit or he does not have a laptop. This requires internal coordination between different departments because most of the time the IT and the administration people do not know who or how many will join on a given date.
The joining day: in an ideal situation all new comers should be briefed in a group regarding the general rules and procedures of the office. What seems very logical and taken for granted for an existing employee may not be that simple to a new one. Remember the case of the employee quitting Microsoft who was too shy to ask for the rest room. It is a good idea to give the new joiners a tour of the facilities and introduce them to the key members of not only their team but also of central facilities and support services. This is also the time to cater to any requests that were made by them during their interaction in serial 1.
The white board: earmark a person or a group if required to whom they may voice their concerns, ideas or suggestions without any threat of retribution. Ideally their immediate manager should not be part of this group.
Responsibilities of this group:
1.Encourage people to speak out and contribute ideas and then ensure that these reach the right people in the organization.
2. Create a repository of these ideas even if they are not implementable now, they might be in the future.
3. Once an idea is implemented, give acknowledgement to the individual who suggested it. Not necessarily monetary awards, even recognition can be a great motivator for a person who is new to the organization and is trying to get a foothold there.
4. Highlight and popularize this scheme, this will not only help you extract optimal benefit from new joiners but may also act as the differentiator when people have the option to choose to work for your organization or your competitor.
In a hyper competitive environment, organizations that come up with new and innovative ways of employee engagement and can optimize contributions from employees by creating an environment that fosters trust and cohesiveness will have strategic and economic advantage to fuel their growth.MBA
User acquisition & analytics at Themeefy
Email: sands2k20@gmail.com
