📋 A Busy Manager's Quick Guide To Helping Your Next New Hire Be a Home Run

According to a recent study by LinkedIn, 72% of new hires say that one-on-one meetings with their direct manager are the most important aspect of their onboarding experience.

If you’re a hiring manager, that’s you.

Why should you care?

I penned down thoughts around some company functions and the ROI to be expected from faster, smoother onboarding.

Sales teams

• Quickly understand the company's products, services, and target market, as well as the sales process and strategies.

• Net result: close deals faster.

Customer Success teams

• Understand the company's customer service policies, procedures and best practices, as well as the tools and technologies used to support customers.

• Net result: better service and support to customers, higher customer retention and satisfaction.

Marketing

• Understand the company's target market, as well as the tools and strategies used to reach and engage them.

• Net result: develop more effective campaigns and initiatives, resulting in increased brand awareness and sales.

Operations

• Understand the company's processes, procedures and best practices, as well as the tools and technologies used to support them.

• Net result: identify and resolve issues more quickly and efficiently, resulting in improved performance and productivity.

Technology

• Understand the company's technology architecture and infrastructure, as well as the tools and technologies used to develop and maintain it.

• Net result: start contributing to the company's technology development more quickly, increased pace of development

Consulting

• Understand the company's consulting methodology, as well as the tools and processes used to support it.

• Net result: provide better service and support to clients, higher customer satisfaction and retention.

…and the list goes on.

So why do companies and managers do this so poorly? A Gallup study found that only 12% of new hires agree that their organization did a great job of onboarding them.

This is especially tough for fully remote organizations, and organizations with a hybrid workforce where not everyone is available

Setting your people up for success: what can I do as a hiring manager?

As the hiring manager, it’s tempting to offload the responsibility of onboarding your new hire off to HR, and the communication of vision, mission and values to the senior executive team.

However, as the new hire is on your team, the buck has to stop with you.

If your new team member is not successful, guess who’s going to be holding the can?

Here’s a non-exhaustive list of the minimum you would be responsible for:

• Introducing new hires to the team

• Connecting new hires with colleagues from other departments that will be working closely with them

• Integrating new hires to the day-to-day operations

• Setting goals, expectations, and performance milestones

• Guiding new hires on their roles and responsibilities

• Sharing handover documents from the previous employee, if any

Before Day 1

Here’s a good list of things you can do that I came across on LinkedIn:

Sadly, the bar here is quite low as many new hires barely have contact with their manager like this before starting work. But it’s no excuse for slacking off - every bit of effort you invest in here pays off with dividends later.

Day 1: Introductory 1-on-1 session

Here’s some suggestions of what you can cover.

1️⃣ Without overwhelming your new teammate, help orientate her by pointing her to specific documents to read up on, such as:

• Background (e.g., history, mission, vision, values and strategy)

• Policies (e.g., anti-harassment policy)

• Procedures (e.g., how to make expenses claims)

• Expectations (e.g., code of conduct)

• Compensation and benefits (e.g., paid time off)

• Common terminology and jargon used

• Other documents that new hire has yet to sign off (e.g., non-disclosure agreement)

Set the expectation that these will always be available, and point out just the most salient things to note.

Speaking of setting expectations…

2️⃣ Set clear expectations and goals for the individual's role within the company.

This can include both short-term and long-term objectives, as well as any specific projects or tasks that the individual will be working on. By providing a clear roadmap for the individual's role, you can help them to understand their purpose within the organization and align their work with the company's overall goals.

3️⃣ Highlight who the individual would need to work most closely with.

At the risk of stating the obvious, a common source of anxiety for new hires is the people and leaders they’ll be working with (duh).

To support this part of the conversation, it’s best that the relevant meetings with these folks have already been set up.

For remote employees, this is even more critical as these would be the first few touchpoints with the company that she will have. If necessary, work with HR to help to make those positive ones.

4️⃣ Set up a cadence of check-ins during the onboarding phase

Typically I have found that a formal once a week check-in is helpful to clear any doubts and tease out concerns in the first month. This should be peppered with informal chats throughout the week if possible.

Thereafter, this can shift to a fortnightly check-in (depending on the size and nature of your team). Your mileage may vary, but given that 72% of new hires find these touchpoints to be most important during onboarding, I’d err on the side of over-communication.

Day 2 - 30: Regular check-ins

In addition to setting expectations and goals from Day 1, it is also important to provide regular feedback and support to the individual during their first 90 days. This can include regular check-ins to discuss their progress, as well as providing opportunities for coaching and mentorship.

Some possible mechanisms for doing this include:

Many guides suggest talking about culture during the early days, and indeed that’s important.

IMHO what’s even more important is demonstrating that culture being lived day in, and day out. When new hires see that a company walks the talk, it sends a powerful signal either (a) that they fit in exactly as expected; or (b) the culture isn’t for them and they either aim to help change it, or leave.

Both are good outcomes. (Although if they leave because of a bad culture, you’ve got a bigger problem on your hands. That’s the subject of another post…)

Get an Even More Comprehensive Guide Below 👇👇👇

My team and I have researched this and put together a comprehensive guide on the onboarding process that you can access here.

In it is a detailed guide for how you can work with HR and senior company leaders to make the experience of every new hire (or transfer for that matter) a positive one, and get them to contribute as early as possible.

Are there things you have done with a new hire that you thought worked well? I would love to hear about them!