Action Plan II, Part 7 of 12 | Integrating New Staff to Your Team
Strategies to ride the recovery
by Lindsey Norris
For once, you should ignore the numbers. In April, Alberta was singled out as the only province to show no employment growth since July 2009, which might make you think you don’t need to fret about a labour shortage just yet. But if there are such things as business truisms, one would be that companies that succeed in the economic recovery will be those who prepared for it before their competitors. That means you need people, and you need them to be productive members of your team, fast. Success relies as much on how you prime your existing employees for change as how you prep the new ones.
Get existing employees on board
If you’ve hired a bright new star to start something new, expand or in any way shake up the status quo, you (and the bright star) can expect resistance. And the manner in which senior management delivers the news can make it worse: whether you tell employees what the new directives are or you leave it to the new guy, it will be uncomfortable. “If people are told, they may be scared, and if they haven’t been told, it may be even worse because then the new manager is the bad guy,” says Debbie Wershler, vice-president, workforce management with Bowen Workforce Solutions in Calgary. Don’t make it harder on your newbie than it has to be; it should be clear that the new direction is a company decision, not a newbie’s personal crusade.
Add the personal touch
In a scene from the 2006 film Fast Food Nation, the orientation for new employees at a fast food company’s meat packing plant consists of a training video detailing safety procedures. The problem: the employees are Mexican immigrants who don’t speak English. Generic, cookie-cutter orientation programs are arguably about as effective, which is where small companies have an advantage. For example, at Bowen, they schedule coffee with the president and have flowers waiting on the cleaned-out workspace (with no previous employees’ leftovers). You can also do other things to help people integrate, like provide an organizational chart with pictures, so no one makes the unfortunate gaffe of bumping into a big shot at the water cooler and mistaking them for a maintenance person.
Create a plan
It’s likely everyone has experienced this at least once: you show up at your new job, are shown to your desk and promptly left alone with a copy of the employee handbook and a curt “good luck.” This is not how to get people working effectively. Wershler says before the new employee arrives, their manager should identify which departments they’ll be interacting with and set up a series of meetings spread out over the first week (not all in one day; no one should be subjected to an information overload). “Even in a company of 30 people, there are probably four departments they need to work with,” she says. As a bonus, this effectively disperses some of the responsibility of orientation to other people.
Make Nice
Once a new manager arrives, it is up to them to make friends. “You must go out and talk to all the people in your division, because that’s how you can establish trust – by giving them a chance to provide their perspective,” Wershler says. “If people have been heard, they’re more likely to support that new direction than if you come in and say, ‘I know better.’” Things to ask: what’s working well that shouldn’t be compromised and what can be changed? Remember: you need everyone on board for a new venture to succeed.
Get new employees onboard
Literally. “Onboarding” is, essentially, a prolonged orientation, and it can help a new employee hit the ground running, says Wershler. “You have spent all of this time and money and effort recruiting people. If you aren’t going to spend the time onboarding properly, you won’t get the same return on your investment, or as quick a return,” says Wershler. She adds that people usually make the decision to stay with an organization in the first three to six months; make a positive first impression, and they’re more likely to stick around.
Next month: When to add a green product to your line-up
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