When You’ve Got A New Hire, How Do You Get Them Up To Speed ASAP?
Congratulations! You’ve beat the odds on the job market and found the perfect new hire for your business! Now you’ve got a brand new employee to bring on board, train to perfection, and let work to the best of their ability.
But wait – there’s a chance your employee is going to need a bit more support from you during this onboarding process. And you need to be ready to provide it.
Here’s what you can do to get a new hire up to speed ASAP, without sacrificing any of the work quality or motivation they can bring to the job.
Outline Duties Clearly in Your Contract
No one who’s hired to work for your business should be in doubt about what they need to do when they get there. Any and all duties and responsibilities they have should be made clear in the employment contract, even if it’s something they may only have to do now and then.
Without this clarification (and legal underlining), it would be inappropriate to ask an employee to do something outside of their workscope. It’ll also come as quite the shock, if they were hired to do a specific job and now find they’re expected to be more of a dogsbody.
Make it clear straight away, and let your new employee come into work with a proper idea of what they’re getting into.
Link Them to the Training Materials in Advance
Onboarding should always include training, no matter how brief or simple you think the job is going to be.
Your new hire needs to know what’s expected of them, and how they can do the job in the way that works for your business. So, upload your materials to an e-learning platform, send them a link, and provide them with a login.
Of course, they don’t have to actually do any of the training beforehand (as they’re not on the clock, nor are they being paid for the work they’re doing outside of hours), but they can at least have a quick intro to what they’re going to learn once they’re in the role and on their first week.
Try Not to Overwhelm Them with Meetings
Having someone new in the workplace is all about introductions. You want the team to get to know their new member, and you want them to feel like they can work without any office politics or toxic gossip polluting the waters.
So naturally, you’re going to walk them through some official introductions, a few casual chats, and even grant them a mentor from amongst their co-workers.
However, you also don’t want to overwhelm them with this inner networking – especially when the important thing right now is letting them do their job right. Don’t distract them from focusing and feeling productive. Temper these workplace introductions, and space them equally throughout the onboarding period.
Want your new hire to get results from day one? Use tips like these to plan an onboarding process with proper forethought.