5 Effective Techniques for On-boarding New Hires

Many business owners miss an opportunity to get the most out of new hires because they do not have well-thought plans to acclimatize new hires quickly. First few days of new hire play a large role in determining whether the person will contribute effectively to your business or will be dud.
In the previous posts we have identified several insights for hiring best employees and reducing staff turnover. Our goal here is to get the best use of your employees once they are hired.
I know several managers and owners who would give a written training manual to the new hire and let him figure out how things are done. In our experience nothing is more effective than on-the-job training by letting the new hire dive right into operations from day 1. In addition, there are several other techniques you can use to get the most out of your new hires. Below we show 5 most effective ones:

1. Set Expectations.
   It is imperative that you let new hire know what is expected of him on the job. If you have done good job in the interview you probably have done some this at the time of interview. However, this is the time to go over details of his/her expectations. This needs to include both tangible items such as work he is supposed to perform; time he needs to come in, etc. as well as intangible stuff such as how things are done at the company, what is an acceptable behavior, etc. The more clear you are on expectations the better understanding new hire will have on what he needs to do.
2. Shadow new hire with experienced employee.
   As we mentioned earlier nothing is more effective than on-the-job training. The best way to ensure that they learn the best practices is by having them shadow your existing employees who you think are the best. This should be a two-step process. First let the new hire watch the current employee do his job in real-time and learn. The second step will involve letting the new hires do the tasks and let current employee watch him; while providing them feedback on how they are doing and what needs to be improved.
3. Rotate through all sections.
   Even though the new hire is supposed to work in only one section of the business it is important to make him understand how his section fits into the overall scheme of things. It is only when a person has a context of the surroundings that he will do a better job at his own tasks. We would argue that this should not only apply to the new hire. All of your employees should be required to go through job rotations periodically.
4. Define boundaries.
   Every business has set of boundaries in terms what is accepted and not accepted. You should have a clear and candid conversation with your new hire to ensure that he understands the limits. The boundaries could be items such as when he is allowed to give discount to customers on his own and when he needs to seek approval from manager. You can think about number of things that will help new hire understand how this place operates.
5. Seek their feedback.
   The first few days of a new hire is an excellent time to get their feedback on how things can be improved. The new hires usually bring a different perspective from their experience at various places. Besides, they have not been “tainted” with the traditional ways you have been doing things for so long. They can pinpoint how things could be done more efficiently or how you can attract new customers and so on. We have learned a great deal from new hires in our businesses by just asking them how they would do certain things differently.

The first few days of new hire is an excellent time to shake things up a bit; while at the same time ensure that they are armed with everything they need to do their job. Don’t waste this time by just giving them training manuals.
How do you on-board your new hires?