During the first few days, even months in a new job, new employees are anxious of what’s up ahead. They are often overwhelmed with work expectations set upon them. On the other hand, they too are mind-wired with several expectations in the new working environment. To help the new employee gain traction in the organization, human resource management must engage with them and communicate the necessary matters to help shape their new experience in the company; doing so will likewise give the new employee a good, productive start. Such practice is often referred to as “onboarding”, a casual orientation of the new hires to the environment and organizational culture.
What should a human resource manager communicate with the new employee during the initial period? Here is a good guideline that will help managers communicate with, not just for new hires, but also with employees who have been transferred to a new department or were promoted.
On the first day
Make a person-to-person meeting with the new employee and allow them to speak about their expectations for the job. This will help clear any misconceptions about the job that the employee may be worried about. Likewise, casually discuss about their personal career goals and what challenges they are willing to take to learn for career progress.
On the first week
By this time the new employee has a more established “feel” of the organization, his/her co-workers and the job. It is now the perfect time to talk about your expectations, creating a connection between their own goals and those expectations. By openly discussing this, both of you may come up with a performance agreement, including the means of measurement of results of work performances. This is also a good time to discuss the organizational culture or in simpler terms, “how things around here are done”. Offer short term mentoring if it would help the employee in navigating successfully the culture of the company.
During the first few weeks
Make a follow-through with the new employee and find out how he/she is adjusting. This communication can be easily achieved through informal chats. If they welcome your “how are you doing” gesture that they needed to ask a few questions, be warm enough to answer them, or offer a feedback that could very well help in the adjustment period.
During the first three months
You may now call for a formal meeting to discuss the progress status of your mutual goals. If there are any performance issues, raise it up right away to discuss what might be causing it. Provide feedback how these issues can be remedied. Ask the employee if there are any job expectations that haven’t been met that also might be causing the under performance. Provide the employee with suggestions to build his/her own connections within the organization that will surely help get the work or projects done and ideas considered.
On the other hand, when work performance goals are met then be generous enough to commend the new employee to further motivate him/her for a more productive work.
