How to Ensure that your Employees are ready for their New Jobs

As much as we would like to form the perfect, never-changing crew of go-getters for our business, that is simply not realistic, especially over a long period of time. People are inevitably going to move on from your company, whether it is amicably or not. As such, you always need to be sure that you are ready to train new hires on the ins and outs of their new job. But how do you ensure that your employees will be ready for their new job?

Communicate with them clearly

Communication is one of the most powerful tools you can ask for, and if not used enough, could result in a new employee failing to actually succeed in their position and advance to any others. Communication is important between all employees of all levels, but especially for new employees, as this is the time when these employees will have the hardest time figuring out how things work, what they have to do, and how they have to do it.

One tool that is commonly used, especially more recently, is a tool called the performance management process. What this process involves is having a supervisor watch over new employees to both monitor the progress of an employee, and manage their performance. By properly managing their performance through clear and constructive communication, newer employees should have that much more likelihood to be able to integrate with the company and also meet the expectations held for them.

Another benefit of the performance management process is that the employee gets one or more co-workers that they know they can turn to if they need suggestions, feedback, or even for someone to help guide them. There is nothing wrong with asking for help from a superior, or even someone at or below your level, and it should be encouraged — both for the employee and for the company as a whole.

Make sure that the workplace is an inviting environment

One of the biggest issues many face when working someplace in person is that the workplace simply does not gel with them at all. There are a number of ways this may manifest, but one common way, especially in an office setting, is because the office is far too cliquey. Such cliques forming often a habit of causing those cliques to be rather uninviting to new employees, which could also make it that much more difficult for these new employees to learn what they need to learn to do their job appropriately. A bad workplace can contribute to overall low employee morale.

Give them good feedback on what they are doing right

Positive feedback is one of the most powerful tools in a supervisor’s arsenal, and it is one that should be used whenever it is reasonable to do so. Too much positive reinforcement can make the individual compliments fail to resonate, yet at the same time, you should be careful to not withhold compliments where they should be given. Positive feedback does a world of good to help give any employee better morale, but it does a lot more than that. What it does do is it helps an employee better understand what they are doing right. The idea that someone would need to be told that may seem strange to some, but for new employees, it can be difficult to figure out whether you are doing the right thing, especially if the company has their own specific ways of doing things.

Give them good feedback on what they are doing wrong

No one likes to have to be the bad guy, but sad though it may be, sometimes setting someone straight on mistakes they’ve made is the only way to help them improve. If they are shielded from any criticism, even constructive criticism, they will not only continue to make the same mistakes they did previously, but also may even make new mistakes based on thinking that they did everything right previously. A good employee, assuming the feedback is both constructive, actionable, and reasonable, will respond to this by accepting it with grace and promising to avoid making this mistake in the future.

A less good employee, however, may become argumentative or defensive. In the event that this happens, there are two things you need to do. One, make sure that your feedback, or at least the delivery of said feedback, was right. One thing that supervisors sometimes fail to do right is fail to recognize even the potential that they may be in the wrong. Having the ability to recognize that is a valuable skill that anyone in authority should master. Once you have determined that their points are without merit, don’t respond in kind. Instead, be calm and collected, and re-emphasize your points. Ask them if they have any concerns or questions, and hopefully, this will help them realize that they are in the wrong and try to improve (in more ways than one).