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5 Ways to Completely Piss Off New Hires (Guest Blog)

Around 40% of organisations still don’t have a structured on-boarding process in place. And of those who have, only 60% have something that looks like an orientation day, where company related information is presented by senior management. If your company is one of them, you’re walking on very thin ice. Especially when it comes to hiring members of Generation Y, who typically make the decision to stay with an organisation on their first day.

So as a guide of what not to do, when on-boarding a new hire we’ve put together a little guide entitled: 5 Ways to Completely Piss Off New Hires

new hires1. Sign here, and here, and here, oh, and here

One of the first mistakes that is often made by employers when welcoming a new employee on their first day, is overloading them with too much paperwork and compliance procedures. It’s their first day people! And yes, while we do agree it is important to have all that administration stuff completely administrated, your new hire is far more concerned with reinforcing whether or not they made the right decision by accepting your job offer.

An abundance of information and red tape, doesn’t exactly inspire that kind of reassurance! And let’s fact it, the majority of paperwork can be dealt with during the pre-boarding period. It doesn’t have to take place on the candidate’s first day.

It’s far better to create opportunities for new hires to immediately sink their teeth into that involves meeting their co-workers, building relationships, and addressing any lingering anxiety.

new hires2. This is John, Sally, Jim, Tommy, Lisa, John B., Michelle

Don’t spend too long taking it upon yourself to introduce the new hire to everyone in the office. While introducing a new hire to the team/department floor is the primary responsibility of a manager, it’s also the responsibility of every other colleague to connect with new hires and make them feel welcome. Every employee should act as an ambassador for the company and embrace new hires with open arms (primarily in the metaphorical sense!).

If your new hire fails to make connections and build an internal network within your company, they will not be successful. So, in order to succeed, your employee needs to understand the politics behind how your organisation gets things done. And it’s you’re the job of your other staff member to teach them, by getting to know them and giving them insights into how the company works. Without this insight, your new hire’s ability to navigate their way forward will be stalled ‚¬€œ thus hindering efficiency and productivity. And that’s not good for anyone involved.

new hires3. Ignore the new hire. They don’t know what they’re talking about anyway.

A bevvy of clever, game-changing ideas leave every company on a daily basis, due to a lack of an employee feedback mechanism.

Employee ideas are valuable (after all, they are your eyes and ears on the factory floor so to speak). But you’ll never get to hear them if there is no feedback system in place. Who knows, the intern’s idea that seems ludicrous now, may be beneficial down the road.

When it comes to creating a great candidate experience through your on-boarding process, it’s vitally important to listen to the people who are currently going through it i.e. new hires.

new hires4. We won’t bother discussing company culture. You’ll find out about it soon enough.

Not clearly communicating your business culture and traditions can undermine the integration of your new hire into the company. The challenge arises when your employee is blindsided by a cultural norm or tradition that they didn’t expect (or worse ‚¬€œ one that doesn’t fit their values). Not feeling like they belong in your business can lead to a drop in productivity, low morale, increased absenteeism and a high staff turnover.

Too many companies do not build employee culture integration into their on-boarding programs. It might get a mention during first-day orientation, in the form of company vision and values, but chances are it won’t be mentioned again in a hurry.

As Zappos’ CEO, Tony Hsieh, famously professed, “If you get the culture right then most of the other stuff will happen naturally.” So, take your culture seriously. It played a huge part in enticing your new hire to come and work for you, so now you need to make it a big part of what they do.

new hires5. Make sure you teach them everything on Day One. That way they can start doing their job on Day Two.

One of the most damaging assumptions companies make, is assuming that once a new hire has been shown how to do something on their first day, that they’re now a fully fledged member of staff ready to take on any problem at any time.

Wrong. Every employee has the right to what we like to call an employee journey, and that begins during the recruitment process. The first 90 days of the new hire’s employee journey, is about laying the foundation for a great employer-employee relationship and a positive kick-start, so take things slowly.

It’s Time to Face the Consequences

We have estimated that the costs related to a bad candidate experience amounts to at least 50% of the employee’s gross annual salary, including secondary and tertiary benefits. We’re talking serious money! But there are other less tangible consequences too, such as low motivation and stress that affect employees directly.

The key to improving your onboarding process and not pissing off your new hires, is to look at your onboarding process through the eyes of an employee. Structuring a successful onboarding starts with preparing the first steps of a new hire in your company into the finest details so that a new hire gets the desired guidance.

About the author:

Gerrit BrouwerGerrit Brouwer, Founder of Appical

Gerrit is enjoying a career with several Forrest Gump similarities and experienced various subcultures. I was trained as a platoon commander and was fortunate to work for leading enterprises such as Royal Dutch Shell and Rabobank. After my corporate career I worked in the online gaming industry where I worked alongside highly creative and inspiring people.

Appical is a HR Tech start-up whose mission is to drastically improve the new hire experience with an engaging mobile app and appealing content. Appical offers a priority boarding experience to new hires and has won several awards such as the iHR Award in 2013 as best HR Technology. Appical’s client base consists of large international enterprises such as e.g. Philips, Ahold, Seagate and KLM.

Learn more about us and visit us at HRTech in Amsterdam booth 801.

www.appical.nl

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