Equip And Engage Onboarding To Drive Productivity

When a new employee starts, you want them to feel welcomed, you want them to make friends, you want all documentation completed, you want them to be inspired by the mission, vision, and values—okay, enough already, now you want them to get to work.

Much of the first few days of orientation and onboarding are just getting the employee settled. Now we will look at getting them productive, whether they are in the office or a virtual/remote setting. Your goal should be to minimize the time to productivity; you want them to be fully up to speed and contributing as soon as possible.

Starting with Clear Objectives

How do you, as a manager, know what to do and how to get it done? Some of it is driven by processes like the annual performance management cycle. A lot of it is…well, you just know. You know because you’ve been there a while, and you know how things work. Given that your new hire hasn’t been there a while, it’s safe to assume that they have little idea about what to do or how to do it. It’s your job as a manager to get them past that as soon as possible.

Think about how your organization sets objectives. Do you use SMART goals, Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), or something else? Whatever your organization’s approach is, sit down and explain it to your new employee. Then make sure they have clarity about what they need to do, roughly how long you think it will take, and what the expected output should be. Let them know how they will be measured.

You will want to over-communicate. They need clarity and guidance from you so that they can quickly begin doing useful work. They will evolve from there into a truly productive employee who is working on the right things.

Meet Frequently

How are your days generally? Lots of free time? I guess not. That means you don’t have time to have long meetings with each new employee to give them direction and ensure they are on track.

What you can do is have frequent, short meetings. Short means 10-15 minutes. Frequent probably means at least a couple of times a week, maybe daily in the first week or two.

Yes, This Is Worth Taking Seriously

Here’s a fun fact: only 20% of new hires feel that they have been fully onboarded after their first three months on the job. As Myhre notes, “When 20% of your people don’t think they are fully on-boarded after three months...ask whether that is before or after 28% quit in the first 90 days?”   It’s a mess either way...onboarding must be taken seriously and done right if you want to keep talented workers in the building.In the end, you can save yourself effort by putting in some
effort upfront.

Here’s a Different Way to Assign Tasks

Dr. Wanda Wallace, author of You Can’t Know It All, says you can delegate by asking instead of telling. She explains that instead of telling an employee exactly how they should go about doing something, try giving them an objective and then ask key questions.

Here’s Another Idea; Explain your KPIs

New employees can’t read your mind when it comes to knowing your expectations as far as their tasks, goals, and KPIs are concerned. It would help them to know, for example, that they will be mightily judged on their ability to stick to a pre-ordained operating budget, and anything that they can do to help with that will be much appreciated. This may help them understand why you hesitate to buy them the latest ergonomic workstation designed by artists in Berlin. It may also lead them to point out expenses they know could be cut (like an unused subscription to a data service). Wouldn’t that make your day? Think of this as a kind of midway point between the high-level organization mission and vision and their own specific tasks.

Planning for 30, 60 and 90 Days (not to be confused with meeting at 30, 60 & 90 days)

Sometime after the first week, it’s a good idea to stretch the new employee’s brain a bit by helping them come up with a plan for 30, 60, and 90 days. If it’s a more senior role, that might extend to a full annual plan. This plan can include:
 

• Training they need to complete
• Activities they need to achieve (i.e. meet a certain number of clients)
• Project milestones they need to complete (i.e. get the first phase of the new software tested)
• Skills they should learn (i.e. master the project management software)

The main objective here is to get the new employee to look up and get a sense of where they are going. Don’t worry too much about nailing down the perfect plan; it’s just a good idea to have them aiming at something a few months out.

The Onboarding Training Plan

Training – or more generally ‘learning’ – is a never-ending process. It’s so important that we’ve devoted a whole section to it in the book, HR Fundamentals for Non HR Managers (Section 6). Training is especially important in the first few weeks and months. There are three categories of training you need to build into your onboarding training plan:
 

• Legally required training (i.e. if you want someone to drive a forklift, they need a license)
• Compliance training (ie. training about safety, ethics, and harassment so that the employees don’t violate company policy or laws)
• Skills training (i.e. how to use the project management software)

Make sure you have actually created a schedule for all the training the new hire needs, and follow up to ensure it’s been done.

Meeting (After Planning) at 30, 60 & 90 Days

Apart from planning for the next few months, an important part of onboarding is the sequence of 30, 60 and 90-day meetings that are longer and more formal than the frequent 15-minute check-ins. You’ll want these meetings to be 30 to 45 minutes in a place where you can have a relaxed conversation and where you won’t be disturbed. (Smart managers know where they can hide from their own boss, peers, and employees!)

Geez, we’ve been doing such a great job of bringing the new hire up to full productivity that we kinda overlooked the fact that they’re probably a human being too. Get to know them! Do they have a family? Do they have pets? What do they do on the weekends? Do they have a long commute? All this human stuff is stuff that you as a boss should know.

You don’t want to pry; people might want to keep their work and home life separate. Don’t ask women if they are planning to have kids! However, generally, employees appreciate it when you show an interest in them as a person. It also helps you connect to them and to build a stronger, more trusting relationship. You’ll learn something about what motivates them, and they may also share something about their situation that is helpful (e.g. they have a special needs child, or they can’t come to work on the weekend to help you prepare the budget).

There’s nothing wrong with being a tough manager, but you can also be the kind of boss who knows the name of an employee’s cat. Being human-focused and being business-focused are not two opposing forces; they can work together.

The Magic of Checklists and Calendars

This article is full of suggestions on things you should do to successfully onboard an employee so that they quickly become productive. How do you make sure that happens? The magic here isn’t so magical. Sit down with your calendar and schedule these meetings. Certainly, schedule in the 30, 60 and 90-day meetings and probably schedule some weekly check-ins too.

Make yourself a checklist of the things you want to talk about in your frequent check-ins, as well as in those more formal meetings. Don’t lose the checklist. Refer to it. It will help you keep onboarding on track and if the onboarding is on track, then productivity will be on track.