After orientation day ...

What’s required to support new hires retention and performance?

One third of the people you hire this year, won’t be with you in twelve months’ time. Furthermore, a proportion of those who are with you at the end of the year, will not be performing at the level of promise you see at selection. That is a great shame for all concerned, and in this COVID-19 context, when we are so closely managing costs, can we afford for this cost to the business to continue?

We know that getting people off to the right start in the first 100 days in their new role is critical not only for retention, but also for performance at the one-year mark. We also know that new hires who complete the first year around AND who are performing well completed some crucial activities and achieved some milestones during the first 100 days in their new role.

To help new hires succeed many organisations run some kind of on-boarding programme. In the last couple of months, I have had the opportunity to look at three organisations’ programmes for new hires. They have all been very structured and detailed in what we might call the ‘hygiene factors’: IT signups and equipment; health and safety briefings; delegated authorities, etc. The programmes also included orientation days; assigning buddies; meeting with one-up managers; and/or lunch with the team. A couple included customer visits, and one included time in the call centre.

The limitation of these programmes is that I am not sure that they go far enough or address the reasons new hires fail or succeed. I doubt that people leave or underperform because they didn’t have email access in the first week or they didn’t get to an orientation day. I think people figure it out if there is something practical that they need to complete their job, and that they just expect hygiene factors to be taken care of. 

Rather, I think new hires leave or underperform because they have come unstuck on one or more of the 7Cs of transition, namely: Compliance, adhering to company policies and formal practices; Clarity about what the job really involves and expected standards; the quality of their Connections with others; a lack of Competency for the role; not understanding the Culture and how to work with it; failure to Claim the role; or, not achieving a Collective Win within the first 100 days.

Why not take time to study some of your new hires who left or underperformed in the first year to 18 months and see if you can work out why?  My hunch is it will be more likely to be for one of the seven Cs, than hygiene reasons.

If you are hiring new people this year, may I suggest you study the 7Cs and use that framework to think about what will help people succeed and how well your transition programme address those needs. How can you help enable new hires’ understanding and actioning of the seven factors? May I also suggest that you think past one or two-day events, or even past the first couple of weeks?  Transition takes time so try come up with a three-month plan. Finally, in your planning stage it is important to think how you will know at the end of that time whether people are onboard and thriving, or sinking and thinking of leaving.

 

photo credit: STIL on Unsplash