Outcomes one year after selection

• At the end of the first year in a new job, 20% of people will be Thriving — they love the work; their manager is delighted with what they have achieved, and is looking for more opportunities for them; they have good relationships with peers, suppliers, and clients; and if they are managers, their team is humming.
   
• Some will be Deliverers. They are doing a good job, even a very good job, but there is the sense that their performance could kick into the next level if only they built stronger relationships, and better understood how to work with, or further shape, the culture.
   
• There is another group who are Popular. They have built good relationships and people like them, but when their manager steps back and objectively reviews their performance, their output will be rated as adequate yet slightly disappointing, as a better result had been expected when they were hired.
   
• Leavers are the 20% of people who will leave the job before the first year is up. Some will be moved on, and some will have gone of their own accord — they just didn’t like it. In the public sector, turnover is even higher. Figures like this represent a waste of opportunity, talent, time, money, and energy.

So, 20% are thriving, 20% are leaving, the rest are doing okay, but not especially great. When we consider all the effort that goes into search, recruitment, and selection, we realise we need to do better at managing how well employees transition into their new roles, and realise the promise we saw in them when we offered them the job.

How well are your new managers performing?

• 2 out of 5 managers miss some of their first year’s performance objectives
• Leaders who manage the transition into a new job well will reduce by 50% the time it takes them to be fully productive.
• Leaders who manage their onboarding well are 15% more productive at six and nine months than those who aren’t so deliberate.
• About 40% of people in an organisation are working for or with someone who is new in their role.
• Organisations that actively manage a person’s onboarding well will invest neither more money nor more time than those who do not; they just do things differently.

What you sow you reap

Bringing people onboard is a bit like growing tomatoes. We first need to prepare the ground so everything ready and as it should be before we even plant them. For best results, we plant tomatoes with support stakes. While it is possible to insert these support stakes later, it’s tricky; sometimes, the damage has already been been done, or you could damage the plant in the process.  We help the tomatoes grow by feeding and watering them – not too much, but not too little either.  We frequently check in on the — sometimes daily.  We prop them up, we shape them to ensure they are connected back to the support stake, and we make sure the plant is only putting energy into the branches that will bear fruit.  We protect them from the wind and the pests. When we can’t be there, we ask our neighbours to water and take care of them. And when the fruit appears and ripens, we feel proud and offer the fruit up to friends and family.

The problem is, many of us spend more time nurturing our crop of tomatoes than we do our new people!