New people starting need
seven Cs to help them succeed

The Cs of success in a new job

The evidence suggests that what happens to a new employee in the first three to four months of a new role predicts how likely they are to be found in the Thrivers group. It also suggests that organisations and people who move to actively support this transition can significantly increase the number of Thrivers. 

Needs of newly hired people:

Needs of newly hired managers

When new people start, they need seven Cs to help them succeed:

  • Compliance – they need to know what the rules are.  What are the health and safety obligations? What is their delegated authority?
     
  • Clarification – they need to understand what all the stakeholders expect of the job. Exactly what does the position description mean? How do different people see the priorities? What does good performance look like? What does great performance look like?
     
  • Connections – they need to build the relationships that will help them succeed both inside and outside their immediate team and organisation.
     
  • Competencies – they need to understand what competencies are required for the role and then set about learning them. Perhaps it is their first time in the insurance sector; they haven’t had to sell in any previous roles; there are new IT systems; they haven’t managed people before; or this is their first time being accountable for Profit and Loss.
     
  • Culture – everyone wants to fit in and belong. Learn what matters to the new organisation and why?  How do things really get done.  In a McKinsey survey of 1200 new executives, the most common observation was that understanding the culture was the most challenging part of starting a new job.
     
  • Claim – after 100 days, new employees should have claimed the job as their own. They should be confident in the role, and when people think of the role, they think of them. Others should be confident that they are the person to go to for help.
     
  • Collective Win – for managers and technical experts, the Corporate Leadership Council suggests the best way to close the gap between being recognized as the right person for the job and being seen as a new broom and know-all is to lead the team though a project that resolves a problem for a group of stakeholders.

(Four of the Cs – Compliance, Clarification, Connections, and Culture have been taken from Baeur’s 2010 model. The Corporate Leadership Council note the importance of a team win, and Right Start Jobs experience is the developing new competencies and claiming the job are also important.)




Cynthia Johnson has been invaluable in creating framework and content for our people in their first hundred days and beyond.

We wanted a guide book in plain English that talked about the realities of starting in a new position and the best way to ensure success.

It was learning for our Managers and Cadets alike.  It was written and produced by Cynthia in our language and in support of our aims for our people. It was extremely well received by the team.

We saw an opportunity to spring-board from that into a series of training modules.

The modules were written and facilitated by Cynthia and the material was current, incredibly well researched and generated the right kind of discussion in the group.

We would have no hesitation in recommending Cynthia and the work she does to any organisation that is serious about setting people up well and seeing value returned in a short space of time.

ALISON MORRIS, People Manager, Cassidy Construction