Sunday, September 25, 2011

Integrating New Employees Successfully

New Employee:
You walk into the workplace and head for your desk while taking in a good dose of your surroundings. Hesitant, but with a sense of readiness, you make small conversation with the other employees on the way. "Colleagues" that a few weeks ago were just interviewers you so desperately wanted to impress and knew that you could, if they would just give you the chance. Your thought bubble at the interview being, "LOOK PAST THE RESUME!" as you hurtled idea after idea at them hoping at least one of them played catcher in their previous days. Smooth entrance, you settle in at your desk, ready to start the day, full of life, coffee placed on the right side of the computer within reach of the mouse, chair positioned for maximum comfort, stapler in the top drawer, pencils in the cup... you drone on and on trying to sound productive in a world where you actually have no idea where to start.

Manager of New Employee:
You have made your final decision and picked a candidate you think will showcase their strengths best in your company (and hopefully make you look good for your choice). You sure do not want to go through that process anytime soon. The desk was set-up the previous day and you looked it over to make sure everything they needed was available. Stapler, computer, mouse, pens, pencils, CHECK! You just hope they do their best to assimilate themselves in this rather eclectic environment. You see them come in and walk over to one of your other employees and let them know they are to train the new employee today, making a mental note to take them both out to lunch later on today.
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So what's next? How does a new employee assimilate themselves? Is it through manager guidance or is the best idea really to let the other employees train the new one? Assimilation is an important part of employee satisfaction and loyalty to a company. Chances are, if a new employee does not assimilate themselves actively after a year, they will be disgruntled and probably produce 60% of their actual ability. They might seem fine on the surface, but something might be brewing just below the smiles and facade of their compartmentalization.

As a manager, it is your job to assimilate this new employee, but to do it tacticfully enough that the new employee does not see you as "the rule maker". Introduce the employee to your work culture and the unwritten rules of your office. Nothing is more embarassing than breaking or not understanding a rule that is unwritten, especially within that delicate first year of work. As a new employee, I broke plenty of rules my first year and was sizeably embarassed, so I made it my duty to make sure the new employees knew about the bosses, managers, and fellow co-workers' attitudes, likes, and dislikes, as well as the "rules" HR didn't know or understand. In fact, my first year I was laughed at for wearing professional clothes on a casual day, for wearing too light of jeans on my next casual day, and for choosing shoes that didn't have enough sequines to be determined as "office attire". (As a side note, I was in Hawaii working at the time and "casual" has a very different meaning there versus on the mainland.) Coffee runs were also acceptable in my workplace, but only at certain times. Unfortunately, I discovered all the times it was not acceptable and felt embarassed when I was pulled into my bosses office to discuss simple systems of work productivity. Simply, get coffee between 8:15am and 8:30am when there is a weekly meeting planned, but it doesn't matter after that unless the boss decides there should be another meeting later in the week and plans it at the exact time you are gone; bring your cell phone!

To properly assimilate a new employee, start taking note of your office culture and what norms are acceptable and which are agreed upon, but not stated. Sit down and discuss these cultures and norms with the employees that you plan to use to train the new employee. Then assign certain tasks to make sure the new employee understands these cultures and norms, along with colleagues' attitudes and likes/dislikes. This is a great start to creating the loyalty you need in your workplace.