With a 40%
first year turnover rate for new leaders, doesn’t
it makes sense that a bona fide on-boarding process
be part of any new hire’s game plan?
You invest significant time and resources to attract
and recruit new talent. Don’t be one
of the companies that lack a true on-boarding
orientation program, or if you have one, the follow-through
that’s
necessary is missing or inconsistent.
The stakes are obviously too high for either a company
or a new hire to treat the on-boarding process with
a cavalier approach. Everyone’s interest is served
when new hires are on-boarded quickly and effectively.
Failure in a new assignment results in lost opportunity
for the company and potentially spells the end of
an otherwise promising career.
On-boarding support for the newly recruited, transferred
or promoted leader will significantly reduce the high
rate of new hire first year turnover, burnout and failed
expectations. On-boarding support will create the added
structure and focus as well as provide those ‘safe’
conversations that are so essential in every new beginning.
An on-boarding game plan complements your own initiatives
and programs by providing added structure to ground
and focus a new leader on the key objectives, make the
time to begin to understand the new culture, begin to
create relationships and focus on building trust and
followship. When these elements are present new hires
actually contribute faster, are viewed to be a good
fit and ultimately bring more value to the company and
themselves than if they were left to their own devices.
Superior performance in one role doesn’t always
automatically transfer to the next role. Yet many
new hire orientations consist of giving someone their
marching orders, commenting that the door is always
open, and then they’re pretty much left to succeed
on their own devices because the hiring manager believed
that they would hit the ground running, and they’re
too busy to break someone in anyway.
New leaders can get derailed for a number of reasons
and never realize their true potential, examples are:
- When we allow them to run with unclear or outsized
expectations
- When we fail to stress the importance of partnerships
with key stakeholders
-
When we don’t help them learn
the company, industry or the job itself
- When we don’t help them understand how to
best gain commitments from the direct reports that
they’ve just inherited
- When we fail to help them recognize and manage
the impact of change on the people in our company.
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