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May/June
2003
When
the new hire arrives…
HOW
CAN YOU IMPROVE THE ODDS THAT HE OR SHE FITS IN?
ALL TOO
OFTEN, organizations make painstaking plans for employee terminations
– yet bring new hires on board with almost casual abandon.
(“Here’s the procedures manual and your predecessor’s
files. Let me know when you’ve finished reading them.”)
But if more care had been taken upfront, might fewer folks
end up leaving?
The turnover
trend in modern-day workforces is alarming. In the U.S., by
the start of the 21st century, the Bureau of Labor Statistics
found that average employment tenure had fallen from 4.6 years
just a decade earlier to 3.5. And while those workers aged
55 and over stayed an average of 10.2 years on the job, workers
34 years and younger stayed only 2.7 years. Increasing age
may slow them down somewhat, but tomorrow’s managers
increasingly will view changing jobs as the norm.
And while
many employers lament the costs of hiring, the costs of leaving
are worse.
Employment
costs include all the factors involved in initial recruitment
and hiring (e.g., search consultant, advertising and/or Internet
expenses; internal staff time; interview expenses including
candidate travel and accommodations; testing fees; medical
exams and drug screens; hiring bonuses; relocation expenses;
etc.), as well as new-employee training costs and reduced
productivity until the person is fully up to speed.
Termination
costs likely will include some or all of the following, depending
on whether the employee quits or is fired: lost productivity,
lost sales and customers, lost knowledge and skills, severance
pay and benefits continuation, outplacement fees, potentially
higher unemployment compensation premiums, attorneys’
fees (if wrongful termination claims are anticipated or received),
contingent employment expenses (if the position cannot remain
unfilled), etc. Plus, all the costs of hiring
begin again.
Granted,
the ebb and flow of employees is a cost of doing business.
But the cost of replacing someone every 2.7 years is of a
much greater order of magnitude than when people stayed for
10.2
“I
Must Depart, I Just Arrived”
Like
the person who met himself coming and going, more employees
than one might expect are on their way out from the day they
arrive.
Rarely
does a hiring manager advise a prospective job candidate that
there are six advantages to working at Acme Widgets –
along with six disadvantages. It’s human nature to sell
to one’s strengths and avoid the weaknesses. And candidates
may not be fully honest, either. (“I love working under
pressure,” she said, hoping the Xanax was still in her
purse.)
So either
the job or the employee may not, on arrival, be exactly as
advertised. The Wall Street Journal recently ran the story
of a new manager who discovered his boss had absolutely no
interest in his development; her entire passion had been consumed
firing the incumbent before him, whom she hated.
In a
similar vein, there may be cultural or other nuances to getting
ahead, which the employer may think are common knowledge –
but are not. Those may include such customs as “being
one of the boys” (by playing golf or drinking after work),
proving one’s dedication to the job (by staying late,
working Saturdays, volunteering for sales missions to Afghanistan,
etc.) or cheerleading (“Let’s all go for the black
belt!”).
The difference
between acceptance and rejection may even be as subtle as
picking up on the tradition that – in the executive ranks
at Acme – small talk precedes business talk. Or vice
versa.
As another
example, virtually all organizations are political. In the
executive ranks, it may be important to form certain alliances
while avoiding others. None of this may be apparent to the
new hire, who is anxious to meet everybody and make friends.
And here
is still another: If the new executive has been brought in
to “shake things up” and become an agent of change,
what land mines have been hidden by wary employees –
whose allegiance is to the status quo?
For all
of the above and many other reasons, the new hire may not
fit in as well as everyone expected. Whether dazed and confused
or just discouraged, the person begins wishing that he or
she had not accepted the job in the first place.
“Onboarding”
the New Executive
Where
would employers (and their consultants) be without the constant
stream of jargon that floods corporate life?
A recent
arrival is “executive onboarding,” a somewhat pretentious
term for a serious concept: assimilation coaching. The premise
is simple: If new arrivals genuinely understand the culture
in which they have to function and genuinely understand what
is expected of them in the new job (in other words, the “what
counts” factors), they will have a much greater chance
of succeeding.
Sanford
Rose Associates’ Dimensional SearchÒ process is
an excellent place to begin. Dimensional Search helps the
employer pinpoint the requirements of the job that an employee
must be able to meet (whether leading an engineering team
or running the company), the benchmarks of on-the-job success
in terms of projects accomplished or objectives met, and the
environment (or culture) in which the employee must function.
Dimensional
Search then becomes a matching process. For example, does
Candidate A have the necessary skills to perform the job requirements,
the kind of concrete past accomplishments that predict a strong
likelihood of meeting the new job’s objectives, and the
kind of political and social skills that lead to promotion
in Company X? Employers and candidates thus arrive at an earlier
conclusion as to whether or not they are right for each other.
Nonetheless,
once on board, the new employee still may end up in a quagmire
of confusion. By taking the following steps, the hiring manager
can help the individual reach full potential:
- Provide
the new executive with all pertinent information and history
concerning the organization as a whole, the particular department
or business unit, the job itself and those who performed
it in the past.
- Jointly
establish personal performance goals or milestones that
the new executive should meet in the first three, six and
twelve months. Then meet at those intervals to review them.
- Assign
a coach (or mentor) who can guide the new executive through
the cultural and political shoals that otherwise could capsize
him or her. The coach could be a seasoned employee outside
the direct chain of command or an outsider who knows the
company well, such as an SRA search consultant or the company’s
industrial psychologist.
In the
case of relocation, it also can pay big dividends to help
the executive’s entire family fit into the new community
– locating a good private school, finding a place of
worship, joining the right club or charitable board, etc.
On the
Stress-O-Meter, starting a new job is right up there with
being fired from one. The good news is that making the first
event go smoother can help avoid the second. And, who knows?
The executive may become so confident and successful that
she stays for ten years, instead of two.
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