Ellen Smith* (*Names have been changed for discretion) was recently hired by an arts management organization as the administrative manager for an eight person office. She is the fourth person to start this position in three years.
The multi-million dollar board-directed company decided to use a professional staffing agency to help its executive director find a quality person with good skills. Oddly, three previous employees turned out to be slackers, taking longer and longer lunches and frequent days off due to illness. What began with enthusiasm and a seemingly good work ethic disappeared quickly. The executive director, Alice Thayer* to whom Ellen will report, concluded she needed professional help hiring the "right" people.
Jane Doe*, a key employee with three year's high-level experience in the company, identified a costly and all-too common problem that has already doomed Ellen Smith.
Here is Jane Doe's story, verbatim:
"From day one, most employees here are doomed to fail. The only people who can stick around are able to tunnel-in and keep a narrow focus on specific tasks. They've never been given an overall picture of the organization. No one has ever led them, on a daily basis, through the workings of this company.
"Alice is proud of her "hands-off" style and considers herself a "good manager" who empowers her staff by telling them what she has to accomplish, and how much she needs their help. That's all done in a cheerleading meeting once a week in her office. There's no method for feedback or questions. It's a monologue with lip service. For new hires, Alice verbally downloads a year's worth of projects she's working on and says, 'I'll need your help.' Then she works with her door closed.
"Guaranteed, the first time Alice arranges an after hours business function at the office, she will forget to tell Ellen to call the cleaning service for an unscheduled visit. The next day she'll come barreling in, seething about plastic glasses everywhere. Ellen will be demoralized and confused in front of everyone. Whose job is it to acquaint a new employee with the routines? It's never been defined. The resentment is toxic and it affects everyone's attitude. They lose their motivation pretty quickly."
Here are tips that could help Alice start her new employees off on the right foot, adding productivity, loyalty, as well as providing a caring culture in which to work:
The Manager's Path to a New Employee's Success
Start every new employee as if they're a guest in your home. Introduce them to every other employee. Go through the company contacts file and print up a list of how your new employee and that contact might interact. From the cleaning people to the president of the board, give the employees a "guest list".
Design and implement a feedback program where you and the employee set goals for the first six months. Do not overwhelm them with information about duties they do not have to initially perform.
State clearly that problems will occur. With sincerity and warmth, explain that you are not invested in preventing problems, but in resolving them effectively without using blame or intimidation.
Create background papers describing successful programs and how they worked. Insert a Q&A page so the new employee can ask questions about things they don't understand.
Discuss work/life issues up front. If an employee has an ailing parent or young children, look at the highest productivity times needed in your company and allow them to work 60 hours in one week, and 30 in another.
Keep you door open. Let your employees know that it often takes as much as a year for an employee to be completely familiar and comfortable. Allow them to give you a regular self-performance review and make sure you set them regular performance reviews.
This is a good time to assess the reader friendliness of your mission statement. If it's full of jargon that a new employee might not understand, you may want to sum it up in two sentences that will familiarize them with the values and purpose of your company. Now, if it's easy reading, share it over and over with both old and new employees.
Hand them their paychecks with a verbal thank you for a job well done!
