career advice, company culture, finding top candidates, hire the best, onboarding, orientation, work advice

Keep Calm and New Hire On: Five Tips for Managers to Reduce the Stress of Onboarding Someone New

No Comments

Congratulations! You have a new hire! Except…

We all know that starting a new job can be nerve wracking for new hires, but what about the stress it puts on hiring managers? Onboarding a new hire takes a lot of time, mental energy, and patience. Here are my 5 tips to reduce the stress as you get your new hire up and running:

  1. Book lots of training time on your calendar in the first few weeks. While it’s easy to think that you can do all your work and get your new hire up to speed, you cannot. There are only so many hours in the day, and the training will be more effective if there are minimal interruptions and your new employee has your undivided attention at least a few hours a day in the beginning.
  2. Breathe. New hires, from entry-level to the most senior executives, will have a lot of questions. Having someone pepper you with constant questions can be stressful but remember two things: you were once the newbie, so pay it forward, and the more thoroughly you answer the questions early on, the faster your new hire will understand how things work.
  3. Make it a team effort. It will take some of the stress off you, and the team approach will give the new hire a chance to hear multiple perspectives and build meaningful relationships with others in the organization. Plus, new hires can have questions they do not necessarily want to ask you, their boss, so this gives them other sources of information. Look beyond your team. Find key stakeholders in other departments so that your employee sees the big picture.
  4. Celebrate early successes. We all want to know that we are getting the hang of a new job and adding value. I worked for a manager who gave a bottle of champagne to new hires at a team meeting when they hit their first major performance milestone. This made the new hire feel accomplished and made the veterans on the team feel good to have played a part in getting the new hire to this point.
  5. Have daily face time with them for the first month or so. I worked for someone who did intense trainings with me for the first week or so, and then blocked time at the end of each day for the remainder of my first month. That time was invaluable, because it gave me a chance to determine priorities, do a temperature check and get my questions answered.

A well-planned onboarding plan takes effort, and you (and your new hire!) will reap the rewards of the effort.

Good luck!

Hire the best! With personalized service and proven results, Pillar Search & HR Consulting provides retained executive search services and human resources consulting for exceptional non-profits and socially responsible for-profit firms. A woman-owned business, Pillar is based in Boston, MA, and works on the national level. To learn more about how Pillar can assist with your hiring and human resources needs, please contact Cindy Joyce at cindy@pillarsearch.com. 

best executive search firm, best nonprofit search firm, cindy joyce, company culture, executive recruiter, executive search, executive search boston, finding top candidates, headhunter boston, hire the best search firm, hiring, hiring manager, hr boston, human resources, job, national executive search, national nonprofit search, nonprofit, nonprofit exec search firm, nonprofit exec search firm boston, nonprofit headhunter, nonprofit recruiter, nonprofit search firm, onboarding, orientation, philanthropy headhunter, philanthropy search, pillar search, pillar search boston, pillar search cindy joyce, retention, search nonprofit

Onboard or Onward: Ensuring the Success of Your New Executive Hire

No Comments

“About 40% of executives who change jobs or get promoted fail in the first 18 months.”

Fortune Magazine

Where does it all go wrong? Too often, the onboarding process is where things fall apart. I am not talking about “orientation”, which often is done day one and generally involves the basics of assigning a building pass, conducting a benefits overviews, meeting the team and reading a few policies. Onboarding is a longer process, and if done well (typically in partnership with Human Resources and managed by the new executive’s manager, or the Board Chair if they report to the Board of Directors) can almost guarantee fit. It is holistic and gradual. It is also very deliberate, and will require constant check-ins and open communication.  Here are five key activities that will help to ensure that your new executive will be successful in their new role:

Start to Onboard Before They are Actually ON BOARD!

The time between an offer being accepted and the executive starting is sensitive. They may be dealing with a counteroffer, having to say goodbye to much-loved colleagues, and are nervous about this new venture. Keep in touch. Reiterate your excitement to have them joining the team, and have a few people in the organization reach out. If there are organizational overviews, annual reports, strategic plans or other things that that they can read up on ahead of time, get those to them during this time so that they start to feel like part of the team.

Send an announcement out to the staff and the board a few days before their start date explaining their background and the job they are filling. This will help make them seem more familiar to the team when they come through the door, and as an added benefit they will not have to review their resume and background with absolutely everyone in their first week or so.

Relationship Before Task 

Ideally, new executives will meet with their team and people across the organization. One-on-one meetings are great, but remind those who will be meeting with the executive to get to know them before delving into the inner workings of their role or the issues they face. Building rapport with new colleagues and direct reports is critical in the early days.

Learn By Doing 

Too often, in an effort to get all the information to a new hire as soon as possible, they are introduced to processes way too soon. Guess what? They will not remember how to do an expense report or change their password or complete a sales report 30 to 60 days in when they actually need to do it if they are taught how to do it their first week. Have the right people meet with them at the start to review the process at a high level, and then have them set up a time to do it later when they can sit down with real data and learn from it real-time.

The Buddy System 

What we learned in grade school still applies: the buddy system works when the new kid starts. This should not be the executive’s manager, but a peer or high-performing direct report who has longevity and the personality to be an effective buddy. The buddy can manage the nicety of taking them to lunch on day one and being available to explain the intricacies of culture, relationship dynamics, and certain pitfalls to avoid, which are things that the executive may not be comfortable asking of higher-ups.

Check In Early & Often

I too often hear that executives join, get a ton of attention the first day or two, and then are largely left on their own. It does not feel welcoming, and it runs the risk of them going in a direction that is difficult to course-correct later on. Meet with them daily, even for 10-15 minutes, in the first few weeks. Move on to twice weekly, weekly….you get the point. Let them know where they are doing a great job. Let them know where they need to take a different approach. But LET THEM KNOW. Being clear on what is a success will lead to more success.

While by no means a complete onboarding process, following the steps above will help to ensure that your new executive hire is one of the 60% who will be a success in the first 18 months.

Cindy Joyce is an Executive Recruiter and the Founder of Pillar Search, an Executive Search and HR Consulting firm located in Boston that works with clients nationwide. She can be reached here.