How to make it easier to adapt to a new job

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Advice from one of the most successful HR directors in the CIS, Mikhail Prytula, especially for the readers of Lifehacker.

The topic of employee adaptation, or, as it is called in the West, onboarding, is devoted to a lot of research, articles, recommendations and even books in the style of "Your first 90 days in a new job." I will not overload you with book references, statistics, links, and so on, but get right down to business and give you some advice from my 12 years of experience in HR.

Adaptation does not happen on its own

No matter how cool the professional is. There is a widespread belief that if we hire a super cool pro, he will certainly figure out what to do and how to adapt himself. Like, this is almost a sign of a professional. Not adapting means not a pro. Next!

In fact, in the best case scenario, the adaptation will be delayed and the employee will reach full capacity in 3-6 months (depending on the level of the position and the complexity of the position). With quality adaptation, this period is halved.

How much do you pay your new marketing director there? $ 5,000 a month? And how do you think your efforts are worth the $ 15,000 that you will save the company? It's a pity to pay agencies for searching candidates for three salaries, but on adaptation you easily lose them?

The first day is critical

So, you get the idea that adaptation is extremely useful. What to do, where to run? Hire an urgent HR manager who will take care of the adaptation of your employees? No, calm down first. 90% of adaptation success is inherent in the first working day, and the manager is able to do it efficiently himself. But you have to prepare.

The documents

Make sure that the documents have been signed by this time (employees do not like it when signing documents with the company is delayed for several days). It is best to do this in advance, if possible.

At STB, for example, we sent out a candidate's questionnaire, which a person filled out at home and sent to us. In "1C" we had templates of all contracts, where we uploaded the candidate's questionnaire and printed all the documents in 5 minutes. The employee does not have to wait while your HR manager types his data by hand.

At Preply, we generally sign all contracts at DocuSign, we don't even have such a concept as to go to the HR department. The person sends a scan of the passport, we enter it into the contract, upload it to DocuSign and send it to the CEO and the employee for signature. The signature is digital, you can even put it on your phone.

Workplace and necessary accesses

All accounts must be set up: mail, Slack, and so on. We do this immediately after signing the contract.

Check that the computer is ready, the table and chair are waiting for the owner. The cherry on top is a beginner's package: a pen and a notebook with a company logo, a T-shirt, a set of stickers, a badge for a badge, a company badge (budget - $ 10-15).

Acquaintance with the office and employees

Employees must be informed. If the company employs less than 100 people - write in Slack, who joined us, drop the link to the profile on LinkedIn (in Russia - on Facebook). If the company has more than 100 people, we do the same, but only within the department (which is also up to 100 people).

On the first day, arrange a tour of the office: here we have a kitchen, here a toilet, here a meeting room (which we book like this), we smoke right there, here is the accounting department, and here is our director's favorite pony.

Introduce the newcomer to those who are sitting next to him: "Colleagues, a moment of attention, he has joined us (…), please love and favor."

How to behave if you …

Supervisor

Congratulations, you have the privilege of onboarding a new employee. Nobody will do it for you, but they will definitely be able to help. So, what is required of you:

1. Meet the employee in the morning. Mark this straight away on your calendar, or ask HR to always mark new employee release dates.
2. Take him around the office. Show the workplace, check that the employee is logged in everywhere.
3. Spend an hour talking with the newbie. Talk about your company, your department, your main tasks (general and personal). Explain what the employee needs to learn in the first week, what is expected of him in the first three months. Here are the documents you need. Here are the names of those with whom I would like you to talk about this and that. It is better to communicate with me in such and such a way, to make appointments in this way, to contact me on such questions. Next time we will meet then and there.
4. Smile. This is extremely important. Even if half of your face is paralyzed, smile with the rest. I’m serious, don’t be a booze, employees come to the company, but leave the manager.
5. Set the tasks and fix them in writing, at least send them in the form of a letter by mail (this is after the meeting, when the tasks were discussed orally).
6. Give all the necessary documents and access.
7. Pick an experienced and sociable person on your team and assign them to mentor the employee. A beginner will be able to contact him for all questions.

New employee

1. Think about what information you are missing and where you will get it. Feel free to ask questions.
2. Understand your goals for the first week, month, three months. If the leader has not voiced, ask yourself.
3. Write down the names of everyone you meet. In general, at first I recommend to write down everything: the amount of information is large, it will definitely be forgotten.
4. Tell us very briefly about yourself every time you meet, for example: I am Misha, 12 years in HR, worked at Alfa-Bank, STB, Wargaming, made the most successful online HR courses in Laba, author of an article about life hacks for resumes, which has been read 1 million times. In a startup environment, this is called pitching or elevator speech. Prepare ahead of time. For new hires, you are nobody until you tell about yourself. Don't miss the chance to make a good impression right away.
5. If the position involves the introduction of changes in the company, it is easiest to make them in the first 60 days, then it will be harder. Especially if you need to make unpopular decisions or simply difficult ones: hiring, firing employees, transferring to another position, switching to new software, a new form of reporting, rebuilding the process, investing in something new.
6. Plan small victories, they will help build trust in you. For example, pick small tasks that you could solve in the first 60 days and focus on them. Set aside tasks that require more than 60 days of your work for now. Here I would give an analogy with the Agile approach in programming, when we do not try to make a very large and very complex product at once, but divide it into parts and develop it in stages.
7. Make 30-minute appointments with everyone you work with. Prepare a list of questions in advance and write down the answers.
8. Ask what works well, what is bad, what needs to be changed. Gather a lot of information and build trust.
9. Conduct an audit and present the results if you are a leader or an expert.
10. Set up a regular one-on-one meeting with your manager to share results and get feedback.
11. Smile at your colleagues. Nobody wants to work with sullen employees, even if you’re under stress.

HR

I could write an entire book, but here are some of the most important tips:

1. Make newbie days: put them in front of old employees and ask them to briefly introduce themselves (5 minutes). This is what we do at Preply, and it works really well.
2. Use special software to set up notifications for the employee and everyone involved, so that they do not forget what to do when the employee leaves. We use BambooHR, which has an Onboarding section that allows you to set up notifications for any employee with any tasks and deadlines. For example, three days before an employee leaves, the administrator receives a notification about the creation of an account, and on the day of the release, the manager receives a notification about the need to set tasks.
3. Chat with newbies regularly. If you don't have an HR Business Partner, have your recruiters interact with new recruits once a week.

Colleague

Of course, as a colleague, you don't have any responsibility to adapt newcomers, but you can definitely benefit from it. People remember well who helped them in difficult times (although they do not always talk about this publicly), so you have every chance to build a good relationship with a newcomer and then count on his help. Here are some tips:

1. Be the first to know. Come up and say: “Hi, my name is Misha, I'm Head of HR here. I see you're new, let's get acquainted."
2. Tell him to contact you with any questions.
3. Tell us what you yourself think is important and necessary.
4. Invite to dinner.
5. Ask the newbie about past experiences, plans, and goals. Provide information useful to achieve them.

Conclusion

Adaptation in many companies is either not carried out or is very poorly implemented, as a result of which both the business and the employee suffer. The reason is the lack of understanding of the process on both sides. The simple tips outlined above can dramatically improve the onboarding process in your company, even if you don't have HR employees.