On Culture || Here's How You Should Treat New Hires to Improve Team Retention
As an entrepreneur building a team, your job is to spot the right people, sell them on the job, and onboard them. But that’s just the beginning of what you should be doing.
In my experience, as the owner of a small business, I am able to observe and course correct the onboarding and team culture for a new hire along the way. Similar to how they say early learning is the most important for a young child, the first few days, weeks, and months for the new hire is your window to show them what the team culture is like, observe which teammates bring out the best in them, and what strengths you can help them identify and grow.
Case in point, we had brought on a new hire previously who was really excited to join the company but had relatively little agency experience. I saw great promise simply by the enthusiasm the candidate had for the role, and I was happy to try things out. In my opinion, enthusiasm for a job and drive to succeed in said job trumps hard skills any day, because I can teach the hard skills, but it’ll be much harder to change their attitude towards work and people.
What I saw evolve over the first few weeks was interesting. I had paired this new team member to support another team member on a project, and it was clear they weren’t getting along. The issue? It was the difference in their approach to work.
One wanted to make sure all the t’s were crossed and I’s were dotted, and so they would question decisions made by the member they were reporting to and double check with the Manager to ensure everything was correct. This made their senior feel undermined, and resulted in a conflict that I was fortunate enough to nip in the bud. In truth, I shouldn’t have needed to wait until the issue was presented to me and I could have been more observant, but as the leader on the team, sometimes you only see the output and not the work process, which is where conflicts arise.
The solution? I reassigned the new team member to other projects where their meticulously working style would actually be appreciated. I assigned her to shadow my projects, because I’m known to be one of those “ideas people”, where details fall through the cracks, and someone like the new member would be perfect to ask me all the tough questions to keep me in check. Finding the right teammate to jive with at work is important too, and even in this scenario, opposites attract!
You want to identify the teammates that balance each other’s strengths and working styles. To do this you have to train yourself to become more observant.
My mistake was putting two detail-oriented people together to work on a project where each was stuck in their approach being “the right one”. All I needed to do was shuffle the personnel on the project teams. This is a prime example of why it’s important to find the right “seat on the bus” for a new hire. If you don’t get involved in this process, it’s like you gave them a ticket with no seat assignment and told them to sit anywhere they want. If you have ever planned a large sit-down dinner or an event (like a wedding?!) you would understand the importance of seating arrangements to ensure harmony amongst all your guests. Your internal team arrangements and assignments should require even more thought because you have to work with these people every day and you likely want them to be in teams that bring out the best in them.
Six months into this new working relationship and the team has successfully embraced the new member. Through collaborating on different projects which give each member more insights into what someone is good and not good at, it helps them identify where they can go for help when they need it. As the leader of a company, you need to identify what those strengths are and if it has gone unnoticed by other team members, you need to make them aware of it. It can be as obvious as: “Did you know that so and so is really good at logistics? If we ever needed a fresh set of eyes on a workback schedule to make sure we haven’t missed anything, maybe they can be a good resource.”
Running a startup business with a small team is like a trying to steer a boat through the rapids — do you have what it takes to ensure everyone operates in unison to conquer the challenge?
What would have happened if I let the team members figure it out themselves? It may result in the misunderstanding getting worse, and eventually one or both of them may leave the company. People stay with a company not just because they love the job, but also because of another important factor, which is whether they like the people they work with.
The key thing is, signing the documents to bring someone on board is just the tip of the iceberg. The much more important part of it is to help them find their place in your company and continuously work on helping them feel like they belong. This post has talked about helping them navigate team relations, and stepping in at the appropriate time to resolve conflicts, but there are many other actions you can be taking to make them feel at home.
Yes - home. If you can foster a feeling where employees feel like they have each other’s backs, that they are playing as a team where teammates will step in and cover their blind spots, you’ll find that they act like a family. Your job is to see the best in each person and work out where to place them in your company network to bring out the best in them which will lead to much better results in your company. I guarantee it will be a win-win if you put more effort into the onboarding and adjustment process for your new hire.
