In our past three blogs we’ve covered getting prepared to recruit, running a recruitment campaign and managing the selection process. Now we will turn our attention to keeping those good people you’ve gone to the trouble of recruiting.
Recruitment is a time-consuming business. So, it’s understandable that once the job offer has been accepted, your attention might turn to other things. And then once your new person starts with you there may be pressure around workloads that mean you’re keen they hit the ground running. But there are a few key things that you’ll need to do to make sure that your new hire both starts and then stays with you:
- If they have notice to serve with their current employer and they are good at their job, it is very likely that employer will do everything they can to convince them to stay. This might include offering a pay rise. So, it is vital that you remain in contact, perhaps meet them for a coffee, invite them to a team night out, add them to staff emails or group chats. Anything that might help them to feel invested in you and your company before they start and ease the transition process.
- Make sure you’re ready for them on their first day. If you expect them to wear branded clothing, then have some available in their size. Together with any equipment they may need. And if they are office based then make sure they have access to relevant systems and email. Take time to meet them for a coffee on their first day and ask about their expectations. This is vital because most relationships break down over a mis-match of expectations. Of course, it is important that you also share your expectations, but ask for theirs first! This enables you to detect straight way if there may be any areas where you are not on the same page and address it. These expectations should include time-keeping, appearance, ways of communicating and so on. It’s often the basics that cause the problems!
- Continue to meet them once a week for the first four weeks, to find out how it is going from their point of view. Again, ask this first and then share what they are doing really well and what you would say they could improve upon – notice the language used – this isn’t about criticising, this is about feeding back in a constructive way from the start, so they feel positive about the experience.
- Ensure that you or your senior engineer accompanies them on jobs for the first week – this enables you to highlight immediately if there are any technical gaps and allows you to once again set your expectations.
It’s worth remembering that an employee’s experience during the first 90 days of a new job directly relates to how likely they are to stay with a new employer and perform. Regular feedback both ways is what makes any relationship work. So don’t overlook the value of that and be prepared to invest the time – it will pay dividends in the long run.
If this information strikes a chord with you then there are lots more top tips and practical advice in my book ‘Build and Grow – How to go from Tradesperson to Managing Director in the Construction and Trade Industries’ And you can buy it from Amazon via this link http://amzn.to/2CBok2L.