Three Questions New Hires Need Answered So They Won't Leave

Stay or Leave a New Job?

The first days and weeks of starting a new job are exciting but also scary for your new hires. They are wondering if they made a good decision. Now that they’ve hired and have learned more about your organization, their new job, and you as their new manager, they may be deciding whether or not to stay.

They are considering whether or not to re-activate and re-engage in their job search network.  It's only been a couple weeks, at the most, since they accepted your job offer and started working at your organization.

That means they might quit.  Your organization will lose the time invested and thousands of dollars already spent during the recruitment process. You will have to start all over again or offer the job to the second best or third best candidate, if they are still on the job market. 

Stay or Leave - Three Questions

An alternate solution is to make sure your new hires can say ‘yes’ to the following three questions:

• Do I have access to the information and resources I need? (so I won’t feel inadequate or stupid)
• Does my manager care about me and provide the support I need? (so I can gain the new knowledge and skills I really need to be successful on the job)
• Do I feel like I’m part of the team and am able to build positive relationships? (so I have both work and social connections as well as potential friendships with my colleagues)

If your new employees can’t say ‘yes’ to these questions, then there’s a higher risk they will re-start their job search and leave your organization.

New Hire Retention ACTIONS

Here’s how you can make sure your new employees tell others that they are very happy to be working at your organization.

1.  Provide Access to Valuable Information

• You want your new employees to say, ‘Yes, I have access to the information I need. I’m feeling connected to the people and resources I need to do my job.’

Does your organization’s intranet and internet site have hundreds of pages and links? Don’t waste your new employee’s valuable time and energy asking them to browse the whole thing, hoping to find out what’s important. A great orientation and onboarding process provides new employees with curated content so they focus on high value web site pages.

New employees really appreciate a well thought out online corporate website exploration process.

2.  Make Sure Your Managers Care and Share

• You want your new employees to say, ‘Yes, my manager cares about me and is providing the support I need. I’m gaining the new knowledge and skills I need to be successful on the job.’

Great managers take time to meet with their new employees not only on the first day but regularly during their first months of employment. They establish a training process to ensure their new hires gain the new knowledge and skills they need. 

Ineffective managers will often forget they even have a new employee. They may promise training and support but only provide it if they don’t have what they consider more important priorities. No wonder new employees, under these circumstances, begin looking for another job.

Make sure you give your managers access to an online Manager's Orientation and Onboarding Preparation Checklist that’s easy for them to access and complete as soon as they hire a new employee.

An effective online orientation and onboarding process should contain a manager’s portal with tools and resources to ensure every manager treats their new employees as valuable assets joining your organization.

3.  Support Colleague Relationship Building

• You want your new employees to say, ‘Yes, I feel like I’m part of the team and I’m able to build positive relationships. I’ve met some great people who I can learn from. I like my manager and the people who work here.’

Since so much of your new employee’s time is spent at work, they naturally look for and value work-related relationships. They need to feel like they belong and are considered a valuable member of the team.

With so much social media focusing on the importance of making, building, and retaining connections, organizations need to recognize that building a workplace relationship network is vital to new employees.

Plan ways to help your new employees get to know others in the workplace. This could be a meet and greet during the first week of employment. Or, you could provide an online directory of the new employee’s key network so they can gain needed information about others.  An assigned orientation 'buddy' can also make the introductions and people connections, as needed.

Summary

What happens if your new your employees can’t answer ‘yes’ to one or more of these three new hire questions? Your organization will experience higher levels of new hire turnover and lower productivity.  Plus, all of the time and energy spent on the recruitment and training process will be lost.

New employees may stay for two or three months (just enough time to find another job) then they will leave to go work for your competitors.  

How much new hire turnover is acceptable to you and your organization?  If it’s too high, you now know the specific steps you can take to ensure every new employee feels like a valued and connected member of your organization.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Valerie Dixon, M.Ed., CTDP, President of Learnware Design Inc., (www.learnware.com) is a leading learning efficiency and effectiveness strategist and thought leader in the field of workplace learning and performance.  Valerie has over 40 years of experience in all aspects of performance needs analysis, learning organization strategy development and learning design.  She is the creator and designer of programs and products that accelerate job competence™.

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