For over 30 years, first as a headhunter, now as a coach, I’ve pushed the idea of involving new hires before they start; of putting out the effort to help them acclimate to the new work, culture and social networks that comprise their new home—as do the best managers and, I’m sure, other recruiters.

Now the concept has not only gone mainstream, it’s moved to the executive suite and gotten its own trendy name—outboarding—and it’s about time.

There’s nobody out there who’s smart enough to walk in cold to a new position at any level and perform or, as managers love to say, hit the ground running and contribute from day one.

The article deals primarily with the practice as used in large companies and at high levels, but here’s how to do it in your company and at any level.

My more mundane name for it is pre-start involvement. It should be ready to go and is triggered by the candidate’s acceptance. It’s worth doing at every level, from admin to exec, since the goal is faster productivity and higher retention across the company board.

Start by creating a buddy system for all new hires. Choose people interested in being a buddy (it won’t work to order them, in fact, that’s likely to backfire), as close to peer as possible, strong in the areas the new hire needs coaching and knowledgeable about the company and its culture and social networks.

Although assigning a buddy reduces your involvement, it doesn’t eliminate the need for contact with you during the period between acceptance and start. The goal is to make sure your hire-ee is thinking of herself as an employee of your company and not of where she currently works. This is a mind-set you want to start implanting even before you make the offer.

The purpose is to not only strengthen her connection to you and Widget, but also shorten the timeline between starting and actively contributing.

Based on the interviews, both you and your new employee know in which areas she needs to gain knowledge in order to come up to speed quickly. Here are nine steps to follow to accomplish that purpose.

1. Assign a buddy who can supply help and information on a proactive basis.
2. Take your new hire and the chosen buddy to lunch to introduce them and break the ice.
3. Take an assumptive approach when talking about anything in the future. Use phrases such as: When you’re here, After you start, etc.
4. Give her information to read to familiarize herself with your company and its products.
5. Discuss the first project and give her information to take home.
6. Call her after she resigns to make sure things went smoothly.
7. Besides you and her buddy, have various members of the interviewing team call her occasionally to tell her how much they’re looking forward to working with her.
8. Solicit her opinion; ask for her suggestions.
9. Don’t overwhelm her.

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 29th, 2007 at 1:01 pm and is filed under Business info, Communication, Culture, Hiring, Motivation, Retention. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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