Make These Mistakes And Your New Employee Will Only Last 3 Days

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How Minding Your Manners When Hiring New Employees Can Save You Thousands

It’s Monday, Jenny the New Account Manager is starting today.

It is really a coup that you were able to get her to come over from your competitor, she is going to make a real difference to the business revenue this year.

Jenny arrives calm and relaxed well before 9am.

But it is a mad dash on your side.

She has no allocated desk.

Paul from IT didn’t even know she was coming so there is no computer for her, no email address or company intranet login.

Sue, the Sales Manager is out on appointments all day because she didn’t know that Jenny was starting today, and in fact, she is heading interstate for the next few days so won’t be able to do any training with her.

Jenny is polite and you find her some space in the warehouse, hoping it won’t be too dusty for her suit and that the WHS Manager doesn’t notice her shoes and tell her off for wearing them on the factory floor.

She spends her first day reading the policies and meeting other employees.

You promise to take her for a ‘get to know you’ lunch later this week, but you are under the pump.

Payroll is freaking out because it is pay day on Tuesday and they don’t even know what award she is under or what her contract details are.

It’s Tuesday, and Jenny is still quietly sitting in the factory reading the documents and reviewing the company marketing material.

hiring mistakes

Paul has promised a computer for her tomorrow.

Wednesday, the computer is ready but where is it supposed to go?

Because the sales team is off interstate, she has no idea how to deal with a client, yet Sara the receptionist puts through sales calls to her.

Red-faced and embarrassed, she’s stumbled her way through the sales call and ended up having to call the sales manager whom she hasn’t even meet yet and get her to call the client back… Jenny knocks on your door and tells you she doesn’t think this is the right job for her.

What does this mean?

  1. You’ve lost this amazing new members of the team who had so much potential
  2. You’ve wasted all this time and money recruiting her and;
  3. Even though you forward think and call up the next best candidate, he shuts you down because he never even received anything to tell him he didn’t get the job even though he had 3 interviews and he doesn’t want to work for a company that seemly doesn’t have basic common manners!

You can imagine the chaos this has caused.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people turn up on the first day, not have a desk, a computer, a phone and end up twiddling their thumbs for three days.

Not only is this unprofessional and very unproductive for everyone, when an employee starts, most organisations have a probation period.

And it can be terminated by either party, employer or employee within that probation period with no cause.

This means all the time and the cost that you’ve invested in getting that that person on board that just goes down the drain.

You’ve advertised, you’ve worked really hard to narrow it down to the right person, you’ve allocated all that time for interviews and now you have to start again.

PLUS no one is actually doing the job, which is costing you something somewhere along the line, in either your time, overtime from another employee or a loss of revenue if they are in sales role.

So here are a few things that can help you when hiring new employees so you can save yourself time and potentially thousands of $$.

 

  1. Always notify your unsuccessful candidates to let them know they are unsuccessful.

They’ve taken the time to apply for your role and look, some people will argue that people are just ticking a box so they can get their Centrelink checkbox or whatever. But when people have made it to the interview stage then it’s common courtesy to actually go back to them and let them know the outcome. And you will find that a lot of people actually appreciate knowing the outcome of their application, even if it’s a ‘no’.

Firstly, it is good PR, and brand management to do that.

Secondly, they may be good people with relevant skills and experience for your business, but not right now.

You might like to set up some basic email templates that you can use to let them know. It doesn’t need to be super sophisticated just a basic communication.

You will find that from a PR and branding perspective and candidates actually appreciate knowing where they stand.

  1. Have an induction plan and checklist for new employees

This should include basics such as: a copy of the job description, copies of any marketing materials – such as brochures, a employees contact list, a safety induction – including evacuation procedures and security access.

You also need to have a checklist of requirements that other members of the team need to follow. For example, what will IT have to do? What about Payroll? Their supervisor? All of these are just as important to a successful start as an employee knowing their job description, it makes them feel like they are a valued member of the team from the very start.

If you want to take a more in depth look at the best way to set your new employee up for success, then access our free Induction/Orientation Checklist here

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