by Rick Stomphorst
Excelling at on-boarding at a new job is a skill as it’s common to change roles every 2-3 years. Here are four areas of risks when on-boarding.
1. Aligning your Strengths & Vulnerabilities to the New Role
While it’s typical to blame an on-boarding failure on the new person, failure is never all about mistakes they made. New hires who have been very successful in past roles, can still fail in a new role. A strength you had a previous role may become a weakness in a new role. Failures occur when:
- a new person doesn’t understand or refuses to accept the true situation they find themselves in (reality may have been portrayed differently during the interviews)
- the preexistence of time bombs
- failure to adapt appropriately to the given situation
2. Failure to Build Sufficient Momentum to Establish your Credibility
Failing to build momentum could result in your credibility being eroded during each interaction or meeting. We either gain credibility or lose it.
As the human body treats a virus, so can an organization treat a new hire. The organization’s immune system instinctively could whip into action to isolate then destroy the potentially killer infection (i.e. You).
3. Not using a Systematic Method in your On-boarding
While every on-boarding is unique, there is a high degree of similarities between them. Make on-boarding a repeatable successful process by creating a framework. Each time you switch jobs, your plan will get stronger.
4. Not Aligning your On-boarding to the Current Phase of the Business
The book The 1st 90-Days introduces the STARS model. Companies, departments, products and/or processes exist in one of four phases of existence:
- Startup mode
- Turnaround mode
- Accelerated Growth mode
- Realignment mode
- Sustaining success mode
STARS model allows you to identify and differentiate between the business cycles you’re in, and its related unique characteristics and challenges. The key is to match your on-boarding strategy to the STARS phase of your company.
Assuming a transition takes between 3 – 6 months, over the course of your career you’ll be immersed in on-boarding for 3 – 8 years. A good practice to get good at it.
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by Rick Stomphorst
As a new employee you need to progress to the point where you’re giving back more to your employer than you’re costing them. In fact, your job may be a risk if you don’t get to the break-even point fast enough.
The actions you take in the first 3 months often dictate your fate: you either succeed or not. You are vulnerable during the first 3 months. You need to build momentum or you will be faced with a mounting up-hill battle.
While transitions and on-boarding’s are fraught with risk, they’re also an important business necessity. Introducing new people to an organization introduces new ideas, preserves vitality, and enables a company to grow.
Feel you’re over your head in your new position? You’re not alone. Some 25% of Managers enter new roles and/or companies each year in Canada. All those transitions will not go well.
The risks are that the new person is unfamiliar with the culture, politics, informal lines of communication, systems and processes, products, markets and the know few people. You are under a microscope.
You’re not the only one transitioning. If in a Management position, your direct reports, in-direct reports, peers, managers and clients are all also in in-direct transition. Additionally, it’s not uncommon to have more than one person in transition or on-boarding at a time within a business, representing an even greater percentage of the staff who are also experiencing in-direct transition and whose performance may be negatively impacted because of it.
Failing an on-boarding or transition is a blemish on your resume. It is also expensive for the hiring company. Some sites note that it can cost a company 24x base compensation for a failed hire.
Value Proposition
Consider how many times in your career you’ll be switching jobs and/or companies. Imagine if you would reduce the break-even point of your on-boarding by a few months each? Best to get good at on-boarding and transitioning.
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by Rick Stomphorst
You need to determine what to learn and in what order or you’ll be quickly overrun with information. You need a systematic approach.
What do you need to learn cannot be accomplished via adhoc meetings. You will be dragged into enough meetings as that’s the nature of business.
But is that the best approach to on-board yourself? Finding time to learn in a new job is difficult. From day one you are motivated to start contributing 100%. You can expect people will be pressuring you for your time and others will be assessing your authority. Be conscious of what and who you say “no” to.
High-level On-boarding Plan
- Get yourself known, connect, and start building your credibility
- Assess your business situation and strategize accordingly (STARS blog)
- Determine what to learn when (this blog)
- Establish conditions for success (this blog)
- Land early wins
- Assess the company’s alignment with its strategy
- Assess your team and plan any changes to it
- Find and build supporters
- Find the balance between learning and doing
- Recognize that everyone associated with your job is also now in transition, not just you
Failing at anyone of these items may result in you failing overall.
Where to Start
Learn the following of the organization and learn fast. Your tenue may depend on it
- Culture
- Politics
- Lines of communication
- Systems and processes
- Products and/or Services
- Markets
- Uniqueness or differentiator of product(s) and/or services
- Your new staff (if applicable)
- Peers
- Management
Tip: Learning in a Start-up or Turnaround situation is fundamentally technical: products, markets, projects, technologies and strategies. In Realignment or Sustaining Success situations, immerse yourself in to the organizational culture and politics.
Establish Conditions for Success
While you feel the obligation produce at 100% from day-one, avoid this instinctive act. Doing so comes at the expense of being poorly prepared for the greater picture. Even if you were brought in to turnaround a situation, where they want to introduce new ways of doing things, you still need to learn the culture and politics or people won’t accept the change you will propose.
From the company’s side, you may be expected to be past the tipping point very quickly, especially in a start-up or turnaround situation where the luxury of time is not on your or the company’s side.
Determine how much emphasis will you place on learning as opposed to doing.
Determine what can you do to get early wins.
Create a learning plan. Exceptionally few people do, to the determent of their overall on-boarding process. A learning plan doesn’t mean heads-down learning for 12 months. It may mean concentrated learning for the first X weeks then spread out over a year.
Depending on your situation, determine what questions need asking to aid in building your systematic learning plan. For example, “How did the company get to this point?” By asking this basic question, you avoid the risk of undoing something a revered former manager put in place, is working well and represents a source of pride for the staff.
By taking the time to learn what you need to learn, you will be able to make better decisions earlier and reach the break-even point earlier.
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by Rick Stomphorst
Learning begins prior to joining the new firm or staring the new role. Your personal learning meter should be running from the moment you learn you’ve landed the job.
After Your Start-Day
A different set of learning tools become available once you have officially started, although, it will help you if you can obtain these prior to starting.
- Recent staff and/or client surveys or focus group results
- Product focus groups and whitepapers
- Key interfaces to the outside. E.g. Sales, support and purchasing staff. The objective is to determine how they view problems at the fringes of the organization. Plan to engage them.
- Select an important process to examine departmental interactions and efficiency. Is the process documented?
- Select an important recent decision, then investigate how it was arrived at.
- Getting in People’s Faces
Speak to People – Stakeholder Connections
One first step once you’re joined is to specifically speak with (question) people with critical knowledge as they should provide the best return on your most valuable asset, your time. These people may also exist outside of the company: key clients, suppliers, distributors or ex-staff (as such, develop standard questions for external resources). You need to speak with people with different points of view, a representative sample of people, some leaders, some key hands-on staff. Find the historian, someone who has a deep understanding of the relevant history of the company.
These people become your network, which is important as you likely lack an established network at your new company.
Rinse and Repeat
It’s important to replay the same script, ask the same series of questions during each meeting. This will give you varying views on a common set of conditions. It will also prevent any one interviewee from taking over the meeting with their agenda, or having your views shaped by the first or last few interviews. This structure allows to you assess who is being forthright (or not) and/or how deep various players understanding of the business is.
Start by meeting 1:1 with your direct reports. Again, ask the same questions. Questions to your direct reports won’t obviously be the same questions you’ll ask (e.g.) a peer or supplier, but there will be overlap. A few sample questions are:
- Who are the top 3 key customers, why?
- How did your predecessor handle decisions?
- How were goals set?
- What is the organization’s strategy?
Afterwards, have a group meeting with your direct reports to learn the dynamics of the group.
I hope this gives you enough to begin framing your unique learning plan.
A Word About Passing the Probation Period
You were hired because you are smart. Your employer has a high level of confidence in you. You were the best candidate! They want you to succeed.
Here are 5 tips to help you through the employment probation period.
1. Work Longer
A good work practice is to work an extra 15-30min at the end of the day. This will look positively on you.
Consider this, invariably staff who commute a distance will be unexpectedly late due to weather, traffic, public transit delays, etc. The “banked” minutes/day balances out against the days were the trip in takes unexpectedly longer, days where you need to leave a little early, or have a long lunch. It’s a good practice to know in the back of your mind that you have “time banked”.
Related, arrive ready to work. It’s a poor practice to arrive precisely on time only to proceed to get your coffee, engage in small talk, then turn on your computer & get setup to start work.
2. Double and Triple Check Your Work
Mistakes made in the first 90 days have a greater impact on you and your fledgling tenure than when you’re a “long term” employee.
3. Admit Mistakes
We all make mistakes. Admit any mistakes you make. Mistakes are proof that you are trying.
4. Learn
Be inquisitive. You’re new. Ask lots of questions. Take notes. Learn. Doing the opposite implies you’re not interested, don’t understand or not serious.
Seek training. If the company doesn’t provide training or peers have insufficient time, seek out webinars, vendors or training videos on YouTube. For company products, ask which are the top 1, 5, or 10 products you should focus on learning. Read manuals.
5. Manage Your On-boarding
Build a 30-60-90 day on-boarding plan. Minimally, have daily or weekly plans.
<< Previous Blog | Next Blog in Series >>
by Rick Stomphorst
You were hired because you are smart. Your employer has a high level of confidence in you. You were the best candidate! They want you to succeed.
Here are 5 tips to help you through the employment probation period.
1. Work Longer
A good work practice is to work an extra 15-30min at the end of the day. This will look positively on you.
Consider this, invariably staff who commute a distance will be unexpectedly late due to weather, traffic, public transit delays, etc. The “banked” minutes/day balances out against the days were the trip in takes unexpectedly longer, days where you need to leave a little early, or have a long lunch. It’s a good practice to know in the back of your mind that you have “time banked”.
Related, arrive ready to work. It’s a poor practice to arrive precisely on time only to proceed to get your coffee, engage in small talk, then turn on your computer & get setup to start work.
2. Double and Triple Check Your Work
Mistakes made in the first 90 days have a greater impact on you and your fledgling tenure than when you’re a “long term” employee.
3. Admit Mistakes
We all make mistakes. Admit any mistakes you make. Mistakes are proof that you are trying.
4. Learn
Be inquisitive. You’re new. Ask lots of questions. Take notes. Learn. Doing the opposite implies you’re not interested, don’t understand or not serious.
Seek training. If the company doesn’t provide training or peers have insufficient time, seek out webinars, vendors or training videos on YouTube. For company products, ask which are the top 1, 5, or 10 products you should focus on learning. Read manuals.
5. Manage Your On-boarding
Build a 30-60-90 day on-boarding plan. Minimally, have daily or weekly plans.
