How to help your new employee in their role

Now your chosen candidate is starting with you, now is the time to consider your “on-boarding” process, namely the first three to six months of the candidate’s employment. This is the most crucial stage of the process, you don’t want to spend time and money hiring and then find your new employee leaves in the first 6 months!

Reasons why an employee may leave your role in the first 6 months

On-boarding is designed to prevent your employee from leaving in this early time frame. You will be sure that your new employee was the best person for the job, but some of the most common reasons for a swift exit are:

• No clear understanding of what is expected of them
• ‘Too much, too soon’ expected of them
• Lack of feedback
• Leaving them to introduce themselves, or figure things out for themselves
• Conflict with colleagues or clash of personalities
• Unable to settle in to new culture
• When the employer moves the goal posts or fails to deliver on prior promises
• Delayed or non-existent review process

On Boarding Plans

If you have some kind of structured on-boarding or induction programme, then your new recruit has the best chance of assimilating quickly – and performing at the expected level.

The best on-boarding plans are those that act as a bridge for the practice to deliver the commitments and accurate expectations that they made to the candidate during the assessment process.

You can pave the way for your new employee to thrive in your workplace by implementing some of these points:

• Ensure new starters have a job description
• Ensure they understand and buy into the practice’s values, objectives and mission – give them an overview so they know where their role fits in with this
• Get them involved as soon as possible – don’t make the first four weeks all about form filling
• Make sure they have the tools and resources available to do their job effectively
• Make sure they have a mentor or someone they can turn to and ask questions
• Measure their performance; review with them once a week for the first four weeks, then once at eight weeks, and once more before the expiration of their probationary period
• Give constructive feedback and make it as positive as possible
• Ask for their feedback – on-boarding is a two-way process
• Help them understand your workplace’s culture, and any unwritten rules
• Provide an opportunity for the candidate to integrate with colleagues on social events or in less formal circumstances
• Move quickly to manage and deal with any issues on performance

Ultimately a well-structured on-boarding programme can be crucial for retaining new recruits, providing better levels of satisfaction, resulting in their increased effectiveness and extended tenure.

We also encourage any candidates to create their own plan for their first 30, 60 and 90 days in their new role – and to share this with you to ensure you are agreed on the performance expectations and relevant timelines/deadlines. We have found that this is greatly appreciated by both parties.

If you’re looking to recruit into your medical team we could help! Have a look at our Recruitment pages or contact our team on 01423 813450 or by email at [email protected]