New employees – example is better than precept

WHEN an organisation recruits new staff it is wrong to simply put responsibilities on to them and then allow them to sink or swim on their own. Lack of guidance leads to unnecessary failures whereby people who might have learned to handle their jobs well with a little more guidance, are not given an opportunity to do so.

Today, with good people as hard to find as they are, needless failures are even more costly. If there’s anything that might be done to help a new employee succeed, it is well worth the time and effort of everyone involved.

In the first place, we often see that when someone is offered a job, special attention is focused on the person and very often an effort is made to impress such new employees. With such attention, the new recruits eye their new position in the best possible light and is it any wonder then that they report to work with high expectations?

When such recruits report to work and find that they are given minimum attention or guidance, their morale can be seriously affected. A big build-up only leads to a big let-down if people treat new recruits like they are part of the woodwork once they are on the board.

A smart manager, no matter how busy he or she is, does not handle new people haphazardly. He gives them his personal attention and he plans what jobs they can handle during the critical first days. After all it’s only natural for new employees to have anxieties. Will I like the job? Will I be able to handle it? Where do I start? How will I get along? Will there be much chance for me to get ahead?

Not the least important is to make sure new people have enough to do. Nothing is more frustrating to a person full of energy and enthusiasm for a new job than to sit and twiddle his thumbs, or have to kill time doing nothing. New employees need to be given challenging assignments to sink their teeth into and while they try and get themselves involved, they need support and encouragement to make them perform well. The best way to maintain a new recruit’s interest in the job is to maintain interest in him or her.

However no amount of interest would encourage new employees unless the suggestions and work guidelines that are forwarded to them are actually being implemented in the company. After all, mankind is more influenced by something present and visible than by something which sounds good but is not implemented. As the saying goes, ‘Example is better than precept’.