The kung-fu of startup hiring (7 of 7): You’ve hired, now what?
CONGRATULATIONS! You’ve managed to hire a new colleague to join your company. That’s great news.
You’ve done the hardest part, and now comes the part that many companies (foolishly) seem to ignore, but that is absolutely essential if you want your new amazing hire to have as much impact on the company as you need them to have.
The unfortunate truth is that many companies only hire people when they’re absolutely swamped and desperate, which then means that they don’t invest the proper amount of time to ensure that the new hire has all the tools they need to succeed in their new role.
It’s the equivalent of looking everywhere for a plumber to come and fix that leaky pipe that’s flooding your house, but then not actually telling the plumber where you live, or being there to open the door for him. Let them sort it out for themselves, because you’re just too busy. Does that sound silly? That’s because it is. Yet, I’ve seen this happen at really great companies…
Your onboarding process is like welcoming a guest into your home for the first time, it’s your chance to make a good impression, and to start things off in the right foot. So let’s get to it!
For many companies hiring is quite an infrequent event, which means that they most likely have not yet invested into creating an onboarding program for the new hires, since it happens so rarely. This is no excuse, quite the contrary. Because you’re not doing it so often, means that you should sit down and properly consider how the experience of a new joiner at your company should look like, because you won’t have that many chances for trial and error.
Thinking your onboarding plan through also means that you’re much less likely to forget something important, such as ensuring that the new joiner has a computer, an email address ready, access to your company’s work applications, etc.
The less often you do it, the higher the chances that something will slip through the cracks — such as getting an employee registered for payroll (I’ve seen it happen). So checklists are your friend!
One of the most important things when coming up with an onboarding program, is for you to be able to put yourself in the shoes of someone who is completely new to the company, and making sure that the program is able to make the new joiner feel acclimated to the company, to his role, and to the people that he’s going to be working with. This becomes increasingly difficult the larger the company is, and the more complexity it has, so someone who joins a 500 person company probably won’t be able to meet everyone on their first day, but he should be fine if it’s just a 20 people company.
The nature of your business and the role the candidate will be taking up will greatly influence how much context he’ll need as he joins, and the duration of his onboarding, but a good rule of thumb is to have a basic program that everyone will go through, and then a more detailed one, that’s better adapted to the needs of each individual employee and their role.
The basic program should include things such as your company’s history, who were its founders, as well as any and all important milestones along the way. The employee should have an idea of why the company was formed and what was the story behind it, he should also have context on why things are done a particular way, and at what stage of the company’s history he is joining. This is also a good time for you to let the new joiner know about any company policies that are in place, and to answer any and all questions that he might have about joining. If you start noticing that the same questions get asked time and time again, then perhaps it is a good idea to anticipate them and condense the answers in a FAQ document that you give to new joiners.
A great idea for onboarding — especially if we’re talking about a senior hire — is to define a plan for the new joiner’s 30 days. What are his objectives and expectations for the first month? Do they align with yours? Having a plan ensures that you’re on the same page, and makes it much easier for the new joiner as it gives him a path to follow whilst he’s still getting acclimated with your company.
There are really no limits as to what you can do for onboarding, and again, it’ll really depend on your company’s values and culture. Joining a new company can be scary, so have fun with it and make sure that your new joiners are having fun with it too!
Onboarding will also be your first chance to understand just how good of a job you did during your interviews, and how well the candidate is adapting to the culture of your company. I’ve witnessed first hand candidates that seemed amazing during the hiring process just completely transform once they joined, and not for the better. It’s a candidate’s job to present the best version of himself during the interview process, and it’s the recruiter’s job to ascertain if the candidate is truly a good fit for the company. Sometimes mistakes will happen, whether because the candidate misrepresented himself, or because the recruiter wasn’t able to make a correct assessment of the candidate. We call these casting errors. And they will happen.
So what do you do then? Honestly, the answer is simple. If you feel that within a reasonable timeframe the candidate will be able to learn, adapt and do a good job at the role that he was hired for, that’s your call to make. But if you’ve detected something more serious, such as a deep character flaw, or a total culture mismatch, then I’m afraid that the answer is clear… you have to let that person go, the sooner the better.
As human beings, no one enjoys doing that, but the truth is that no one will benefit from dragging a situation like this along. You’ve already made one mistake, don’t make another by letting this situation go on for any longer than it needs to. This can be ever more complex in cases where people have made significant life commitments such as quitting another job, or moving from another state or country, but that shouldn’t muddle your judgement. You should however ensure that you’re making things as fair as possible with this person by giving them extra severance pay, or compensating them for expenses. After all, barring any situation where the other person has severely misrepresented themselves (which is why you should always do a thorough reference check), the mistake is yours for having hired this person.
Many times, one can also hesitate on making such a decision because they’ve invested a long time and effort in hiring the person, but once you’ve understood that it’s not going to work out, you’re doing both yourself and the candidate a disservice by not acting quickly. Hire slow, fire fast.
This brings us to the end of the series on overcoming the challenges of startup hiring. I hope you’ve enjoyed my posts and that they help you hire some great colleagues to help you change the world!
Happy hiring!
