If your company is in a period of accelerated growth, you’re likely hiring swiftly to meet demand. It can feel like an optimistic time in a business, but there could be trouble brewing behind the scenes. There are two essential things to focus on regarding your newly hired employees: a robust onboarding program that is easy to implement and support for managers to help them keep up with a growing team.
Successful onboarding can boost an employee’s efforts at work by over 20% and their performance by up to 15%, according to Gartner. The same research also demonstrates that committed employees work 57% harder and are nine times less likely to quit their jobs.
Yet, only 12% of employees surveyed agreed their company does a good job of onboarding, according to Gallup. In fact, one in five employees surveyed by Gallup say their most recent onboarding experience was either poor or nonexistent.
Onboarding new employees effectively and efficiently is easier said than done, especially in fast-growth environments. And the responsibility often falls squarely on the shoulders of managers. The hiring process may have already consumed weeks of a manager’s time so it is essential they are supported with an onboarding process that will empower an employee to be productive in their new role soon after they are hired.
In this article on supporting managers in fast-growth companies who are constantly onboarding new hires, we’ll explore:
- Why onboarding is critical to company success
- Challenges managers face during fast growth periods
- What effective onboarding looks like
- Strategies to help managers cope with fast growth and constant hiring
- Leveraging management training to reinforce critical skills
Why onboarding is critical to company success
Imagine starting your first day in a new job without knowing where to find your office. You finally find your desk and await instructions, but your new manager has only dropped by once to chat and tell you a laptop should be dropped off soon. As your day progresses, you meet new team members, who are just as curious about what you will be working on as you are. You were so excited to accept this job, but now you’re unsure you’ve made the right decision.
If you don’t have a solid onboarding process in place, every new employee beginning work in your company is going through their own version of this experience.
First impressions make a big impact, and if you’re hiring many employees at a time, you may not even realize how many aren’t connecting to their new workplace. Getting this wrong can be costly as time goes on and turnover climbs. A newly hired employee will make up their mind within two weeks of starting a new job as to whether this is an organization they will stay with or if they will continue looking for something better.
Challenges managers face during fast growth periods
Management roles are often demanding, and managers face distinct challenges in their own jobs while also supporting their teams in navigating hurdles. During a period of fast growth, they may also be doing so while coming into work to greet unfamiliar faces, week after week.
The reality is hiring is just the first step in building your teams. Managers know that employees are likely to leave if they don’t find their footing quickly. For instance, approximately half of survey respondents indicated they felt disoriented, let down, and devalued after their latest onboarding experience, according to the human capital management platform Paychex.
Part of the issue is that managers responsible for a growing workforce may feel like they don’t have time to properly train and coach new team members. This leaves them unable to delegate tasks. Worse, some may be at risk of burnout.
New employees need appropriate onboarding to feel welcome and like they can begin contributing to the team. Building this connection and relationship can define an employee’s experience with your company and leaving them feeling underutilized can have dire consequences in terms of disengagement or attrition.
A lack of onboarding has an impact on the existing team dynamic as well. Constant hiring and onboarding can make building a high-performance team challenging because the team dynamic will reset each time someone new joins the team. The new team members need time and opportunity to get to know their new team including the unwritten team norms. Original team members also need to get to know the new person and learn about their work and communication preferences. Constant hiring with poor or nonexistent onboarding creates a challenge to maintain any level of employee engagement and culture.
Benefits of nailing your onboarding strategy
The advantages of an effective onboarding process will ripple through your entire organization. It can set the tone for how employees begin their relationship with your company and colour their entire experience.
Effective onboarding can provide a host of benefits:
- Improved delegation between managers and employees
- More time for managers to manage their responsibilities
- Improved first impressions with new team members
- Higher productivity as more of your workforce is empowered to contribute
- Increased retention rates as new employees build fast connections at work
As the saying goes, we don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. With so many clear benefits of effective onboarding the only action to take is to make sure managers are supported with an easy-to-implement onboarding process.
Elements of effective onboarding
Onboarding can begin before a new employee enters your workplace and continue from their first day to their initial three or twelve months on the job. Starting a new job is exciting. Companies can build on that feeling by sending a welcome package once an offer is accepted to help the employee feel connected to the organization even before their first day.
Effective onboarding must include steps that make new hires feel welcomed, informed, and empowered. Developing a checklist of onboarding tasks can ensure all necessary information is shared in the right order so managers do not have to remember all the steps for equipping their new team member with everything they need to feel at home.
Evaluating your onboarding process is also essential to ensure no one is wasting their time. How can you tell if you’re getting it right? Ask! Conduct pulse surveys to gauge employee experience at milestones during onboarding and the first few months of employment.
Strategies to help managers cope with fast growth and constant hiring
Helping managers thrive in periods of rapid growth comes down to recognizing their specific challenges and developing strategies to counteract them. Considering many managers were promoted because they were star individual performers and not because of their ability to lead and engage others, they may not have the skills they need to succeed.
Managers in fast-growth companies must be exceptional communicators and delegators. They must be flexible enough to be comfortable with unknowns and constant change. Managers could benefit from a leadership development program that supports the development of communication skills as well as emotional intelligence to cope with the stress and pressure of leading a team during rapid growth.
Adopting policies that support managers and new employees across the organization will also improve productivity. Company-wide transparency, strong communication channels, and a streamlined process for onboarding are all imperative. Expect the company culture to be in flux during a period of growth and hiring. Create a process for checking in with team members to take the pulse and see how employee engagement and culture are developing over time.
The key is to get new employees onboarded to their team and role effectively and quickly. This will help your organization maintain productivity and minimize disruption to the rest of the team. Managers will not experience the stress that comes with having a new employee on the team who is underutilized because they have not been onboarding properly. And new employees will see your company as a place they can settle in for the long haul.
Leveraging management training to reinforce critical skills
Your leadership development plans should always include your front-line and middle managers. While onboarding should be considered mission-critical to welcoming and keeping new employees, your success during times of rapid growth will often come down to the skills of your management team.
Supporting the development of leadership skills through management training and other programs can be an excellent way to reduce frustration, lower burnout risk, and increase the effectiveness of your managers across your organization.
Management training can also help prevent your best managers from mistakenly thinking they aren’t cut out for management. That thinking can cause good managers to quit when you need them most. Instead, a proactive approach ensures your managers build the skills needed to nurture and retain a growing and talented workforce.
Book a call if you or your managers could use support in 2024 to keep up with the pace of hiring and growth in your business.