The First 4 Hours
Timing is everything. The first 48 hours in a missing person’s case can determine whether the case will ever be solved. Being seen within 1 hour of heart attack symptoms impacts how much benefit the patient receives from restoring blood flow to their organs. And the first 4 hours in your office with a new hire massively impacts their direction and future as an employee and valuable team member.
While it may not be as life altering as a missing person or as serious as a heart attack, the first 4 hours of onboarding set the tone for future interactions with your new team member. And, while it might seem more profitable to have them walk into a busy office and get started right away, it’s important to remember your goal. You are hiring a human being, a teammate who can add value to your company.
We believe that the first 4 hours play a critical role in making a new employee feel comfortable, productive, and part of the team. We attribute our high retention rate partly to ensuring that every person gets off to a strong start with a warm welcome, clearly communicated expectations, and permission to ask any and all questions…even more than once!
This is what the process looks like in our firm:
Set the tone
Remember your first day on a new job? You might not have slept well the night before, woken up before your alarm, left early to find a parking place, debated over whether to bring or buy your lunch, tried to remember whether the office was hot or cold the last time you were there…
You get the picture. The first day is full of nerves for your new employee. From the time your new hire walks through the door, your primary goal should be to clear away some of those jitters and begin to develop a relationship. Begin the day with a sit down, welcome meeting with one of the leaders.
Grab a cup of coffee and take a walk around the office. Re-introduce them to everyone on the team. Make sure they know where the bathrooms, kitchen, and breakroom are located. There is no need to time your interactions or make it too structured. This time should feel completely organic. Be open to fielding questions as you go. Let them know that for the next 4 hours they’ll be hanging out with you.
Set clear expectations
During that first 4 hours, introduce your new team member to company policy, workflow (a high level overview), resources available to them, and general responsibilities. Give them a rundown of what their first week or two will look like. Reassure them that you won’t be throwing them to the wolves.
Be completely honest “I’m about to throw a ton of information at you…and I don’t expect you’ll remember it all, it might feel like trying to get a drink from a fire hose”. They can expect to be bored a little with some downtime while they are learning and even on information overload - and that’s ok. Just give them the chance to ask questions. And there is no such thing as a dumb one!
Walk through all the forms, benefits, policies, software, and email. Expect more questions and welcome them!
Clear expectations and honest communication removes jitters and instantly transforms you both into humans…rather than robots just trying to do a task.
Set the culture
Dig into the mission and vision of your firm next. What do you as a team value and what are you setting out to accomplish? This invites your employee into that mission and vision with you. It gives them a purpose for the work they’ll do each day.
Finish up near the end of the first 4 hours by going through your Leadership Philosophy with your new hire. It acquaints your new person with how you lead and make decisions, what you expect from them, and what they can expect from you. This is a capstone moment for those first impressions!
I realized the importance of delivering the Leadership Philosophy on the very first day someone joins the team when a new hire actually began to tear up during that meeting. I thought I had done something wrong… but in actuality we had dispelled all their fears, made them feel like they belonged, and established that this was not going to be toxic, cold, and even cutthroat like their last place. I like to end with clear expectations about mistakes. You expect them to happen, and that’s ok. Mistakes are treated as an opportunity to learn and do better. There is a difference between making an honest mistake that you learn from and just being careless.
As the workload slowly increases over the next few weeks, watch for opportunities to step in and correct those mistakes with grace. It is a black mark on a leader who expects people to do things exactly right, every time, early on in the process. We all have to grow, and you should take pride in the patience of watching them grow, just like the farmer patiently works the field and watches the crops grow and produce.
Being intentional with the first 4 hours of an employee’s career with your firm will pay big dividends and assimilate them quickly into your team culture. The clear expectations you communicate up front act as a safety net, because everyone knows what is expected of them. Start out as you mean to go on: with a goal and a clear path to accomplish it.
Most people don’t realize there are actual leadership tools available that work to develop influential leaders. CS Business Consulting gives you the roadmap, tools, and training to experience the power of influence and the reshaping of your culture. Building high performing teams is essential to becoming an influential leader.
