It takes a great deal of time and resources to find and train new hires. The effort shouldn't stop after onboarding ends — to reduce turnover and boost employee retention, you must continue to invest in your workers throughout their tenure.
Utilize Their Skills
Most professionals want to feel needed and valuable. The moment that your new hires start to feel ignored, bored or underutilized, it's the beginning of the end. To improve employee retention, find ways to use and develop each person's unique skills. Assign challenging projects and ask for input in meetings. Avoid micromanaging — instead, step away and trust workers to perform their jobs. Over time, offer opportunities for development and advancement to expand existing skills and develop new abilities.
Use Mentors
If you're managing a large team and handling your own workload, it can be impossible to juggle the nuances of each employee's experience. Spread out the workload with a mentoring program. Assign new hires to other employees who can explain the ins and outs of the company. In the beginning, choose a mentor who is experienced enough to have useful insight, but not so senior as to create intimidation. This process eliminates loneliness, creates an instant support system and integrates new employees into the social fabric of the team.
Set Clear Goals
Clear goals and expectations are essential for new hires — without them, workers have no way to measure success. Create a framework for evaluation by explaining the major benchmarks and metrics for the position during the first few days. Talk about what you want the employee to achieve, set deadlines and explain how to track progress for each project. In doing so, you provide direction and help workers become contributing members of the team in less time. These goals also help individuals create a self-directed workflow, so they can spend less time feeling adrift and confused in a new job.
Check In Frequently
During the first few weeks and months, it's important to check in frequently with new hires. Using a combination of informal conversations and scheduled meetings, keep an eye on each person's progress. Note how they are fitting into the company culture and collaborative process. In private meetings, ask if they're confused about any areas of their job and make sure they have the necessary tools and technology. Frequent contact and observation help you identify and fix small problems before they blossom into big, employment-ending issues. As an added bonus, establishing yourself as a friendly, caring manager from the beginning creates an enduring foundation of trust and support.
New hires are one of your company's most valuable resources. By making a conscious effort to support these workers and help them integrate into the office, you can reduce the risk that they'll jump ship before the year is out.
Photo courtesy of thetaxhaven at Flickr.com
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