It is the first day for your new employee.
Yet most new employees for small businesses walk into their first day staring at what feels more like a rusty, duct taped operation instead of a well-oiled machine.
The very first impression that a business makes on a new employee takes place during the hiring process when the business team is simply telling the then-candidate about the wonders of their business.
Day one is usually the day where the new employee walks in and comes face to face with reality, “what I see feels different from what I was told.”
This story has played out too many times in our coaching calls where an owner will tell us they just hired a new employee and when that person walked in on day one, not only did the owner forget they were to start that day, they also began scrambling to find busy-work that would occupy the new employees time.
The owner then justified that haphazard training by saying “it’s just better if we throw you to the wolves”.
No.
It is not better to simply be thrown to the wolves without initial training on how to handle wolves.
Imagine any professional sports coach simply throwing a new star player to the wolves without training and practice…it’s silly.
Yet in business that tends to be the strategy of choice. We hide behind excuses like, “we just hire smart people and they can figure it out”, or “if she can’t handle the heat then we don’t need her”.
There is a better way, a more human way to onboard that massively valuable new team member.
One element of that better way is to have a new employee kit or packet ready to physically hand them on day one.
That packet can consist of five elements to give your new employee a much higher chance of success.
First, each new employee starter pack should include an opening letter from the owner.
This is a letter that is standardized for the new employee starter pack and allows the new employee to hear directly from the visionary of the business.
The letter should start out with a simple welcome followed by the mission of the business letting the new employee know that the primary reason they were hired is to help achieve the already-defined mission.
After the mission, the letter should include a simple outline of the unique core values of the business letting them know, “these are the filters we use to make decisions every day.”
The letter can be rounded out with an overview of the rest of the new employee starter pack.
Second, each new employee starter pack should include the outline of their initial training.
What technical skills will you be teaching them? How? When?
What will the timeline of that training look like?
What professional soft skills will you be having them commit to?
What is the scorecard for a successful startup in this role?
Third, each new employee starter pack should include a printed guide with training notes or slides they will be learning from so they have a note-taking mechanism.
Actively having your new employee physically write down notes, thoughts, and questions will help them to engage and retain the information that must be shared.
In her helpful book The Power Of Writing It Down, Allison Fallon reminds us that “writing gives us space to work through our biggest questions.”
Fallon goes on to remind us that “writing helps us gain confidence in ourselves, our ideas, and how we move through the world” while giving us a chance to know the sound of (our) own voice.”
Giving your new employee space to write gives you the space to answer their biggest questions, thus new content for updating your training as you hire future employees.
Your greatest opportunity for feedback on your business are the fresh, new eyes of a new employee.
Fourth, each new employee starter pack should include startup swag and quick start support tools for the role they are assuming.
If you are hiring a salesperson, what are the selling tools they will need to stack away in preparation for that first sales call?
If you are hiring a field operations person, what are the “cheat sheets” or checklists that would be helpful in the startup phase?
Think of these tools as the “Quick Start” guide you see when you open the box to a new appliance or power tool. Identify the five things (or four, or seven) that will get this person “started” in this new role knowing that a more advanced understanding of the job will come with further time and intentional training that you have mapped out above.
Finally, every new employee start kit should include some sort of engaging handbook that employees can refer to answering the most basic questions like contact lists, and overall employee related questions (payroll cycles, vacation, dress, conduct, etc.)
Regardless of the specific elements in your new employee starter kit, just having something built and delivered that shows forethought and intentionality in line with the mission of the business takes you miles down the road towards a successful startup with your new team member.
