Although hiring has slowed down for many organizations, now is the ideal time to look internally and ensure your company is ready to make that first impression again (you don’t get a second chance!). Nearly 25% of new hires leave a job within the first year because their expectations about an organization aren’t met.

Providing only an employee handbook and stacks of paperwork is no longer sufficient. You must invest the energy, time and commitment to ensure each new hire feels welcomed, valued and prepared for what lies ahead. Time to get onboard!  

• Plan. Programs often fail due to lack of planning and commitment. Think about what your onboarding program needs to accomplish, the kind of impression you want to make, what information new hires need to become productive quickly and what will help them feel welcome. Be sure to solicit feedback from recent hires and collaborate across teams for valuable opinions and insight.  
• Organize. Internal communication and organization are fundamental to ensuring things run smoothly on day one.
  • Get your team ready — Fill them in about his or her start date, seat location and role; block off time in Outlook for them to sync up; schedule a welcome lunch
  • Get your environment ready — Stock their work area with necessities and something special, such as a t-shirt; send a welcome email to the entire staff
  • Get your new hire ready — Send out an agenda outlining key meetings and the subjects to review; provide a tour of your facility, complete with introductions; assign a mentor
• Improve. Continue to touch base with new hires. This will help you improve your program and anticipate future new hire questions. Communicate with those participating in the program to ensure they have what they need to fulfill their commitment. Don’t be afraid to start small and expand as you obtain feedback. And be creative. Implement things that help support your culture. Consider rotating between multiple participants during rapid hiring phases to avoid burnout.  

Effective onboarding programs can help new hires reach productivity quickly, setting reasonable expectations on both sides and, ultimately, decreasing your turnover rate. It’s an investment in employee retention, morale and productivity!  Are you onboard? 

Employees who feel engaged by their employers have strong emotional bonds to their jobs, care about the future of the company and, in turn, are willing to invest discretionary effort into their work. As a whole, an engaged workforce supports increased company performance and profitability.   

With the Dow Jones dropping, national unemployment rates rising and many companies downsizing, employers across the board have been faced with tough business decisions. Here are a few ways management can drive and support employee engagement during times of uncertainty:

• Partnerships. A culture of collaboration promotes innovation and understanding during a shaky economy. Managers need to continue to focus on approachability, meaningful dialogue, people connections, style adaptation and commitment. If partnerships are missing from your workplace, now is a great time to start building them.
  
• Communication. Keep employees informed and updated, even if the news isn’t always good. Employees need a constant stream of information, reinforced in different ways by different parties. Use weekly staff meetings to provide updates, team meetings to break the information into project-specific initiatives, and bi-weekly 1-on-1 discussions to help answer individual concerns and gain feedback. Lack of communication will deteriorate employee trust.
• Benefits. During difficult economic times, employees need to feel like their personal security needs are being met. Continuing to have quality, affordable benefits in difficult economic times is necessary. Scaling back employee benefits, while sometimes necessary, almost always negatively impacts employee engagement.
• Opportunity. Envisioning opportunity in the midst of a crisis can be difficult, but its critical employees understand opportunities exist. Managers should focus on providing employees with insight as to how their current position supports both present and future growth potential on both sides. Outlining how an employee can impact company success during a recession will help him or her stay positive.
  

An engaged workforce doesn’t completely shield a company from an economic recession. It can, however, help protect your organization from the effects of the economic downturn.

Performance management is the process of creating a work environment or setting in which people are enabled to perform to the best of their abilities. It is an indispensable device in an organization’s toolbox. With focused and disciplined communication driving performance management, the process feeds the momentum of an organization. Through individual goal achievement, a company’s growth and success objectives are achieved in parallel with employee goals.

Human Resources should definitely play a role in managing an organization’s performance management process, but the tone of the practice should be set from the top. Successful performance management ensures employees are familiar with the operating and strategic targets of an organization throughout the year.

Establishing  a performance management system that’s mutually beneficial to employees and the organization doesn’t have to be a stressful ordeal. It just takes commitment from everyone involved. The following foundation will help create an effective performance management process:

•    Generate a means for customary 1x1 discussions between employees and their supervisors. A 1x1 should cover status updates, coaching and feedback regarding not only the employee’s performance but the organization’s objectives. Build that strategic partnership!

•    Match individual employee work efforts with the organization’s mission and objectives. Ensure the employee understands their role within the organization, and how the responsibilities of the role link to the organizational and departmental goals.

•    Set clear expectations about results that must be achieved and methods or approaches needed to achieve them. Establish a clear path for success.

•    Utilize specific measures to help the employee focus their efforts. Having objectives and standards will help provide a solid rationale for eliminating inefficiencies.

•    Explain career development opportunities. Provide details regarding how the employee’s current position supports present growth potential, and detail additional opportunities he/she should explore.

With the proper procedures in place, the annual “formal” appraisal should simply be an opportunity to summarize the conversations you and your employee have had throughout the review cycle. An employee’s performance should be viewed as an ongoing process driven by regularly focused and disciplined communication throughout the year!

Partnerships are a fundamental part of the business world. In the workplace, they rely on everyone — employers, managers and employees — working together for the benefit of the organization.

Because relationships in today’s workplace are constantly changing, partnerships can be difficult to build and sustain. But when they’re collaborative at the core, partnerships can help promote innovation and facilitate positive change.

When trying to build and sustain partnerships with team members, consider:

• Approachability. It’s a two-way street. When working to strengthen a partnership, find a common point of interest. It’s essential to every conversation and interaction. After all, approachability is a function of comfort.
• Dialogue. Meaningful dialogue is an exchange of ideas that helps you discover what’s on a person’s mind. Active, effective listening is the foundation of effective communication. When collaborating with others, practice active listening. 
• Focus. Whether in a group or one-on-one, focus intently on your companions in order to fully understand them. You should be able to reflect what they’ve said in your own words — not necessarily to show you agree, but that you care about what they’re saying.
• Connection. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. You develop credibility with people through connections. To forge solid partnerships with people, you need to show them you genuinely want to help.
• Style. When building partnerships, try to adapt to the other’s style. Ask questions. Focus on whether they’re goal-driven or relationship-driven. Are they seeking general or specific information? Are they outgoing or reserved? Follow their pace.
• Commitment. Inability to make and honor commitments destroys partnerships. All commitments are important, so keep your calendar current and don’t over-commit. Be on time, “in the moment” — and careful what you agree to. Most importantly, communicate delays ahead of time.
  

Everybody benefits from effective workplace partnerships. They help build a cohesive workplace culture, boost employee engagement, expand workplace processes and keep morale high. Through shared decision-making, innovation is stimulated, productivity grows, service improves and issues between parties become easier to resolve.