The Business Coach with Laura Murphy: New employee woes
Question: “I’m a new manager who’s just recruited for the first time and although the candidate seemed motivated on interview, he’s not performing. Where did I go wrong?” Gareth
Answer: “It seems to me that either you were asking the wrong questions at interview, or you’ve recruited an professional interviewee, or your planning as to how to support this new employee was not thought through.
Interview skills are for another time. You need to deal with the problem in front of you. With a new employee it’s important to set the scene from day one with a clear indication of what’s expected of them both in terms of performance eg targets to hit, and also integrating with the team. Managers tend to skip induction apart from saying where the toilet and tea cups are, but this is the time to inform your new staff member about the values and culture of the organisation and team they’re joining. It’s the time to have regular meetings where feedback can be given on their performance and any issues ironed out before they become established patterns of behaviour.
For a successful entry to the organisation you also need to prep the team so they know what they’re supposed to do in terms of supporting the new person. Being a new manager you may well have been less confident about putting this into place, or about tackling any problems as soon as they appeared. Stop thinking about your feelings here and consider those of your new employee who is clearly feeling demotivated. Find out why, set some clear parameters for them, get the right level of support in place and monitor the situation. That way if it turns out you have made the wrong choice in recruitment, you will have clear evidence as to why he should leave.”
Laura is an organisation development specialist and executive coach with mtc2 ltd. To solve your problem email laura@mtc2.co.uk Tweet @WayfinderWoman Names and details have been changed to protect confidentiality.
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Wednesday 22 May 2013
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