by Beth | Oct 2, 2024 | Onboarding
I love to go bowling. I love the lights, the sounds, the anticipation, the rush…there really is nothing like it! I haven’t been in a long, long time, but the last time I went, I saw a father teaching his 6- ish year-old son how to bowl. He had bumper guards on their lane that covered the gutter.
The little boy had so much fun! He tried various ways to get the ball down the lane and knock over the pins. He and his dad laughed and laughed… they high-fived and danced around.
Then, the boy asked his dad to lower the bumper guards. The father tried to tell him that it was going to be really hard, but the boy insisted. So, Dad lowered the guards, and the boy promptly rolled the ball in the gutter. He. Was. Crushed!
The Dad talked him through it. He helped the boy process his devastation, and the guards went back up on the lane. When they headed out, I heard the Dad say to the boy, “we will come back soon and practice some more.”
What do bumper guards have to do with hiring? I am so glad you asked!
We spend all of this time, energy and money trying to hire the right fit, and the minute this new hire shows up to work, we drop them in an office with little or no training. Even C-suite executives need to be told how to locate the coffee pot and who the largest client is. If you don’t train your new hires, they will throw lots of gutter balls… at the company’s expense.
Put up the bumper guards. Spend time with your new hire explaining the parameters and the boundaries. Show them where the supply closet is and introduce them to Dorothy in Finance. Explain to them who the best clients are and how they came to be. Teach them how to throw a strike.
Once the new hire is continually throwing balls down the center of the lane, lower the guards and cut them loose to throw one turkey after another!
*** For you non-bowlers, a turkey is 3 strikes in a row.
POWER THOUGHT: Learning to bowl without bumper guards equates to starting a new job without training. You are destined to spend all your time in the gutter.
by Beth | Aug 3, 2016 | Company Culture, Employee Retention, Lifestyle, Onboarding, Selecting Good Candidates
This past week I met with a client whose business is in a period of rapid growth. His business has grown so fast over the last 6 months that his brand new office space (occupied for only a year) is suddenly too small. At the same time, he came across an ideal employee that he just had to hire. While he had already renegotiated a deal with his landlord to add more square footage in the near future, he had a big problem for the present:
Where was the new employee going to work?
Every office was full. The main room had been reconfigured several times and there was no way to squeeze in another desk. Even the conference room had a contract employee using it.
When I asked the client where they ended up locating the new employee, he grinned.
“We put him at the table in the break room.”
Sound crazy? Actually, it may have been the best place possible to put a new employee.
Usually a new employee’s first day consists of filling out paperwork, reading an employee handbook filled with dos and don’ts, parking rules and termination policies, and then put at a desk with little or no agenda. Other employees are busy trying to complete their own work and they don’t normally have the time to approach a new person on their team. While the onboarding process is a necessary one, it is typically not a very friendly one for the new hire.
Locate that same new hire in the break room and the situation takes on an entirely different tone. While people are taking a break, they are generally more relaxed and more social. They have a moment to chat while the coffeemaker is brewing; more importantly, they don’t need to come up with a reason to seek out and approach the new employee – they’re right here!
In this case, the new employee was greeted with enthusiasm every time someone walked in to get a cup of coffee. He was included in “water cooler” talk several times a day, and he was incorporated into the company culture quickly and seamlessly.
“This is the best place I have ever worked!” the new employee exclaimed.
If you’re looking to break away from the traditional onboarding process while minimizing the time it takes to familiarize new hires with your company’s culture, perhaps the break room is the “break” you’re looking for!
