The 6-month training cycle for new employees often reflects the importance a company places on talent development, but many companies only focus on the first 15 days, leading to a peak in turnover among new-generation employees between the 6th month and the 1st year of employment, costing the company significant resources. How quickly new employees' capabilities can be improved depends on what managers do during the first 180 days.
Phase 1: New employee onboarding, let them know what they are here for (3–7 days)
To help employees quickly integrate into the company within 7 days, managers need to do the following seven things:
1. Arrange a seat and desk for the new employee, giving them their own space, and introduce them to colleagues around their workstation (each introduction should last no less than 1 minute);
2. Hold a welcome party or dinner to introduce everyone in the department to each other;
3. Direct supervisor communicates individually with them: helps them understand the company culture, development strategy, etc., and learns about the newcomer's professional skills, family background, career plans, and interests.
4. The HR supervisor informs new employees about their job responsibilities, as well as the development opportunities and value they can achieve.
5. The direct supervisor clearly arranges the tasks for the first week, including: what to do each day, how to do it, and who the relevant colleague or department head is for each task.
6. Promptly identify and correct issues in daily work (without criticism), and provide timely affirmation and praise (feedback principle); check the daily workload and identify where the work difficulties lie;
7. Let veteran colleagues (who have worked for more than 1 year) interact with newcomers as much as possible to eliminate their sense of unfamiliarity and help them integrate into the team quickly. Key points: Have lunch together, chat more, and avoid discussing too many work goals or putting work pressure on them during the first week.
Phase 2: Newcomer Transition – Let Him Know How to Do Well (Days 8–30)
Change is often painful, but it is also necessary. Managers need to help new employees complete their role transition in a relatively short period of time. Below are five key methods:
1. Lead new employees to familiarize themselves with the company environment and personnel in various departments, let them know how to write standard company emails, how to send faxes, who to contact for computer issues, how to answer internal calls, etc.;
2. It is best to place new employees near experienced colleagues to facilitate observation and guidance.
3. Observe their emotional state in a timely manner, make adjustments as needed, and use inquiries to identify whether they are under stress;
4. Timely impart your own experience to him, allowing him to learn through practice, learning by doing and doing by learning is something new employees highly value;
5. Timely affirm and praise their growth and progress, and set higher expectations. Key points: 4C, feedback techniques.
Phase 3: Assign Challenging Tasks to New Employees (Days 31-60)
Applying appropriate pressure at the right time can often promote the growth of new employees, but most managers choose the wrong way to exert pressure.
1. Know the strengths and skills of new employees, and clearly explain to them the job requirements and assessment indicators;
2. Conduct more company team activities, observe their strengths and abilities, and promote strengths while addressing weaknesses;
3. When they make mistakes, give them opportunities to improve, observe their mindset in adversity, observe their behavior, and assess their potential for development;
4. If one truly cannot handle the current position, consider whether they are suitable for other departments and give them more opportunities. A common mistake managers make is to take a one-size-fits-all approach;
Phase 4: Praise and Encouragement, Building Mutual Trust (Days 61–90)
Managers are often stingy with their words of praise, or lack the skill of praising, yet praise generally follows three principles: timeliness, diversity, and openness.
1. When new employees complete challenging tasks or show improvement, provide timely praise and rewards; the timeliness of praise and encouragement;
2. Various forms of praise and encouragement, give him more surprises, create different feelings of surprise, diversity in praise and encouragement;
3. Show subordinates' achievements to company colleagues, share successful experiences, and maintain openness in praise and encouragement;
Phase 5: Integrate New Employees into the Team to Proactively Complete Work (Days 91–120)
For the new generation of employees, they do not lack creativity; more often, managers need to patiently guide them on how to collaborate as a team and how to integrate into the team.
1. Encourage subordinates to actively participate in team meetings and speak up during them, and offer praise and encouragement after they speak;
2. For incentive mechanisms, team building, task processes, growth, and good experiences, more meetings and discussions should be held for sharing;
3. Discuss methods and suggestions for task handling with new employees, and affirm them when they propose good suggestions;
4. If conflicts with former colleagues arise, address them promptly;
Stage 6: Empower employees with a mission and grant appropriate authority (Days 121~179)
After the first 3 months, new employees are generally confirmed as regular employees, followed by new challenges. Of course, it can also be said that new employees truly become part of the company, and the manager's focus should also shift to the following 5 points:
1. Help subordinates reposition themselves, enabling them to rediscover the value, meaning, responsibility, mission, and significance of their work, and find their own goals and direction;
2. Always pay close attention to new subordinates. When they have negative emotions, adjust promptly and be sensitive to all aspects of them. When subordinates ask negative or naive questions, change your approach and address their questions from a positive and constructive perspective. Managers must shift their mindset.
3. Let employees feel the mission of the enterprise, amplify the company's vision and cultural values, amplify strategic decisions and leadership intentions, etc., focus on uniting people and cultural implementation, focus on correct direction and efficient communication, focus on performance improvement and professional quality;
4. When the company has any major events or exciting news, guide everyone to share; Requirement: Motivate subordinates anytime and anywhere;
5. Begin to moderately delegate authority to allow subordinates to complete work on their own, discover the value of work and enjoy the joy brought by results; delegation should not be done all at once;
Phase 7: Summary and Development Plan Formulation (180 days)
Six months have passed, and it's time to conduct a formal evaluation and development plan for your subordinates. A complete performance interview generally includes the following six steps:
1. Ensure at least 1-2 formal performance interviews lasting more than 1 hour each quarter, conduct thorough investigations before the interviews, and make the conversations reasonable, evidence-based, and methodical;
2. Performance interviews should achieve the following: clarify the purpose; employee self-assessment (what tasks were completed, what results were achieved, what efforts were made to achieve the results, which aspects were insufficient, and which aspects lag behind colleagues);
3. Leadership evaluation includes: achievements, abilities, daily performance. It is necessary to first affirm achievements, then discuss shortcomings. When discussing shortcomings, there must be real examples to support them (still feedback techniques);
4. Assist subordinates in setting goals and measures, have them make commitments, supervise and inspect the progress of goals, and help them achieve the established goals;
5. Strive for opportunities for subordinates to develop and advance, discuss their future development with them frequently, and evaluate them at least once every 3-6 months;
6. Provide subordinates with opportunities to participate in training, encourage them to study and read more in their daily lives, have each person formulate a growth plan, and review it in stages;
Stage 8: Comprehensive attention to subordinate growth (every day)
After completing the first 90 days, new employees typically become regular employees, followed by new challenges, which can also be said to be the moment when new employees truly become part of the company.
1. Pay attention to the life of new subordinates, and provide more support, communication, care, and help when they are hit by setbacks, fall ill, experience heartbreak, encounter life changes, or feel confused mentally;
2. Remember the birthday of every colleague in the department and celebrate collectively on the birthday; record major departmental events and each breakthrough of colleagues, and give praise and rewards for every progress;
3. Hold various forms of team collective activities once a month to enhance team cohesion. Key points: honesty, appreciation, emotion, and integrity.
