Smooth Transitions
Spending significant time and energy with the on-boarding process has a tremendous long term positive impact on the potential success of new employees. Setting the tone early for what is expected and creating a welcoming environment helps to confirm that they made the right choice in joining your company, and has been proven to reduce turnover. While there is often a lot of focus on the new hire, I have found that one area of the on- boarding process that often gets overlooked is the impact it has on the current team members.
Change can be difficult and adding new personalities to an existing team can change the dynamics of that team. There is time that must go into figuring out how they will work together, how new team members will be integrated into the culture, and an underlying current of both existing team members and new hires trying to prove their worth. These challenges can be overcome when we focus on bringing the right candidates onto our team and preparing current team members for their arrival.
One of the most graceful things to watch is an excellent skier carve turns down a mountain. In order to navigate the terrain of the hill, prepare for obstacles in the path and change directions the skier must look ahead, anticipate the conditions and control their speed through the turn. Doing so creates a seemingly effortless arc as they shift their weight from one leg to the other and glide down the hill. Failure to do this puts the skier in a position where they must respond to the conditions and are late to turn or don’t turn at all causing a potential “yard-sale” in which they crash, leaving their gear strewn about the mountain as the go sliding down the snow on their face.
As leaders, if we apply some of the skiers’ tactics with our current team when bringing new members aboard, we can create a seamless transition. We need to look ahead and anticipate where there might be conflicts, then take time to slow down and ease potential concerns that the team might have. Even if the new hire is filling a vacant position, they are unique and bringing them on will create change. We need to communicate what that change might look like by sharing our vision for what that new hire will bring to the organization and where they fit in. If we drive the change instead of responding to it, we can successfully navigate the on-boarding process with a smooth shift in direction, minimal disruption to the organization and the new hire feeling fully embraced by the current team.