AFTER THE HIRE The First 90 Days

The First 90 Days

BY JESSICA HARLING, BEHIND THE DESIGN

Congratulations. After a wonderful courtship, you decided to take the next big step in your relationship and made an offer of employment to your exciting new candidate. It’s a big day for both of you when deciding to make a long-term commitment that’s going to be a roller coaster of success and challenges. You feel confident in both of your abilities to get through it together and want to tell the world about your choice. Then, the whirlwind planning begins … and you need to prepare for the next phases of your relationship to ensure you both get off on the right foot.

The Proposal

During the offer phase, it’s important to have your ducks in a row on what you’re offering. From compensation and benefits to the responsibilities of the role, the offer should outline all of your expectations during the relationship. You want a commitment from the candidate at this point, so be sure to deliver the news with excitement.

As soon as they accept your offer, it’s important to work quickly to prepare for their first day. The more that’s prepared in advance, the smoother onboarding and training will go, which increases your employee’s success rate. From tools and technology to notifying the team and scheduling training, it’s best to have a checklist to be sure not to forget anything. This will ensure that everyone is on the same page.

The Main Event

The first 30 days after an employee’s start date are the most important of their entire career at your company. This period creates a domino effect for all future interactions with your employee. From how your culture will impact their decisions to setting up an organized workstation, this is a critical period that teaches them discipline, what success looks like and how communication will work among the team.

Today’s generations are unique because they’ve gone to school for longer periods of time compared to those who came before them. They’ve been taught that, with education, they’re capable of doing anything. Then, they get into the working world and are expected to perform (when we all know school doesn’t teach us how to run a window covering business) without adequate education for their tasks in an industry that takes years to learn. Simply provide them the guidance they are craving and are in the habit of receiving.

Regardless if the employee you hired is a seasoned vet or fresh out of college, daily training is the foundation of setting up your new hire for success in their role. Ninety-five percent of the time, employees leaving or a lack of production can point back to gaps in training. Inherently, an employee wants to do a good job—there’s a natural incentive for it. If they excel, the expectation is that they’d make more money and grow their expertise, making them more valuable. The incentive for an employer to focus on extensive new-hire training is to keep your costs of errors low and employee retention high. Make sure to provide a road map for your process, products, pricing, paperwork and working with people. Never assume they know it all.

The Honeymoon

After the 30-day training period, the employee should feel empowered in their new role. If you’ve given them proper training, this phase will seem too good to be true. It’s important to stay in the moment and keep your expectations clear and not assume your graduate will do things perfectly. It’ll be tempting to walk away in this moment, trusting in what you taught them because most will have beginners’ luck. Instead, continue to meet with them and change the frequency from daily to weekly, tracking their milestones each time you meet.

Establishing milestones will be a tangible way to track their results from week to week and see their progression within your company. At the weekly meetings, discuss their upcoming priorities while celebrating wins and troubleshooting their obstacles. At the end of 60 days, they should be ready to switch to a monthly, individual meeting to discuss goal setting and review achievements.

The Reality

Employers often get the timing wrong when it comes to being realistic of where they employee should be at certain milestones. Keeping in mind the custom nature of this industry, your employee will experience new light-bulb moments at 30 days, 90 days, six months and one year.

At 30 days, they just finished their training regimen. This is when they will know the “theory” of how to accomplish tasks. At 90 days, they experience firsthand the examples that were discussed in training and learn how to apply the new knowledge. Expect the most mistakes to be made during this period. Then, one day after they’ve been going through the motions of what they think is correct, it starts to click at six months. This is when examples repeat themselves and they can prevent mistakes from happening. Employers must remain patient until this six-month mark, not feeling stressed over the constant trial and error because that unnecessary pressure will severely affect the culture and the employee’s ability to learn from their mistakes. Finally, at one year, a calm comes over the employee, shifting from awareness to understanding. At that point, it’s time to celebrate and review the exciting year’s journey you both just took.

You’re just as accountable for a new employee’s success as they are. It’s a partnership when you make a promise to be together and it takes both parties to actively make it work long term. It’s not reasonable to ask anyone to sink or swim, then 30 days later ask, “Why don’t you know certain things by now?” If you take the time in the beginning of the relationship to establish the road map for success and truly care about their well-being, the rewards will exceed your expectations. V

Jessica Harling is a fourth-generation window treatment specialist, the founder of Behind the Design and a leading expert in employee and process development for design organizations. Her specialty in recruiting, training and change management drives innovative and high-producing results while keeping your team inspired.

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