As the labor market continues to be highly competitive and unemployment rates near their pre-pandemic levels, it is no surprise that every client I speak with is hiring right now. Business is booming and there are not enough people available to fill the open seats; we are feeling that as well.
Unfortunately, I do not have a magic wand to solve that problem. What I can do is ensure that you are getting the most out of your new hires.
Here are some interesting statistics on how valuable that can be:
Organizations with strong onboarding processes, improve productivity by 70%. *
Companies that prioritize employee training make a median revenue of $169,100 per employee.*
There are two big areas to focus with new hires that will maximize productivity.
Employee Engagement
Upskilling
In our Leadership Effectiveness Training, we reference the 4B Engagement Model.
A few years ago, it was realistic to think that a new hire might spend the majority of their first year in the basic and backing tiers. As we have a new generation coming into the workforce and a pandemic that has shifted the perspective of the masses, it now feels like a race to get employees at the belonging tier.
Think about yourself for a second, when you feel that sense of belonging with an organization, there is inherent happiness that comes with it. A drive to do and be your best every day.
The challenge for hiring organizations today is to provide an onboarding that helps them understand the basics, while at the same time creating a culture that drives backing and belonging.
Here are a few specific recommendations:
Encourage sharing new ideas. Leverage town halls, have a general email set up, or simply build it into the structure of one on one’s.
Ensure your company's mission, vision, and values are not just a landing page on your website. Ask yourself, how is this woven into our day-to-day operations?
Build strong habits around daily recognition and kudos.
The second part of this is to ensure new hires are being taught skills that will help them do their job well and provide value to them in the future. At Butler Street, we use the term “WIIFM” when teaching communicating value. It means “What’s in it for me?” from the perspective or operating reality of the individual you are speaking to.
Showing new hires what’s in it for them by investing in their development through upskilling and reskilling will help with three things.
Improve the aforementioned employee engagement
Highly trained employees earn 21% greater profits**
Increases the talent pool to hire from, allowing you to fill more of those open positions and lessen the burden on your team
Upskilling can be implemented immediately by doing the following:
Leverage your internal talent. Allow top performers looking for advancement to become SMEs for specific hard and soft skills and mentor more junior or newly hired employees.
Implement an eLearning system
Transform into a learning culture- ensure leadership embraces and models the behaviors being taught
Small adjustments can have a substantial impact on your organization and on your team. If you are interested in learning more about employee engagement and the impact of eLearning, please reach out. Our mission is to help people and their companies grow!