Jonas hired a mid-level manager, Ethan, a few months ago. Since then, he has done virtually nothing to support Ethan’s onboarding and growth in the company. The excuses range from “he’s not ready” to “clients expect my level of expertise” to “he has to earn respect”.
All these excuses are ridiculous.
You don’t make an experienced hire without a plan to meaningfully integrate the person into your organization. In this case, Jonas has an inflated sense of himself and as a result, Ethan is almost doomed to have a reasonable future in this company.
When Ethan interviewed for the job, Jonas stressed that the workload was tremendous and that he needed someone of Ethan’s caliber to jump in and produce at a high level. Imagine what it’s like for Ethan to find that, yes, the workload is tremendous, but no, Jonas won’t give him access.
Unfortunately, this happens all too often. It’s difficult to let go when you hire someone to take a burden off your shoulders. But it’s worse if you prolong the pain and then it becomes a losing proposition for everyone. In this case Ethan is demotivated and wants to quit and frankly, unless Jonas changes his behavior, quitting is inevitable.
When you recruit a seasoned person, adhere to these principles.
+ Have a transition plan in place and begin to implement it on the person’s first day on the job.
+ Give the new person the tools and resources to be successful.
+ Make sure that key employees are available to share their job functions so that the new person knows how his or her role fits into the organization.
+ Manage the new person proactively until he or she is well along the path to success.
+ Check in with the new person regularly to assess how the work is going and identify any additional needs.
The bottom line? Be inclusive and pay attention. It will serve the purpose that you had when you made the decision to hire and will free up your time for more and different activities.
Header image by Tima Miroshnichenko/Pexels.
