Can new hires reshape your business?

Want to add value to your business? New hires can teach you a ton. Find out how you can get fresh insights from day one that can help shape the way you do things – for the better.

Believe it or not, the people who recently joined your company can help you immensely. Since they have fresh eyes, they can let you know which aspects of your business are in great shape – and also advise on areas that are unnecessarily complicated or unclear.

Make the most of your hiring process by including feedback sessions into their onboarding. Here’s how:

Get insight on day one

Great first impressions are important, especially when you bring new team members on board. Immediately after onboarding, get your recruits’ perspective on your brand.

Since they haven’t been part of watercooler conversations, or seen the back and forth on your company Slack, they can provide the valuable perspective of an outsider. In other words, they’re pretty much like an in-house market research team. This will also make new team members feel like they are part of the decision-making process right from the start.

Start surveying

Before you onboard your staff, ask a crucial question: “From what you’ve experienced so far, what would you say our brand values are?”

Full warning: you might be surprised by their response. The lived experience of your company might be totally different than the adjectives that are listed on the ‘About’ page of your website.

Sabrina Son from Tinypulse suggests a few additional questions to ask during the onboarding process: “What strikes you most about your new job?”, “What aspect of this job excites you?”, “What makes you nervous?” By collecting this information, you’ll learn how to make the first few weeks of your new employee’s experience as smooth as possible.

The lived experience of your company might be totally different than the adjectives that are listed on the ‘About’ page of your website.

Improve processes

Your new hires have a diverse set of professional backgrounds–– so use them! Take advantage of their expertise by asking about the best–– and worst–– parts of their last job. You’ll learn about everything from terribly managed invoicing systems to an amazing “take your dog to work” day. Learn from the mistakes of their last employer, and don’t make them yourselves.

Lastly, ask how they think the onboarding process itself is going. Are they confused by anything? Do they wish that the timeline was different? Even if you can’t help this current round of employees, their answers will serve future additions to your team.

Follow up, follow up, follow up

You can learn a lot from a first impression… but what about a thirtieth? Check in with your newbies a month into their job, and see where they’ve run into some bumps in the road. Use the answers as research for improvement, and use the suggestions for employees in the future.

As Tristan Claridge says in Social Capital Research, “We want to employ people who have the requisite human capital to perform their role and ideally to contribute meaningfully to organizational goals… but once they enter our organisation will they continue to excel?”

If your organization doesn’t maintain a positive and open culture, it can be very difficult for even the brightest employee to thrive. Notice how your new staff were operating at the beginning of their employment with your company–– and compare that to their behavior after operating within your organization for a month. How has their attitude changed? In what ways has your corporate culture impacted them?

While noticing these subtle differences can be a lot of work, it will provide some impactful insights about your company’s culture.

Onboard your new hires in style with branded Business Cards, Letterhead, and Stickers.