You were so relieved to finally find the perfect candidate for your open position! You were delighted when you extended the job offer and they said “Yes!” The team was excited to meet their new colleague on Day 1. As the new hire started settling in, the first clouds started to appear on the horizon.
Excitement quickly turns into disappointment. Both you and the team start to feel disheartened. Your new employee has not yet forged the trusting relationships you were hoping for. Your hopeful new hire has missed a few deadlines, and their deliverables are not what you consider top-notch.
Where did you go wrong? And more importantly, what can you do to turn this around?
Why do new hires fail?
There are a lot of different reasons why our new hires may not deliver once on the job.
- We may have missed the mark in our recruiting and selection process. We thought we were assessing and evaluating the right skills while missing key competencies associated with good performance in the specific role.
- We assessed for all the right knowledge, skills and competencies but neglected to evaluate the alignment of the new employee’s values and with our company culture and team dynamics.
- We thought we provided our new hire with a solid onboarding experience and required training when, in practice, we threw our new hire into the fire.
- We provided our new employee with an outdated job description and forgot to accurately communicate the current performance requirements and expectations.
- We have the right person on board but external factors, such as personal problems or health issues, get in the way of our new hire delivering good performance.
What can we do to course-correct?
Before taking any action, as soon as we notice signs of trouble, we need to assess the situation.
- How does the new employee’s performance compare to the job description and performance goals?
- What is the experience of other team members and colleagues?
- What is the assessment of the new hire in terms of how things are going? Is there something they feel is getting in the way of doing their best work?
- Did they get the right training?
- Do they have the right support and resources they need to perform their job effectively?
Once we know what is getting in the way of our new hire’s effective performance we can identify and implement the right strategies to help them succeed. It may require us to update job descriptions, offer targeted training or mentorship, and/or hold regular one-on-one meetings with the new hire to align on expectations, set SMART goals and provide regular feedback.
Takeaway
There is nothing more disappointing than a promising new hire not living up to our expectations. However, early identification and quick assessment of the root cause of the misalignment between your expectations and the new employee’s performance are critical in turning things around. With some patience, understanding, and proactive intervention with targeted strategies for improvement, we can unlock our new employee’s full potential and help them become a valuable asset to their team and our company.
For more specific strategies for managing underperforming new hires, join us for our free monthly training on April 17, 2024 @ 12 PM ET by clicking the button below.
