Get 'em Ready...Again

Apparently, the need to start employees off right isn't confined to our creative fields and private firms. Even the federal government is beginning to realize the importance of setting a good tone for new employees, as seen in an article that first appeared here earlier this month.

Agencies Need Better Welcome Wagon for New Employees, Report Says
By Alyssa Rosenberg

Federal agencies should improve their approach to bringing new employees onboard and integrating them into the workplace culture if they want to boost retention rates and productivity, the Partnership for Public Service and Booz Allen Hamilton said in a report released on Monday at the Excellence in Government Conference in Washington, sponsored by Government Executive.

Leslie Ann Pearson, senior associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, said "onboarding" was not used as a retention tool by agencies and orientation for new employees tends to be a paperwork exercise. "They may not be getting any mission information," she said. "One employee said he was sworn in in a hallway without an American flag. It's not inspiring. We had one employee who showed up for work and their manager didn't know they were coming.

"The report, which included feedback from 11 agencies, said the federal government had no consistent approach to onboarding and orientation, even though high-quality programs can boost employee performance and eliminate turnover.

The report authors recommended a five-step approach to acclimating new employees. Agencies should reach out to and prepare for new employees as soon as they accept job offers. On a recent hire's first day, the report suggested agency managers spend time teaching mission values and introducing the employee to senior leadership and possible mentors who can help them negotiate the new environment. Also, managers should be directly involved during the employee's first week, according to the the report, to set performance expectations and ensure that the hire starts doing meaningful work as soon as possible. During the first 90 days, managers should both give and solicit feedback and provide initial training. During the first year, employees should receive recognition, formal feedback and a development plan.

"The first 90 days are when the employee is thinking, 'Did I make the right decision, should I stay with this organization?'" Pearson said. "It's no surprise that the agencies we went to that had stronger onboarding programs were higher up on the [list of PPS'] Best Places to Work.

"Cynthia Heckmann, chief human capital officer at the Government Accountability Office, said her agency had succeeded by analyzing GAO's workforce challenges and rebuilding its onboarding strategy from the ground up.

"We put together a two-year program for our entry-level staff. It's very structured in terms of the training we provide," Heckmann said. "Every two months there's a review and a pay component.

"GAO also built a mass notification system, Heckmann said, and as soon as a new employee accepted an offer, everyone from information technology to GAO's shared service center was alerted so the employee had what they needed to do their job when they arrived on their first day.

Candace Irwin, director of workforce systems and the accountability division at NASA, said systems integration was particularly important for agencies like NASA that carefully monitor access to facilities and deal with classified information. A single system allows human resources officers to fill in information about new hires, request technology and alert security to the arrival of new employees. NASA also has built a portal that provides information to new hires and their families so they can prepare for their first days at work.

Joyce Cofield, director of recruitment, retention and diversity in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in the Treasury Department, said OCC woos candidates seriously, sending them gift baskets when they accept jobs, and then intensely inculcates them in OCC's values.

"Orientation is where we seal the deal," she said. "We spend a full week with our college recruits, and we do all those pieces of reinforcing the OCC culture.

"Irwin emphasized that onboarding has to be continuous. "Onboarding is a process; it's not an event, she said, "and it has to begin before the employee shows up at the gate."

First impressions matter. We know that if we can get employees familiar with their jobs and trained up, they'll do better...that's obvious. But if we welcome them aboard and treat them well from the start -- with simple respect and some recognition of their enthusiasm -- they're likely to stick around longer, too.

Minimizing Drama

Put a group of creative people into a room. Challenge them to do outstanding work. Demand that they use all of their skills. Give them a tight deadline. Provide some guidance, then step out of the way.

If you've got a good group of people you'll get some really good results. It'll be tight, it'll be what you wanted, it may be better than you hoped for.

But along with good results, you'll probably get a lot of drama on the way.

Why is that? Why is it that when you put a bunch of skilled, creative people together you end up with catfights, gossip and innuendo, and occasionally some screaming and hair-pulling? Where do all the drama queens come from? It's so common that we expect it...no one sees the interpersonal conflict on Project Runway or America's Next Top Model and says "oh, that's SO unrealistic." But the only way to deal with it is to understand where it comes from.

First of all, consider that the really good people are going to set high standards for themselves. As a result, they probably expect everyone around them to meet the same standards, and when that doesn't happen, conflict erupts. (I know I'm guilty of this a lot) Also, if anyone does anything that might keep them from meeting those high self-standards, then that person is viewed as a problem and is dealt with accordingly.

One reason people feel comfortable setting high personal standards is because they think highly of their own skills. So if there's any critique of those skills, any hint that someone else thinks they aren't as good as they thought, the defenses go up immediately and instead of listening to something that may be constructive (or might not have even been a critique) you get two people either talking without listening to each other, or not talking at all (it's tough to tell which is worse).

In a lot of cases you bring together people with a mix of skills. That's obvious in something like website design, where you've got coders, designers, content providers, ad people, and so on. But even in a hair salon you're likely to have people who specialize in color vs hair, or in mens' cuts vs women's, and they will all have their own view on how things should get done based on the perspective they bring. If those various opinions differ, well then, you get conflict.

Not only do your employees bring different skills, they also have different options available for using them. In a bureaucracy, where everything will get done tomorrow the same way it got done yesterday, you don't have a lot of choices to make. But in a creative environment where things could get done many different ways there will be as many opinions as there are options. When someone's path doesn't get chosen you've got the opportunity for some drama right there.

And of course, people are often drawn to creative endeavors because they have a particular temperament that's suited for it, and one aspect of that is often a flair for the dramatic. Alas.

So how do you deal with it? How do you keep the drama to a minimum? Well, you need to realize it's pretty likely to occur and deal with it in advance, before behavior patterns get established, feelings get hurt, people storm out, lawsuits get filed, etc.

Bring your employees together and see how well they mesh.

Try to keep people who despise each other away from each other.

Help them learn about each other's strengths, and about individual work styles, so they don't get surprised later.

Nip the problem in the bud by making it clear during hiring interviews that this is a drama-free zone.

Have an opportunity for feedback and constructive dialogue so people can vent their frustration in a less confrontational way.

Discourage (but don't prohibit) inter-office dating.

Given that enclosed spaces can lead to high tensions it can be tempting to think that having remote distance workers will solve your drama problem. On the one hand it can reduce the face-to-face screaming, but it can increase the behind-the-back whispering (or texting). You also miss out on the bonding that can occur between colleagues which can reduce friction, and further, you can limit the opportunity for people to learn about and understand each other's particular talents, which could also help minimize the conflict.

Whatever happens, do your best to keep your drama away from your customers. That's not what they're paying for and they don't want to hear it. Be honest, do YOU want to hear a cashier complaining about the long hours he's working or a flight attendant going on and on about how horrible passengers are? Does it inspire confidence in a client to hear the hairstylist say "I could just kill everyone in here right now!" while holding a pair of recently-sharpened shears? No no no no no. Whatever internal issues are going on, once the client walks into the room it's time for smiles on everyone's faces, or else a quick boot out the back door.

And finally, don't be afraid to let people go if they are more trouble than they're worth. At the same time, bear in mind that if they're worth it, you may have to put up with some screaming and hair-pulling. Such is life.

Bottom line: drama is a part of life but it's not inevitable, and it CAN be managed. And if all else fails, maybe you can just work them so hard that they're too tired to complain about anything.