Offices expend great effort finding the right hires.
But what they too often fail to see is that the success of all new employees “is dependent on how the manager handles and treats them,” says speaker and trainer Charlyne Meinhard of Next Level Consulting, a staff management consulting company in Richmond, VA.
It’s the little things a manager does “every single day” that determine whether new employees “give their best and more or get discouraged and sooner or later leave.” Here she cites six quick ways to turn a good hire into a poor staffer.
1. Open the door and walk around
The first new-employee turnoff is the open-door policy that never happens.
The administrator greets the newcomer with “I’m here any time you need me. Just come on in. I have an open-door policy.” But then what the new staffer sees is an administrator stuck in the office, “overwhelmed and engrossed” in paperwork and sending out a clear though unspoken message of “don’t interrupt me.”
The door has to swing both ways, Meinhard says. Staff have to feel free to walk in, and the administrator has to take time to walk out.
She recommends setting aside 30 minutes a day to walk around and talk with staff and see what’s going on in their jobs. Ask “how is your day going?” and “are you running into any problems?”
Then follow up on what they say. If somebody cites a computer issue, get it straightened out.
Besides demonstrating an open door, walking around every day shows the administrator is very much in control of what’s happening.
2. Don’t create a little tyrant
A second issue that can chill a good hire is actually an effort to solve the first issue.
Instead of making time to walk around, the overworked administrator tries to provide oversight and leadership by appointing a staffer to handle situations with the other employees, the direction being “okay, Staffer A, you make sure everybody stays in line.”
It never works, she says. The person who gets the job is almost always somebody “who kisses up to the manager.” And people of that ilk become tyrants. The others resent the sub-boss, and the new hire has nothing but a miserable new job.
3. Do the praising in public
Next, Meinhard cites the adage of “praise in public and criticize in private.” Go the other way around, she says, and don’t expect that new hire to stay in the job long.
As for the praise, when somebody does a good job, say so. Make a to-do about it in proportion to the value of the accomplishment. If Staffer Smith solves a problem or figures out a way to do something better or faster, say “Thanks! Everybody come over here and see how Staffer Smith has set this up.”
If the situation warrants, go further and make Staffer Smith the go-to person on that particular aspect of the job.
Everybody sees that everybody is appreciated. The approach encourages staff “to step up in other areas.” The new employee is ready to grow in the job.
4. Do the criticizing in private
As for the criticism, the world’s worst managers are the ones who “blow up and yell” when mistakes happen.
And, Meinhard says, just because it’s a group of people getting yelled at instead of an individual doesn’t make it any less offensive.
Equally as bad are demeaning comments such as “We had a meeting about that just last week! Didn’t you listen?” or “How could you have done this?”
That doesn’t cure the mistake. It only devastates the person who made it.
When a mistake happens, the good manager (and the manager who keeps the good hires) “stays calm and puts on the problem-solving hat.”
Ask “what happened?” and “how did this start?” and “what caused it?” and “what can we do to fix it?”
Then come to a positive conclusion of “okay, next time this happens, here’s what you do.”
That approach allows staff to admit what went wrong without having to accept blame. It also encourages them to identify things that ought to be changed, perhaps that more training is needed in some area
By contrast, seeing the manager get angry makes everybody shrink back and try to stay out of harm’s way.
5. Make the training complete
The fifth item essential for retaining good staff is adequate job training.
The manager has to make sure every employee – especially every new employee – has complete training. Yet too often training just doesn’t happen, Meinhard says. Or if it does, it comes in the form of nothing more than “Just watch Staffer A. She’ll show you what to do.”
Some managers even put new staffers on the job with minimal explanations of what needs to be done and then summarize it all with a vague “just come to me and if you need help.”
6. Don’t stomp out creativity
Finally, there are the seemingly innocuous remarks “that shut people’s minds down” and kill both creativity and morale.
If a staffer comes in with an idea or suggestion, don’t dismiss the idea and the staffer along with it by making a dismissive comment such as “we don’t have the money for that” or “it’s not our policy to do that” or “that’s management’s call, not yours.”
Equally offensive is to tell the staffer to submit the idea in writing. That just blows people off.
The best approach: listen and then ask the staffer to put together an outline or a proposal. And don’t just say “write it down” or “send me an e-mail.” Give some encouragement: “I’d like to hear more about that. Can you write out some ideas I can take to the partners?”
That tells the staffer “I’m listening, and I appreciate what you are saying.”
Today, that’s good staff management as well as good financial management, Meinhard says.
The people who do the work are in the best position to come up with better ways of doing it, and businesses have to be open to procedure changes. The best response to an idea needs to be “hooray for that!” because it could carry a good money savings.
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