And yet, despite all the effort that goes into finding the right person, most companies simply don’t finish the job when it comes to new hires. They often neglect one crucial step after-the-fact. Later, when performance doesn’t match expectations, things go awry, or the person leaves, all the hard work goes right out the door. Literally. What are they forgetting? The most overlooked part of the human resources chain—Onboarding.  

Imagine a harried executive, relieved to have finally filled a key role, welcoming a new employee to the office and simply saying “Have at it!” The employee, feeling the pressure that accompanies a hard-won job, wants to make a positive first impression. The natural reaction in many instances is to jump right in.

This may be something of a dramatization, but I’m willing to bet that many of you have felt like that employee at some point in your careers. For employers, this is the equivalent of running a marathon and stopping a hundred yards shy of the finish line. Choosing to lose the race. Doesn’t it make more sense to take a few extra steps and make sure the time spent getting to that point is worth it? Organizations need to prioritize onboarding. Research suggests that an employee’s first 90 days will in large part determine his or her performance, longevity and contribution to the company.

Outlined here is a simple, yet effective 5-step process to help new employees get off on the right foot. It may involve a few extra hours on the front end to execute. But when weighed against the amount of time spent searching for the right candidate, and the value that a strong contributor can add, the effort will be well worth it. 

To aid in the execution of the Onboarding process, I have also included templates with brief descriptions of each step. Let’s dig in:

Step 1:  Make Your List (have your manager check it twice)

Create a list of people whom the incoming employee should meet. It could be 5 people or it could be 50. Irrespective of the size of the company, 8-12 has been the average. But different positions, in different companies have different requirements. (One of our Chief Marketing Officers of a global technology company conducted 50 meetings.) In all cases, organizations need to introduce key stakeholders, connect team members, and identify interdependencies and sources of critical learning. Interview List Template

 Step 2: Listen, Learn, Connect

Design the questions that the new employee will ask. Every meeting should include the same questions. Twelve people out of 15 answering a question in a different way, or consistently, can be revealing, and yield important insights. The interview guide should be tailored to the company and the new employee’s specific role. The one provided here was for a marketing executive.  Interview Guide Template

 Step 3:  Aggregate and Synthesize Key Themes

Once the interviews are complete, the employee aggregates the information into categories and identifies key themes. The goal here is to help inform what the employee and his/her team should focus on, and reveal organizational strengths and weaknesses. Should the employee share the findings with his or her manager and maybe even a broader group? Most do.  Organizations are hungry for these learnings. This aggregation also offers the employee’s manager and team an immediate return on the time invested by the organization to conduct the meetings. Interview Aggregation Template

 Step 4: The 90-Day Plan

The information collected from the interviews, then compiled into an organized, aggregated document, serves as the Rosetta Stone for the 90-day plan. These insights and action items, when combined with the employee’s organizational role, provide the content for the Plan.  90-Day Plan Template.

Step 5:  One-Page Goals and Objectives

The 90-day plan laid out in three, 30-day increments should then spawn a one-page Key Goals and Objectives document. Get specific, adding subgoals. These should be SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Time-Based). Most clients get input into this document from their managers and their teams. We have clients who laminate the document and distribute it to all key stakeholders. Performance Goals Template

Allocate the requisite time and attention to the onboarding process and you empower your new hires with knowledge of what they need to be successful, what is expected of them, and what they are working towards.

Positive ripple effects will be felt throughout the organization. Just as leaders can create goals that ladder up to company-wide business objectives, they can make sure their teams have goals that ladder up to support these objectives. That’s why I strongly recommend that both the 90-day plan and the condensed performance goal/objectives 1-sheet are shared. Transparency, accountability, clarity and buy-in can be the difference between success and failure.

We have unfortunately seen the opposite play out too many times. Misaligned expectations lead to bad beginnings and early exits, taking the company back to square one. It’s a common misstep, made all the more frustrating by its sheer avoidability.

Complete the final hundred yards and use the new-hire excitement and adrenaline as the fuel to cross the finish line of the hiring marathon. The results for the individuals, their teams, and the organizations can be transformative.  

Matt Spielman is the Managing Director of Inflection Point Partners LLC. (www.inflectionpointpartnersllc.com) Matt's work focuses on career transition, revenue coaching, team performance and organizational strategy. He gets energy from helping people realize their purpose and potential, and having a positive impact on careers and lives.

Follow Matt on Twitter for more: @mspielman