Getting Value out of New Employees | Management Innovation eXchange

Summary

Every new recruit
to a company has to go through an introductory process, where he/she becomes
familiar with the company. This is generally a quick survival lesson and then
you are sent on your way. By implementing a first glance revision policy the
company then gets an educated but objective opinion/observation on what the
company is doing wrong or could do differently.

Moonshot(s)

Problem

As a new
employee you are naive and eager to make a good impression. This generally means
getting familiar with the processes of the company and trying your best to integrate
into the system as soon as possible. A buried effect of assimilation is a “head-down,
keep quiet” approach when observing organisational odd-ends or peculiar
practices.

As a company
there is generally an unconscious structure to the working environment and
management processes. Through continuous and habitual working processes a
company can become stagnant and blind to innovative opportunities. There is
generally an ejective reception to any ideas put forward that come from the
outside – conceptually or from consultants – and the status given to new
employees comes from a paternalistic frame. It is only after crisis or radical
new leadership that new innovative ideas on are taken on.

Solution

In order to
take full advantage of the latent practical knowledge of staff and conduct a revision
of company processes, after 3 weeks every new employee is encouraged to single
out all the idiosyncrasies that the company has as well as question practices
and procedures. Using the simple or more sector specific questions, management
encourages communication and discovers new ways of looking at the organisation.
Simple questions can lead to new and innovative processes.

·
What
don’t you like most about your new job?

·
What
process doesn’t make sense but you do anyway?

·
What
would you change to make things easier and simpler for yourself?

·
What
is taking you a long time or you have difficulty achieving?

In this setting new
employees can get all the burning questions off their chest in a manner that is
encouraged and formulated. At the early stages of employment, staff are in a
position where they have just enough experience to be able recognise structures
and processes as well as being green enough to still be curious and have
unanswered questions. Additionally, they know that they can put across odd or
controversial questions or answers without being shut-down or be seen as dim. Through the cover of ignorance matters can be
ironed out before they become a stone in the shoe and the timing is such that
it will not affect being hired, fired or promoted. If the answer to any
question is “that just the way things have always been done,” immediately you
know there is room for a new innovative process.

Practical Impact

Impact 1: Employees
feel appreciated and immediately involved with the organisation. This puts the
company and the employee on the same page securing active buy-in.

Impact 2: Acts
as an education a tool, enhancing the transition into a new job and new environment.

Impact 3: This
type of curiosity and constructive criticism acts as free consultation form an
outsider that has naive internal knowledge

Impact 4:
Reveals peripheral knowledge of employees by asking them to solve problems.

Impact 5:
Potential new ways of doing old procedures

Challenges

Challenge 1:
The culture of the company has to have elements of a learning organisation

Challenge 2: Simple
questions will feel like putdowns

Challenge 3:
If the ideas mentioned are not taken up and change isn’t seen by employees, the
process will lose legitimacy.

First Steps

Upon hiring a
new staff member the management must ask them to integrate with their eyes
open. Make sure new employees are observant and not merely blindly accepting of
new policies. Create a formal and recorded process so that reoccurring
questions can be anticipated and a screening of the common burning questions.

Credits

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