Leaving New Hires Rudderless

Three clients have been keeping me busy. The past couple of years or so have been so bad for so many businesses, seeing some businesses show an uptick is as heartening as seeing new flowers in early spring.

But for many businesses, it has been so long since they could bring in more people, they’ve forgotten how to do it.

Are you making more sales these days? Getting enough business to justify hiring more staff? Then do it right! If you don’t, you’ll throw money away.

Many years ago, a client brought me in and then left me to figure out how to settle in on my own. Unfortunately, their building was cleverly designed to hide meeting rooms and bathrooms. No signage. No site maps. The rooms were tucked away in what appeared to be dead-end hallways leading to something like janitorial closets. It took me an hour to find a loo—and they were paying for that time.

Before you laugh at them for being so foolish, think about whether you unwittingly leave new hires, contractors or consultants similarly rudderless or handcuff them with absurdities.

If your policy says everyone has to use your equipment and software but your procedures take two weeks to set that up, you are wasting half a month’s worth of money for every new employee or contractor. Your money, down the drain!

You need to tell them where to get supplies, how to find the company cafeteria, where the photocopier is, who to call when they need a piece of kit they don’t have… The more of these things you leave them to figure out for themselves, the more money you waste.

Yes, this is basic. I run into it so often, it bears repeating. When you have the pleasure of expanding your workforce, start your new people on the right foot. It isn’t just courtesy or kindness to them. Do it for the sake of your bottom line, too. In much of the world right now, wringing a profit out of the current economy is no easy task—starting your new hires smoothly is simply part of using your money as smartly as you can.