Having a rock solid and enjoyable culture in your business is not just a good idea, it’s fundamental to a cohesive workplace and goes along way to retaining your staff. As is the case with all facets of your business, change is inevitable. There will be times when existing staff leave or your business expands and you need to bring more staff on board. So, how do you keep your existing culture in place without disruption to the business? Attracting good staff is a great step in that direction, and I go over that element in this article, but I want to expand into onboarding new staff.
Leveraging Your Existing Staff
Onboarding staff is a reality of running a business. If done well you can get new employees up to speed in a small amount of time. One element that is often overlooked is the cultural change a new person brings to the mix. Existing staff can get frustrated with someone new and tensions can arise between the new staff members and the old. I usually get around this in my own business by making my existing staff accountable to the development of the new staff member. This gives my existing staff a broadening skill-set by upskilling them into a training and advisory role, while also creating a buddy system for the new person.
Taking Advantage of a New Perspective
A few times in my businesses, I have come across situations where new team members have suggested a new way or approach to an existing process that has generated some tensions. Whenever this crops up, I am always reminded that humans like regular and repetitive approaches to tasks in their day-to-day lives. While this does give people a sense of comfort that they know what they are doing, it can sometimes mask better and more effective ways of approaching the situation. I like to sit down with my staff when new people are brought on board and plant the seeds in their minds that this is the best time for someone to tell us whether we can do things more effectively. This goes a long way to alleviating tensions that might pop up, and it gives some empowerment to the new staff member who is usually feeling like a fish out of water in their first few weeks.
Keep Communication Lines Open
You can always try and anticipate all the different situations that may pop up when onboarding someone, from the fantastical to the easy-to-spot. The reality is, you can’t know everything in advance so making sure communication lines are open is a key tool. I like to do one-on-one sessions with new and existing team members and group ones. This allows open conversations to take place and usually soothes the way ahead.
The culture you and your team create is a key tool in having a successful business, and making sure that culture is easily accessible to new team members will alleviate most team-related impacts to your business if planned out in advance.